Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Rome and a Villa by Eleanor Clark, Eugene Berman ISBN: 1-883642-51-5 Publisher: Steerforth Press Pub. Date: July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Buyer Beware
Comment: This book is famous, has been in print for decades, and is often cited as a masterpiece of travel writing. But for me it was turgid and cryptic. As an example, here is what Clark has to say about Quattro Fontane, a set of four Baroque fountains set into the corners of four buildings at the S. Carlino crossroads on the Quirinal Hill: "These are not very handsome either, with their jaded allegories, only they have a particular quaintness of unreason; you are back to the generic fountain feeling; some vast subconscious is at work, and you are a moving figure in it." Vast subconscious? Generic fountain feeling? Unreason? Quaintness of unreason? Particular quaintness of unreason? I defy anyone to make sense of these pronouncements (and knowing what the fountains look like does not help). Unhappily, the book is full of this kind of language. Of Hadrian's Villa (a ruin just outside of Rome), Clark says: "It is like music, so much that you seem sometimes to be hearing the buildings more than seeing them, as though at some level of the brain the eyes and ears functioned interchangeably." Here is my favorite: "A dead cat never has the look of finality that a dead dog does; neither does a dead Roman, which is why you never see many people bothering to follow funerals there." Really? Somehow I doubt it. Buyer beware.
Rating: 1
Summary: not a novel
Comment: this book is deceiving...i admit, some will find it interesting, but clark jumps around with no transitions. it is more of a journal, or a collection of essays. she does describe in detail a number of things in rome, yet if you are looking for a novel or a piece of literature which is cohesive this is not the book for you.
Rating: 5
Summary: As good as a vacation...
Comment: If you need to escape from the drudgery of your everyday life for awhile than this is the book for you.
Clark's masterpiece is as good as a month in the country. And not just any country either. All of Italy is opened to you by the mind and imagination of Eleanor Clark. She covers the territory from the haunted villa of Hadrian to the dangerous hills of Sicily and the cool depths of Saint Peter's Cathedral. You will meet with the ghost of the Emperor himself, a modern gangster cum matinee idol and the pilgrims of a Papal Jubilee.
Clark's prose is a whirlwind that leaves you breathless. She throws off sparks in all directions like a Catherine's Wheel. You won't "get" all of this book on the first go round but it is well worth a second and a third reading.
 |
Title: The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe ISBN: 0786710179 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 10 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: City of the Soul : A Walk in Rome by William Murray ISBN: 060960614X Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
