- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Anchor Books; Reprint edition (May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1400032628
- ISBN-13: 978-1400032624
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.8 x 20.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 826,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In these brilliantly realized, linked tales, the real Venice is revealed – not the iconic tourist destination the city has become, but the mysterious society that resides behind its elegant doors and shuttered windows. With a sly and affectionate delicacy, Jane Turner Rylands, an American expatriate who has lived in Venice for thirty years, portrays a dozen Venetians– a construction foreman, a countess, a gondolier, a postman, an architect, a Baronessa, an English lord – as they pursue their respective interests. And in turn, through the perspective of those who live and work in this most alluring of cities, Venetian Stories illuminates canals and palazzos, churches and gondolas, large concerns and small rituals, with an uncommon intimacy.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really liked this book because each chapter was a separate story, now and then linking some people together from other chapters and the first and last chapter tying it all together. It definitely gives a different view of Venezia than what you see as a day tourist. Venezia is not JUST lovely buildings and picturesque alleys.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
19 reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Bravo! Encore!
29 May 2003
Format:Hardcover
I've been to Venice a few times, and Ms Rylands' book is funny and moving and most of all, gives you a real feel for the city. I think it's really sympathetic to the inhabitants. My favourite has to be the story of the Countess-a woman who is struggling against the collapse of her family and what she perceives to be the slow death of Venice, as tourism ruins life for the local inhabitants, who are leaving for the mainland. Like one of her famous courtesans, her beauty has brought Venice tourism and wealth, but at what cost?
Like all Turner-Rylands' depictions of family life, the outcome of the Countess story is very touching, and definitely optimistic. She clearly has adopted the italian reverence for the family.
...I don't know if these are real people she's based her book on as the Iowa reviewer seems to think (perhaps he/she knows something I don't), but it's to the author's credit that they seem so utterly real. If they are, I'd love to meet them...Venetian Stories certainly made me wanna go back to Venice soon!
22 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Venice was never this boring.
17 Oct 2003
Format:Hardcover
I approached this book with great anticipation, having loved Venice my entire adult life, having visited it half a dozen times and having devoured a whole shelf-ful of Venetian novels, stories, poems and travel books--Wings of the Dove, Death in Venice, The Passion, Those Who Walk Away, The Comfort of Strangers, Don't Look Now, Dead Lagoon, Invisible Cities, the mystery novels of Donna Leon, the histories by Jan Morris and J.J. Norwich, and the classic book-length essay by Mary McCarthy. Venice tends to confer a kind of refinement on books about her. But not this time! I found it impossible to get into this book. I kept trying NOT to become bored, hoping it would get better, but alas it did not. The author's narrative voice is grating, arch, full of itself and hollow. She tries for lit'ry effects again and again, but all she achieves is affectation, which is painful to witness, if at times unintentionally hilarious: I mean, what on earth does "evanescence whispered in the walls" mean? Does the author understand the meaning of the word "evanescence?" It would seem not. Rylands betrays herself throughout her book as a posturing novice putting on airs. Stay away at all costs. You can lay your hands on enough real literature about Venice without wasting your time on trash like this.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
"Venetian Character Studies" but not quite "Venetian Stories"
19 May 2006
Format:Hardcover
Jane Turner Rylands focuses each of this set of stories on a single Venetian resident, most of whom are of some patrician class, and most of whom know each other. A naive reader might easily be left with the impression that half of Venice bears a title like Contessa, three-quarters of Venice is obsessed with the minutiae of social life (who gets invited to what party), and all of Venice are snobs. Admittedly, Rylands throws in a spare worker or two - the sort whom she might have met when they were fixing up her palazzo - but clearly her heart belongs elsewhere.
The result is dishy and gossipy, and so fun enough if Venetian gossip is what you're looking for, but I wouldn't even exactly call them stories. Rylands is more interested in describing the people than in narrative or plot. There's something a bit off-putting about her writing style, too; everyone speaks in the same mannered, arch tone as the narrator. Rylands commands her milieu but not her craft. Mi dispiace, this was a disappointment.
The result is dishy and gossipy, and so fun enough if Venetian gossip is what you're looking for, but I wouldn't even exactly call them stories. Rylands is more interested in describing the people than in narrative or plot. There's something a bit off-putting about her writing style, too; everyone speaks in the same mannered, arch tone as the narrator. Rylands commands her milieu but not her craft. Mi dispiace, this was a disappointment.
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