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Title: Italian Hours (Penguin Classics) by Henry James, John Auchard ISBN: 0-14-043507-7 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Book with a view...
Comment: The films 'Room With a View' and 'Wings of the Dove' make one wonder about the Italy reflected in classical paintings executed before the destruction of WWII. My curiousity was heightened in an art history class when the instructor showed a photo slide of the Ponte Vecchio and told the amazing story of the Nazi pilot who disobeyed orders to destroy the last bridge the allies could cross on their advance north.
This beautiful book brings to mind the saying, "The Past is a Foreign Country." Italy of the 19th Century is a place none of us can know except through records left by one who witnessed it. The book consists of essays James wrote on his travels to various places in Italy including Venice, Rome, and Florence. He visited some places several times and the text reflects the changes he observed on revisits.
He records an Italy whose poverty for a time prevented the intrusion of developers, who later made many changes perhaps for the worse. James was not a worshipper of old buildings, he appreciated them, but he was also aware of the suffering of the Italians, many of whom existed in dire poverty. His reflections on various cathedrals, churches and other objects of artistic interest are humanized by his comments about the individuals he encounters. He muses on the morality of travel, "whether it has been worthwhile to leave his home [and] encounter new forms of human suffering." His awareness of the Italians themselves makes his writing a bit like that of Paul Theroux, a travler and writer in our times. James differs from Theroux however. My sense is that James is a little less likely to criticize and a little more willing to overlook unpleasantness. Perhaps that makes him less of a realist, or perhaps Italy was a more pleasant place in the 19th Century.
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Title: D.H. Lawrence and Italy: Twilight in Italy, Sea and Sardinia, Etruscan Places (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by D. H. Lawrence, Anthony Burgess ISBN: 0141180307 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: July, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Italian Journey {1786-1788} (Penguin Classics) by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Mayer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ISBN: 0140442332 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Italy in Mind : An Anthology by Alice Leccese Powers ISBN: 0679770232 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Pictures from Italy (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens, Kate Flint ISBN: 0140434313 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Desiring Italy : Women Writers Celebrate the Passions of a Country and Culture by Susan Cahill ISBN: 0449910806 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 15 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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