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Venice: Pure City Paperback – October 25, 2011

by
Peter Ackroyd (Author)
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3.5 out of 5 stars 18 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (October 25, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307473791
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307473790
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,045,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsShimmering, bejewelled account - and yet....
By Anonymous on September 24, 2009
Format: Hardcover
Yes, this is magisterial, beautifully written - but, typically of Ackroyd, too many questionable sweeping assertions sometimes impede the flow of what should be a rollicking good read. For every "wow!" there is a corresponding "huh?" It can be argued this is what makes Ackroyd unique.

If you know and love Venice, you'll enjoy this. If you don't, it will pique your curiosity. And you might agree with Shakespeare's Holofernes: "Venetia, Venetia, chi non ti vede, non ti pretia!" (Venice - whoever doesn't see you, doesn't esteem you.)

Let's start with the "wow!" Wide-ranging, learned and instructive. As with his London: The Biography, Ackroyd dives headfirst into the water surrounding Venice's 117 islands, fishing for primal origins and finding it an elemental metaphor for the city. Chapter 2, "City of St Mark," deals with the refugees who settled there. Then comes the golden age of state power, commerce and trade. This also embraces the merchants of the Rialto and the Jews in the Ghetto.

By Chapter 6, Ackroyd is back in rhapsodic mode, with "Timeless City," including ruminations on the bells. The next section, "Living City," humanises the city, with fascinating subsections on Body and Buildings; Learning and Language; Colour and Light (fabulous work with the artists including Bellini, Tintoretto and Titan); and Pilgrims and Tourists. Then Ackroyd moves on to carnival and carnal aspects, including the "Eternal Feminine" (virgin and whore). Similarly, Sacred City considers heavenly and hellish aspects - which seem to win out in "Shadows of History" with its Death in Venice theme.

And now for the "huh?" factor.Read more ›
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2.0 out of 5 starsInaccurate & Extremely Disappointing
By fuwanna on September 23, 2011
Format: Hardcover
I was really looking forward to reading this book, received it as a gift, and have been hugely disappointed in it. Contrary to what some published reviews have claimed, I think it's generally a very poorly written book: a hodegpodge of assertions without a hint of support, banal generalities, and inaccuracies.

Its scatter-shot style, along with the outdated nature of many of its observations, lead me to believe it was written over a long period of time: a piece of work the writer returned to in his spare time, rather than one coherent effort. Though published in 2009, Ackroyd's book is no more up-to-date than Mary McCarthy's classic VENICE PRESERVED (publ. 1963) and infinitely less informative and historically accurate.

For example, Ackroyd writes about the sacred place of the pigeon in Venice and the way in which a number of families still earn their living from selling pigeon feed in Piazza San Marco. You don't have to live in Venice, as I do, to know this is completely wrong. Simply read John Behrendt's CITY OF FALLING ANGELS (published a few years before Ackroyd's) to learn how the city actually rounds up pigeons for extermination and feeding pigeons--much less selling pigeon feed in San Marco--has been illegal for years.

Ackroyd also writes of Venice's huge population of cats. This was true in McCarthy's time, it was even true when I was here for a time in the early '90s, but I can tell you from firsthand observation that the vast--or even small--tribes of cats that Ackroyd evokes as a contemporary reality of Venice simply do not exist. You will generally be lucky to see 1 or 2 lolling on window ledges of some apartments.

I honestly have a hard time imagining who this book is intended for.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsSolid and Interesting
By Dancing Bear on December 13, 2010
Format: Hardcover
This was a very pleasant read. He gets right down into the dialect and persona of the Venetian citizen and makes a pretty convincing argument that their City and its history molded their character and world-view. There is a good overview of how the city was built over time. Their amazingly successful political structure is explained. He comes pretty close to capturing and expressing the mystique of Venice. When I go there, it is always a chameleon. Sometimes as old, filthy and smelly as a destitute subway platform. Sometimes, as charming, and ageless as a dreamscape that unfolds before your eyes. It's a unique city. If you've been there yourself, this book will add to your understanding of what you've experienced; and if you haven't been there, the book will introduce you to a fascinating people and place.
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5.0 out of 5 stars'Venice and Venice's Image are inseparable.'
By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on August 10, 2011
Format: Hardcover
The variations in response to this book VENICE: PURE CITY by Peter Ackroyd are puzzling at best. Perhaps the history of the writer's output has polarized the readers. Perhaps the integration of emotional and intellectual responses in the history of the rise and present sate of Venice makes the book uncomfortable for some. This reader became immersed in the mysteries that surround the history, the socialization of a swamp, the creation of a city on water, the ingredients that create the flavor of Venice visually, aurally, the particular types of influences of art (painting and music and architecture et al) and the interaction of this city with the great minds of our time such as Wagner, Proust, Henry James, Freud, Thomas Mann, Benjamin Britten, John Singer Sargent and on and on and on -it is simply a feast for the mind in Ackroyd's brilliant prose and in the many drawings and photographs and reproductions of the art and the city that grace this book.

Yes, there are likely more focused and accurate history books that take the reader on a chronological voyage through the rise and development of Venice, and if that is what the reader desires there are many books available that do just that. But what Ackroyd does that is so fascinating is to relate the history thematically, bouncing back and forth with contemporary knowledge of the Venice we know as played against the Venice of the past - all smoke and mirrors and delectable commentary. There is more to discover about the blend of society and the church and the wars and the peculiar aspects of a part of Italy that is actually not joined physically to that country. Ackroyd gives fine insights to the immigrant status of the sectors of Venice that few others have the courage to define.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the author's best

One of Ackroyd's best. A delightful (and sometimes awful - see the chapter on the first Ghetto) historical survey of a marvellous city, filled with anecdotes and interesting facts,... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Diane C. Fox
4.0 out of 5 stars... BOOKS ON VENICE VERY WELL WRITTEN THAT GIVES A GOOD IDEA OF A...

ONE OF THE LAST BOOKS ON VENICE VERY WELL WRITTEN THAT GIVES A GOOD IDEA OF A REPUBLIC THAT LASTED 2000 YEARS I I I I REALLY ENJOY IT .

Published 14 months ago by john f celin
4.0 out of 5 starsAn indispensable tool for any Venice lover and admirer

This book is indispensable for anyone who wishes to know more about the history, the people and the culture of Venice. It is thoroughly researched and beautifully written. Read more

Published on July 10, 2014 by Marcela Serrato
5.0 out of 5 starsA wonderful book on Venice...and I know Venice very well

Sent this off to a fellow Venice friend and she loved it.
Can't wait to return to Venice this May...after reading my new book

Published on March 7, 2014 by Shirley Moran
4.0 out of 5 starsA must if you want to see the city

Loaded with great information. Need to study if you want to look up a particular subject,such as
well heads,but good information when you find it.

Published on April 26, 2013 by great grandma
1.0 out of 5 starsYuk! What a waste of my life!

I have never read a history of any person, place or thing that was more disjointed, incoherent and painful to finish. Read more

Published on February 8, 2013 by A. Gift For You
5.0 out of 5 starsA City Resting Uneasy Upon the Sea

I liked Peter Ackroyd's "Venice: Pure City." The book is big, about 6 1/2 by 9 1/2, with just over 400 pages, so getting through it in detail, which is worth it, can take a... Read more

Published on January 23, 2012 by Nico Brusso
1.0 out of 5 starsSloppy thinking and sloppy writing from an author way out of his depth

I bought this book after having read Ackroyd's impressive "Life of Thomas More" (published 1991), and have now been left wondering what happened to Ackroyd in the meantime. Read more

Published on October 15, 2011 by Adriano Hundhausen
4.0 out of 5 starsObjective analysis of subjective book

Ackroyd's "Venice, Pure City" is not history or geography. Rather, it is a series of beautifully-written essays on his impressions of various aspects of the city. Read more

Published on July 20, 2011 by Andrew Charig
4.0 out of 5 starsSempre crolla ma non cade*

* Venetian proverb-It is always collapsing but it never falls down- such is the fate of latter day Venice a city struggling to survive in a modern world. Read more

Published on June 5, 2011 by mj deneen

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