- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (6 May 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747558140
- ISBN-13: 978-0747558149
- Product Dimensions: 18 x 11.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
470,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #91 in Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Europe > Italy > Cities & Regions > Florence
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
David Leavitt has long been a writer of rare distinction, and Florence, a Delicate Case is a compact and highly pleasurable book that functions on many levels. Firstly, there is the enjoyment of the prose: Leavitt's pithy, poetic style is immensely evocative, always erudite and unfailingly entertaining. Then there is the detailed and atmospheric evocation of one of the world's most beguiling cities. But most of all, Leavitt's book is a brilliant panoply of some of the most remarkable characters (literary and otherwise) who made Firenze their home.
Beginning by speculating as to why Florence has always proved such a desirable destination for would-be suicides, Leavitt's asks what makes the city (in the words of Henry James) such a "delicate case" for natives and incomers alike. Smoothly negotiating past and present, Leavitt details the history of the foreign colony from the middle of the 19th century until the dark days of the Mussolini era and, later, the last gasp of the Anglo-Florentine colony marked by the passing of such luminaries as Harold Acton and John Pope-Hennessy.
There are marvellously entertaining portraits of such talented visitors to the city as EM Forster, Tchaikovsky and DH Lawrence (Florence was always a centre for the sexual taboo-breakers--Leavitt is particularly perceptive when dealing with the many gay artists and writers who strolled down the Via Tornabuoni). But the author is just as diverting when discussing the wastrels and eccentrics. Who is the book aimed at? That's not quite clear--but if you're interested in the city, or its wildly disparate cast of characters, you're sure to find several tempting nuggets in this concise volume. --Barry Forshaw
The Times
"It’s a superbly enjoyable, fascinatingly individual read."
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the third title I have read in Bloomsbury's very impressiontic 'Writer and the City' series. (The other two being John Banville on Prague and Edmund Wilson on Paris). Always short and unillustrated, the books follow the same format in pairing a famous writer with a famous city.
It is fair to say that one learns as much about the writer, as the city he (so far it always has been a he) is writing about.
To capture the reader's attention, the book starts with a cheap literary ploy: 'Florence has always been a popular destination for suicides', a claim which Leavitt manifestly fails to substantiate.
Leavitt's main interest is the large and often querulous Anglo-Florentine colony, whose origins he traces back (incorrectly) to the middle of the 19th century. It was a colony that Leavitt nominally joined when, in 1993, he and his partner came to live in the city. It was not, however, a colony in which they wanted to participate; they were in search of 'the Florence of the Florentines'. If they managed to track down this elusive and vague quarry, they failed to share the discovery with the readers.
He notes that the writers who have chosen Florence as a place to live, have always been mediocre (Ouida, Firbank), while the truly talented (James, Forster) have swiftly moved on.
The book was published in 2002, by which time, we sense, Leavitt, perhaps in the light of this observation, had, too, left the city.
It is fair to say that one learns as much about the writer, as the city he (so far it always has been a he) is writing about.
To capture the reader's attention, the book starts with a cheap literary ploy: 'Florence has always been a popular destination for suicides', a claim which Leavitt manifestly fails to substantiate.
Leavitt's main interest is the large and often querulous Anglo-Florentine colony, whose origins he traces back (incorrectly) to the middle of the 19th century. It was a colony that Leavitt nominally joined when, in 1993, he and his partner came to live in the city. It was not, however, a colony in which they wanted to participate; they were in search of 'the Florence of the Florentines'. If they managed to track down this elusive and vague quarry, they failed to share the discovery with the readers.
He notes that the writers who have chosen Florence as a place to live, have always been mediocre (Ouida, Firbank), while the truly talented (James, Forster) have swiftly moved on.
The book was published in 2002, by which time, we sense, Leavitt, perhaps in the light of this observation, had, too, left the city.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This whole series is charming. I'm buying them as they come out, and planning my travels accordingly. A series of short _literate_ hardbacks, I'm not sure if they're books about cities or more about writing itself. By choosing writers who already know the city intimately (and they blessedly spare us some details that it's only too clear they're "intimate" with) these are guides that give a real flavour of the city in question.
A resident's guide to Florence's people, more than its bricks and mortar. You can either live there for years, or you can read this. Most people (those sad souls in suits and offices) might do the first, yet never scratch the surface of the latter. Read this and revel in a divine world of dissolute authors and strange antique dog-walking contessas.
Totally useless as tour guides. As irrelevant as butterflies. Quite, quite exquisite.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I really enjoy this man as a writer, hes a very interesting human being... but this is not his best work by a longshot.
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