Customer Reviews

Venice Rediscovered

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Be careful with the earlier reviewer's heading: this is not a travel book. It is a sophisticated look at a sophisticated handful of travelers from an earlier time, and a one-of-a-kind look at Venice at a point in her history when we only rarely get to see her. This is not the pompous Venice of the Doges or the racy city of Casanova. This is a look at the Venice of some of Henry James' more obscure stories, the Venice of Ranke, a historian no longer read even by historians, the Venice of wastrel American social climbers obsessed "with the idea of a dying city which must be preserved at all costs." What is it about the watery streets and the decaying palazzi and the icy interiors of the churches and chapels of Venice that has managed to draw thousands, millions of tourists to it over the years? For me, the most fascinating thing that emerges from these stories of men and women trapped in Venice's warm embrace is the idea of the continuity of mankind's longing for Culture, order and beauty, and perhaps above all, for the memory of the past. Anyone who reads this book who has had their own encounter with Venice will suddenly realize they aren't alone in their love of this bizarre and haunting place.

Everything the book cover claimed it would be - highly readable, despite the many names and historical as well as architectural references with which I was unfamiliar. A wonderfully motley collection of bits of information and insight into many more things than the seductive city of Venice: how we came to write und understand history as we do, Victorian censorship, homosexuality in the 19th century.

Don't take this on your trip to Venice, however; save it for home and allow yourself time to enjoy it.

A good guide for understanding the Weltanschauung of the Venetians, perhaps. I've quite enjoyed it!