A Literary Companion To Venice: Including Seven Walking Tours (Paperback)

~ Ian Littlewood (Author) "To enter Venice by train, claimed Thomas Mann, is like entering a palace by the back door..." (more)
Key Phrases: ponte storto, ducal palace, Santa Maria, Grand Canal, San Giorgio (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Venice has through the centuries attracted an extraordinary range of writers, drawn to it for inspiration, for consolation, or for the sheer pleasure of is unique setting. That so much of the city remains unchanged gives their words a powerful hold over our imaginations today. In this extravagant theater, writes Littlewood, we are as likely to chance upon the site of the murder of a Renaissance prince as the seduction of an eighteenth-century nun; the execution of a dissolute friar as the musings of a Victorian poet. All have their place in these pages, including the writings of Byron, Goethe, James, Proust, Lawrence, and Pound, among others.

Arranged in the form of seven detailed walks through Venice, this Literary Companion provides an illuminating guide to the streets, palaces, churches, and canals that make up this exquisite city. Venice's hidden corners-rife with feuds, rivalries, and romance-have never been brought so vividly to life.

About the Author

Ian Littlewood has taught at universities in France, the United States, and Japan, and is now a lecturer in England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (May 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312131135
• ISBN-13: 978-0312131135
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #909,595 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful walking guide......, June 3, 2001

By	Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

As a veteran of the stumbling around with four books in my backpack trying to make sense of the block where I'm standing approach to travel (I don't do guided tours), I became a happier person the day I discovered someone had compiled the highpoints of Venice into one accessible walker's guide. A LITERARY COMPANION TO VENICE by Ian Littlewood is a fine guide.

I'm a literary enthusiast and over the years I've managed to find Louisa May Alcott's home in Concord, the stone ranch house Jack London built in Northern California, the supposed location of Robert Louis Stevenson's grass hut in Hawaii, the house in Rye England where Henry James retired, Anne Frank's attic in Amsterdam, the ancient and dour building in Geneva where Calvin framed his sermons, and Hemingway's house in Key West (still inhabited by his cats' cats' cats).

Many authors have passed through Venice over the years, and some like Henry James and George Sand left written records of their visits. In LITERARY COMPANION, Littlewood guides the reader on seven tours of Venice, the seventh tour being "North Venice" -- including the island where the fabled San Giorgio Maggiore and the Lagoon were painted in an impressionist sunset captured by Turner.

Littlewood provides a map for each of his tours, and at each step along the way he dicusses what you are seeing, who saw it before you, and what they had to say about it. For example, on the tour of the Piazza San Marco, the reader is directed to look "out across the Piazza" and "share the view with a fair number of pigeons.." He says Oscar Wilde's Dorian Grey liked the view.."Stretched on his sofa, he reads some lines of Gautier and thinks back to his stay in Venice" 'The sudden flashes of colour reminded him of the gleam of the opal-and-iris-throated birds that flutter around the tall honeycombed Campanile....'" Elizabeth Barrett Browning described the pigeons as "holy."

A LITERARY COMPANION is not exhaustive, although it contains refererences to the visits and habitation of many illustrious persons including Dante who stayed in Venice when he had been expelled from Florence. If you want an in-depth story of Venice and it's visitors over the past 1,000 years, I suggest you read John J. Norwich's book VENICE. However, Littlewood's COMPANION will be the book you take to Venice, it's compact, light, and extremely useful.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction to Venice, November 30, 1999

By	Kevin Bradford (USA) - See all my reviews

A Literary Companion to Venice was the best introduction to Venice I could have read in preparation to my first visit there. The author shares stories of famous and unknown writers alike to weave a history of Venice by way of walking tours throughout the city. Great maps and illustrations accompany the seven wonderful walking tours detailed by the author. After reading this book I almost felt as if I'd been to this wonderful city and knew my way around.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Venetian walking tours for readers, May 19, 1997

By A Customer

The English author adds a literary dimension to seven Venetian walking tours by incorporating quotations from novelists, poets, essayists, reporters, and other observers. The resulting book is livelier than you might expect.

Durant Imboden, Venice for Visitors, http://govenice.miningco.co