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Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross
"Quite simply one of the best books of the year." ―Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
Ben Downing's Queen Bee of Tuscany brings an extraordinary Victorian back to life. Born into a distinguished intellectual family and raised among luminaries such as Dickens and Thackeray, Janet Ross married at eighteen and went to live in Egypt. There, for the next six years, she wrote for the London Times , hobnobbed with the developer of the Suez Canal, and humiliated pashas in horse races. In 1867 she moved to Florence, Italy where she spent the remaining sixty years of her life writing a series of books and hosting a colorful miscellany of friends and neighbors, from Mark Twain to Bernard Berenson, at Poggio Gherardo, her house in the hills above the city. Eventually she became the acknowledged doyenne of the Anglo-Florentine colony, as it was known. Yet she was also immersed in the rural life of An avid agriculturalist, she closely supervised the farms on her estate and the sharecroppers who worked them, often pitching in on grape and olive harvests.
Spirited, erudite, and supremely well-connected, Ross was one of the most dynamic women of her day. Her life offers a fascinating window on fascinating times, from the Risorgimento to the rise of fascism.
Encompassing all this rich history, Queen Bee of Tuscany is a panoramic portrait of an age, a family, and our evolving love affair with Tuscany. A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2013
Ben Downing's Queen Bee of Tuscany brings an extraordinary Victorian back to life. Born into a distinguished intellectual family and raised among luminaries such as Dickens and Thackeray, Janet Ross married at eighteen and went to live in Egypt. There, for the next six years, she wrote for the London Times , hobnobbed with the developer of the Suez Canal, and humiliated pashas in horse races. In 1867 she moved to Florence, Italy where she spent the remaining sixty years of her life writing a series of books and hosting a colorful miscellany of friends and neighbors, from Mark Twain to Bernard Berenson, at Poggio Gherardo, her house in the hills above the city. Eventually she became the acknowledged doyenne of the Anglo-Florentine colony, as it was known. Yet she was also immersed in the rural life of An avid agriculturalist, she closely supervised the farms on her estate and the sharecroppers who worked them, often pitching in on grape and olive harvests.
Spirited, erudite, and supremely well-connected, Ross was one of the most dynamic women of her day. Her life offers a fascinating window on fascinating times, from the Risorgimento to the rise of fascism.
Encompassing all this rich history, Queen Bee of Tuscany is a panoramic portrait of an age, a family, and our evolving love affair with Tuscany. A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2013
352 pages, Paperback
First published June 18, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
October 11, 2013
COLOSSALLY DULL.
“Though intelligent and learned, especially for an autodidact, she was by no means brilliant.”—page 15
The first hundred or so pages—the entire first three chapters—of ‘The Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross,’ by Ben Downing, are a mind-numbing miasma of proper nouns, and should be skipped. You'll lose nothing and would thank me profusely for sparing you the boredom, if you knew just how relentlessly dull those three chapters were.
Recommendation: If after skipping the first three chapters you decided to also skip the remaining three you would be doing yourself a big favor.
“She is awfully handsome, in a utilitarian kind of way—and an odd mixture of the British female and the dangerous woman—a Bohemian with rules and accounts.”—page 156
NOOKbook edition from Barnes and Noble, 367 pages
“Though intelligent and learned, especially for an autodidact, she was by no means brilliant.”—page 15
The first hundred or so pages—the entire first three chapters—of ‘The Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross,’ by Ben Downing, are a mind-numbing miasma of proper nouns, and should be skipped. You'll lose nothing and would thank me profusely for sparing you the boredom, if you knew just how relentlessly dull those three chapters were.
Recommendation: If after skipping the first three chapters you decided to also skip the remaining three you would be doing yourself a big favor.
“She is awfully handsome, in a utilitarian kind of way—and an odd mixture of the British female and the dangerous woman—a Bohemian with rules and accounts.”—page 156
NOOKbook edition from Barnes and Noble, 367 pages
February 3, 2014
I simply couldn't get into this. Much as I usually enjoy biographies of singular individuals, it seemed I was in for a nonstop parade of people that Janet met, places that Janet had been, and so on. While many of these people and places were noteworthy, there didn't seem to be much happening beyond surface commentary. About sixty pages in, I simply had to face the fact that I wasn't getting much out of the book. While not something I actively disliked, it wasn't anything I was enjoying, either.
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February 5, 2017It was interesting to read this and the Berenson biography so close together, as they were so different and covered some of the same ground.
This isn't a particularly deep biography, and I'm left with the impression Downing thinks that the other generations of Ross's family were more interesting than she was. .
This isn't a particularly deep biography, and I'm left with the impression Downing thinks that the other generations of Ross's family were more interesting than she was. .
September 21, 2013
downing's book is so wordy, so detailed that it is unbearable reading. what could have been an insightful and delightful peek into an age we don't know enough about is, instead, a plodding, name-dropping tome with no spark. there is no story, no plot, no timeline. janet ross may have been a fascinating woman who led a spectacular life, but you'll never learn that from this book.
November 4, 2013
Somewhat drier and less engaging than other entries into the war time Italian Countryside stories, this book is informative, yet not very interestingly told.
January 16, 2021
3.5 stars. Moving along in my 2021 book challenge I choose this book on part in order to read a book about a country/city/state in its title and a book that referenced another book in it. This book is a cornucopia of book references for the 19th and early 20th Century. In fact the home of “Queen Bee,” Janet Ross, Poggio Gherardo, served it is believed to be the first setting in Boccaccio’s Decameron. While the book evolves around Janet Ross, it’s also a story of the English Colony in Florence from its heady days through the aftermath of WWI. I think I enjoyed these parts the most. A pleasant surprise in reading the book were references to the lovely memoir, Images and Shadows by Iris Origo and George Meredith who figured prominently in another book I read, The True Mrs Meredith and Other Stories. While I wouldn’t say I was entranced by Janet Ross; she seemed shallow - who leaves their child in England to be raised by relatives? - and self absorbed. But her life was filled with many interesting people and events and reads like an encyclopedia of prominent 19th and 20th C politicians, authors, painters, poets, etc. I was intrigued to know she did write one of the first Tuscan cooking books in English, Leaves from our Tuscan Kitchen, that has remained in print on an off. Her time in Egypt also was interesting. I gave this a 3.5 star rating more because it was a tedious read and the name dropping was overwhelming at times.
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May 24, 2021First of all a disclaimer that I picked up this book from the library during a search for beekeeping books. I am going to go ahead and put this down after about 50 pages. I read the reviews and felt similarly to many others. It's a lot of name dropping and short stories about what was happening at the time. I feel a better kinship with the historical notes than with Jane or anyone else in this book for that matter. Reads like a dry set of historical notes. If you're a big fan of Victorian or Edwardian history and Western artists of the time this may be your book.
April 30, 2021
Reads like a tedious guest list of the famous and not-so-famous American and British cultural icons who hung out in rented villas in Italy in the late 19th century. Only occasionally would persons of interest surface (Mark Twain, Henry James, Bernard Berenson) for a moment only to sink back into the dullness.
July 8, 2017
Thought it was poorly written, couldn't finish it.
August 5, 2016
Just finished Ben Downing's Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013). The book is a biography of Janet Duff Gordon-Ross, a fascinating woman who lived a life that connected the Victorian world of arts and letters to that of the twentieth-century. Downing writes not only about Ross's life in England, Egypt and finally in Tuscany but also about the larger Anglo-Italian community that lived in Italy. To understand her, he argues the reader needs to understand the culture and history of this ex-pat community. While it is a complicated genealogy for the most part he does a good job of linking together the diverse groups of people who found homes for themselves so far from their countries of origin in Italy. Like many biographies the subject is more interesting than the writing and makes for an interesting read. The book would interest anyone curious about the 19th-century world of art and letters, ex-pat communities in Italy or fascinating independent women.
"James, who was almost exactly Janet's contemporary, had, like her, first encountered Italy in his mid twenties, and had responded with an ecstatic, almost symphonic joy that brought him back thirteen times over the years. While Florence had to contend in his affections with Rome and Venice, he felt for the city a distinctive love, doting, sentimental, almost parental. Its smallness never ceased to disarm him: on his first visit in 1869, he wrote of "the beautiful hills among which it lies deposited, like an egg in a nest"; on the next he found it "the same rounded pearl of cities-cheerful, compact, complete-full of a delicious mixture of beauty & convenience"; and by 1890 he was sighing over "this tender little Florence." The city features many times in his writings: in Italian Hours and other works of nonfiction; in Roderick Hudson and The Portrait of a Lady; and in the tales "The Pupil", "The Diary of a man of Fifty," and "The Madonna of the Future." 157
"Years later, though, Vernon Lee made a remark on Janet's meeting with James that is like an unrealized tale in miniature: James, she said, "would never use her. She would tumble in like a great red flamingo among his grey sparrows." 161
"If skirmishing art historians imparted a flavor to colonial life, so, increasingly, did the overlapping homosexual contingent. The trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895 had sent a chill through every gay man in Britain, and had made relatively laissez-fair places like Florence look all the more attractive. One of Wilde's closest friends, the novelist Reggie Turner, was among those taking refuge; he struck the young Harold Acton-who would turn out to share his proclivities-as a "glittering Punchinello," and was widely beloved for his kindness and wit. Not that prejudice was lacking in the colony. It so happened that Henry Laboucère, author of the 1885 amendment under which many British homosexuals were prosecuted, had chosen Florence as his place of retirement in 1906. (Presumably he and Turner gave each other a wide berth into the Via Tornabouni.) The business-like Florentines, however, mostly seemed comfortable enough with the strainer invertiti, as they were known." Unharassed and unperfected, both the gay sub colony and the "Sapphist" one-which included Lee, Cruttwell, and, to a degree, the bisexual Mabel Dodge-let its collective hair down, if not all the way, then at least an inch or two beyond what felt safe back home." 231
The idea has occurred to me in the past, and while reading Downing's book to craft a study of queer friendship that follows individuals across time and space.
"James, who was almost exactly Janet's contemporary, had, like her, first encountered Italy in his mid twenties, and had responded with an ecstatic, almost symphonic joy that brought him back thirteen times over the years. While Florence had to contend in his affections with Rome and Venice, he felt for the city a distinctive love, doting, sentimental, almost parental. Its smallness never ceased to disarm him: on his first visit in 1869, he wrote of "the beautiful hills among which it lies deposited, like an egg in a nest"; on the next he found it "the same rounded pearl of cities-cheerful, compact, complete-full of a delicious mixture of beauty & convenience"; and by 1890 he was sighing over "this tender little Florence." The city features many times in his writings: in Italian Hours and other works of nonfiction; in Roderick Hudson and The Portrait of a Lady; and in the tales "The Pupil", "The Diary of a man of Fifty," and "The Madonna of the Future." 157
"Years later, though, Vernon Lee made a remark on Janet's meeting with James that is like an unrealized tale in miniature: James, she said, "would never use her. She would tumble in like a great red flamingo among his grey sparrows." 161
"If skirmishing art historians imparted a flavor to colonial life, so, increasingly, did the overlapping homosexual contingent. The trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895 had sent a chill through every gay man in Britain, and had made relatively laissez-fair places like Florence look all the more attractive. One of Wilde's closest friends, the novelist Reggie Turner, was among those taking refuge; he struck the young Harold Acton-who would turn out to share his proclivities-as a "glittering Punchinello," and was widely beloved for his kindness and wit. Not that prejudice was lacking in the colony. It so happened that Henry Laboucère, author of the 1885 amendment under which many British homosexuals were prosecuted, had chosen Florence as his place of retirement in 1906. (Presumably he and Turner gave each other a wide berth into the Via Tornabouni.) The business-like Florentines, however, mostly seemed comfortable enough with the strainer invertiti, as they were known." Unharassed and unperfected, both the gay sub colony and the "Sapphist" one-which included Lee, Cruttwell, and, to a degree, the bisexual Mabel Dodge-let its collective hair down, if not all the way, then at least an inch or two beyond what felt safe back home." 231
The idea has occurred to me in the past, and while reading Downing's book to craft a study of queer friendship that follows individuals across time and space.
April 6, 2014
I managed to get through Ben Downing’s book on Janet Ross. It was something of a slog. I came out at the end wondering what the big deal was about and why this particular woman excited him to write about her in the first place. So I began by adding up the pluses:
She wrote books, apparently quite a few of them, and except for a cookbook, none of them are read much these days. She had a farm near Settignano and she treated her servants well so long as they did what they were told, didn’t talk back, and gave her full sway about how to run the place. She knew a lot of famous people including Tennyson (when she was a girl) to Mark Twain to Bernard Berenson to name a few. She lived a long life for her time.
The minuses add up too. She had a son whom she ignored (some would say abandoned), a husband who was her senior by some years and with whom she did not sleep or have sex, a niece whom she treated well until the niece married someone Janet didn’t like (at that point, she cut off relations with her for years.) She was a notorious bitch to nearly everyone, and people seem to have excused her irascibility for eccentricity and charm.
The minuses outweigh the pluses, displaying the kind of shrew that most of us these days would not put up with.
The best aspects of the book describe not Janet Ross, but the far more compelling people she knew and the far more fascinating places where she lived. Downing’s chapter called “Intermezzo – The Anglo-Tuscans” provides a captivating summary of the British presence in Florence and Tuscany, and that history, filled with the luminaries of the day, is meant to usher in Janet Ross. Her entry into that rich tapestry is a let down, as she and her husband sponge off Lotto (The Marchese Lotteringo della Stufa) at his villa, Castagnolo, until his death whereupon his heirs kicked her out. She then managed to scrape up enough money to buy Poggio Gherardo and outfit it. From there she reigned as a putative monarch.
For reasons that escape me, people from all over visited her and vied for her attention. She held Sunday afternoon salons populated by the intelligentsia of Europe and America, who came by invitation only. What they talked about is another question. Downing reports that Sra. Ross was short and curt with people who asked questions about her past (“It’s all in my books!”), openly disliked most women, and had only a fleeting interest in everyone else.
Then she died.
Did I miss something? Was there something wonderful about this woman that would have impelled me to seek her out, to beg for an invitation to her villa, to kowtow to her?
I have a friend, Horace Gibson, who has written a much more gripping autobiography that I would recommend to anyone far before I’d hum along with the Queen Bee of Tuscany.
She wrote books, apparently quite a few of them, and except for a cookbook, none of them are read much these days. She had a farm near Settignano and she treated her servants well so long as they did what they were told, didn’t talk back, and gave her full sway about how to run the place. She knew a lot of famous people including Tennyson (when she was a girl) to Mark Twain to Bernard Berenson to name a few. She lived a long life for her time.
The minuses add up too. She had a son whom she ignored (some would say abandoned), a husband who was her senior by some years and with whom she did not sleep or have sex, a niece whom she treated well until the niece married someone Janet didn’t like (at that point, she cut off relations with her for years.) She was a notorious bitch to nearly everyone, and people seem to have excused her irascibility for eccentricity and charm.
The minuses outweigh the pluses, displaying the kind of shrew that most of us these days would not put up with.
The best aspects of the book describe not Janet Ross, but the far more compelling people she knew and the far more fascinating places where she lived. Downing’s chapter called “Intermezzo – The Anglo-Tuscans” provides a captivating summary of the British presence in Florence and Tuscany, and that history, filled with the luminaries of the day, is meant to usher in Janet Ross. Her entry into that rich tapestry is a let down, as she and her husband sponge off Lotto (The Marchese Lotteringo della Stufa) at his villa, Castagnolo, until his death whereupon his heirs kicked her out. She then managed to scrape up enough money to buy Poggio Gherardo and outfit it. From there she reigned as a putative monarch.
For reasons that escape me, people from all over visited her and vied for her attention. She held Sunday afternoon salons populated by the intelligentsia of Europe and America, who came by invitation only. What they talked about is another question. Downing reports that Sra. Ross was short and curt with people who asked questions about her past (“It’s all in my books!”), openly disliked most women, and had only a fleeting interest in everyone else.
Then she died.
Did I miss something? Was there something wonderful about this woman that would have impelled me to seek her out, to beg for an invitation to her villa, to kowtow to her?
I have a friend, Horace Gibson, who has written a much more gripping autobiography that I would recommend to anyone far before I’d hum along with the Queen Bee of Tuscany.
November 21, 2014
I did not finish this book. I was very interested in Lucie Austin, Janet's mother, and would have enjoyed reading more about her. The women in this family were definitely interesting characters who lived rich and exciting lives. In the hands of a different writer, this should have been enough to keep me engaged.
My problem with this book is that 1) Janet Ross, while interesting, was not *that* interesting to write a whole book about and 2) the author filled much of the book with the history of the entire region. Had the history of Tuscany been the focus of the book and Janet been one of the many people who lived there filled a few anecdotes, it might have been better. Of course, then you would have had to pull out the fun stories about Janet and Lucie's adventures in Egypt which seemed noteworthy.
As far as the author's style, it seemed he wanted to accurate in some sort of academic way but continually named dropped non-essential people into the mix like some gossip columnist.
Ultimately, I lost interest and decided I had had my fill of the subject.
My problem with this book is that 1) Janet Ross, while interesting, was not *that* interesting to write a whole book about and 2) the author filled much of the book with the history of the entire region. Had the history of Tuscany been the focus of the book and Janet been one of the many people who lived there filled a few anecdotes, it might have been better. Of course, then you would have had to pull out the fun stories about Janet and Lucie's adventures in Egypt which seemed noteworthy.
As far as the author's style, it seemed he wanted to accurate in some sort of academic way but continually named dropped non-essential people into the mix like some gossip columnist.
Ultimately, I lost interest and decided I had had my fill of the subject.
July 3, 2013
Janet Ross, the subject of Queen Bee of Tuscany, was a fascinating woman: she was connected to almost every eminent Victorian (and Edwardian) that you can name. What's more, she was an active agriculturalist at her villa, Poggio Gherardo, and an author of no mean skill (her classic cookbook Leaves from Our Tuscan Kitchen has the most enduring legacy, but she wrote on a wide variety of topics).
Downing's biography is extremely well-researched, and his portrait of Janet Ross is picked out in elegant, convivial prose. The book is also an excellent window onto the wider world of the Anglo-American literary "colony" in Florence—of which Janet was the titular "Queen Bee"—that existed between ~1850 and the Second World War. A reviewer above complains about an excessive cast of characters, but as someone who likes grand historical sweep, I found the long list of dramatis personae a delight.
Downing's biography is extremely well-researched, and his portrait of Janet Ross is picked out in elegant, convivial prose. The book is also an excellent window onto the wider world of the Anglo-American literary "colony" in Florence—of which Janet was the titular "Queen Bee"—that existed between ~1850 and the Second World War. A reviewer above complains about an excessive cast of characters, but as someone who likes grand historical sweep, I found the long list of dramatis personae a delight.
December 6, 2013
I tried valiantly to read and like this book. Based on Michael Dirda's review, my book club is reading it. Halfway through, I am giving up. It is boring, boring, boring. It reads like a "Who's Who" of the time period, but you never get enough detail to get interested in these people, and it is impossible to keep them all straight. It is basically just a list of names of people who crossed paths with Janet Ross. No real insight into the character of Janet is given and nothing to make me want to keep reading. I cannot imagine what Dirda was thinking!
July 9, 2013
"Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross" by Ben Downing. Ostensibly the biography of Janet Ross (1842-1927), an Englishwoman who lived in Florence for almost 60 years, it is, in fact, a great, sunny garden-party of a book, featuring guest appearances by many of the most eminent and eccentric Victorians, each of them pulling you aside to whisper some delicious anecdote. Read the review: http://wapo.st/1a9shYU
November 30, 2013
I thought this book would be so interesting... the comings and goings of literati... Tuscany... but it was just so dull and boring it was complete STRUGGLE to get through it. In fact - I'm not entirely sure I did get all the way through it. Who knows... who cares? Getting one star for effort only!
June 27, 2013
Ugh. Don't even bother opening up this book. I got up to page 40 and could no longer stand it. The description of this story being engrossing is absurd. There's so many peripheral characters with their goings-on (who cares?)that it's hard to get your head around. Janet Ross might have been a dynamic woman in the Victorian age but until you get to it, it's a big yawn.
August 19, 2013
Ben Downing’s Queen Bee of Tuscany brings an extraordinary Victorian back to life.
Actually, that's exactly what it fails to do. Filled with details, Queen Bee lacks story. Janet Ross' voice is muffled by Downing's own explanations of her life and her role in a fascinating community, leaving us with dry text, rather than any sense of real life.
Actually, that's exactly what it fails to do. Filled with details, Queen Bee lacks story. Janet Ross' voice is muffled by Downing's own explanations of her life and her role in a fascinating community, leaving us with dry text, rather than any sense of real life.
December 10, 2013
I received this book for free through Goodreads FIrst Reads.
This book was very wordy, but not unpleasant. I've never even heard of Janet Ross before I read this book, but now I know a whole lot about her. I skim read parts of the book that I found to be a tad bit boring. For the most part it was a pretty interesting book.
This book was very wordy, but not unpleasant. I've never even heard of Janet Ross before I read this book, but now I know a whole lot about her. I skim read parts of the book that I found to be a tad bit boring. For the most part it was a pretty interesting book.
April 9, 2014
I love a peek into the social dynamics of various eras and so this book was a treasure trove of information. Janet and her family were connected to nearly every prominent person of their era. The book definitely meandered. It was NOT focused on Tuscany, but on the family, life and times of Janet Ross.
October 30, 2014
I expected just to take a look at this book (for lack of time) but ended up reading the whole thing... so well written and engaging, it came close to becoming a movie-in-my-head. (A love of and familiarity with Florence helped.) Downing's ability to choose exactly the right word without seeming pretentious reveals the poet behind the colorful prose and made the book difficult to put down.
September 17, 2014
I hate to say it, but I couldn't get through this book. I stopped at page 122. Although at first I was very interested in learning about Janet Ross, I struggled to get through the dense details. I finally gave up and moved on to another book.
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February 19, 2013Review for Publishers Weekly.
August 11, 2013
Good writing style and vocabulary, but never got to the heart of the subject.
August 9, 2013
This is an excellent book, beautifully written, well-paced and amusing. Disappointingly, no mention of Nelly, but I still loved his take on the Janet/Lina relationship.
September 23, 2013
Interesting, but a lags in some areas.
October 4, 2013
This book is BORING! I gave up after three chapters. I do not recommend.
December 7, 2013
Charming book which takes you to Tuscany in the 19th and early 20th century and its expatriot British community. Full of interesting tidbits. Nice illustrations.
December 4, 2014
Led to further and fruitful reading exploration.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews