- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus; 1st Edition edition (Oct 13 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0701172851
- ISBN-13: 978-0701172855
- Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 3.7 x 24.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 798 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #113,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Praise for London: A Biography:
“Ackroyd is the most effortless guide. You wander by his side through the streets of the old city, savouring its bustle, colours and smells, the stink of living. This is much more than history; it is a tapestry of love.”
— Observer
“Ackroyd is the most effortless guide. You wander by his side through the streets of the old city, savouring its bustle, colours and smells, the stink of living. This is much more than history; it is a tapestry of love.”
— Observer
Book Description
In this sumptuous vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill for evoking a sense of place from London and the River Thames to Venice, the city of myth, mystery and beauty, set like a jewel in its glistening lagoon.
Ackroyd’s Venice is at once romantic and packed with detail, conjuring up the atmosphere of the canals, bridges and sunlit squares, the churches and the markets, the fiestas and the flowers. He leads us through the fascinating, story-filled history of the city, from the first refugees arriving in the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century, to the rise of a great mercantile state and trading empire, the wars against Napoleon and the tourist invasions of today.
Everything is here: the merchants on the Rialto and the Jews in the ghetto; the mosaics of St. Marks’ and the glass blowers of Murano; the carnival masks and the sad colonies of lepers; the doges and the destitute. And of course, the artists — Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, with their passion for colour and form. There are wars and sieges, scandals and seductions, fountains playing in deserted squares and crowds thronging the markets. And there is a dark undertone too, of shadowy corners and dead ends, prisons and punishment.
We could have no better guide to Venice than Peter Ackroyd whose book is, itself, a glorious journey and the perfect holiday.
Ackroyd’s Venice is at once romantic and packed with detail, conjuring up the atmosphere of the canals, bridges and sunlit squares, the churches and the markets, the fiestas and the flowers. He leads us through the fascinating, story-filled history of the city, from the first refugees arriving in the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century, to the rise of a great mercantile state and trading empire, the wars against Napoleon and the tourist invasions of today.
Everything is here: the merchants on the Rialto and the Jews in the ghetto; the mosaics of St. Marks’ and the glass blowers of Murano; the carnival masks and the sad colonies of lepers; the doges and the destitute. And of course, the artists — Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, with their passion for colour and form. There are wars and sieges, scandals and seductions, fountains playing in deserted squares and crowds thronging the markets. And there is a dark undertone too, of shadowy corners and dead ends, prisons and punishment.
We could have no better guide to Venice than Peter Ackroyd whose book is, itself, a glorious journey and the perfect holiday.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.4 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
51 of 55 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Shimmering, bejewelled account - and yet...., Sep 24 2009
By Anonymous - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Venice: Pure City (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. There's a lingering suspicion about some of the connections: is the mirror-like surface of the Lagoon like glass, which, conveniently made in Murano, stands as a metaphor for the City? Does Venetian satin, conveniently called watered silk, like the watery and "undulating" floor of St Mark's, echo the water surrounding the whole city? Are the pinky green stones of the buildings the colours of flesh and bone, thus personifying the entire urban building fabric? And is watery Venice a place of "liminal fantasies of death and rebirth?"
Some will be inspired, others irritated. But there's no denying Ackroyd's learning, creativity, gusto and grace.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid and Interesting, Dec 13 2010
By Dancing Bear - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Venice (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.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Inaccurate & Extremely Disappointing, Sep 23 2011
By fuwanna "fuwanna" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Venice (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. If you know Venice well--or even just fairly well--you can't help but be annoyed by its many historical and contemporary inaccuracies. If you are new to the city, it will do little to provide a coherent or reliable historical background and its presentation of the contemporary life of the city is simply absurd. (I love Ackroyd's typically vague and purely anecdotal suggestion that the city drives its inhabitants mad--he refers to "insane cries" from a house in Castello. I live in Castello, my son attends school in Castello, and while there are plenty of oddities in the city (both in terms of local beliefs and inhabitants), you can take my word for it that Ackroyd has no actual clue what or who they are.)
There are many many fine books on Venice. My strong suggestion is to avoid this one.
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