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The Stones of Florence
A beloved tribute to Florence that blends history, artistic reflection, and keen social observation
Renowned for her sharp literary style, essayist and fiction writer Mary McCarthy offers a unique history of Florence, from its inception to the dominant role it came to play in the world of art, architecture, and Italian culture, that captures the brilliant Florentine spirit and revisits the legendary figures—Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and others—who exemplify it so iconically. Her most cherished sights and experiences color this timeless, graceful portrait of a city that's as famous as it is alluring.
Renowned for her sharp literary style, essayist and fiction writer Mary McCarthy offers a unique history of Florence, from its inception to the dominant role it came to play in the world of art, architecture, and Italian culture, that captures the brilliant Florentine spirit and revisits the legendary figures—Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and others—who exemplify it so iconically. Her most cherished sights and experiences color this timeless, graceful portrait of a city that's as famous as it is alluring.
230 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
187 people are currently reading
1854 people want to read
About the author
Mary McCarthy
134 books305 followersPeople note American writer Mary Therese McCarthy for her sharp literary criticism and satirical fiction, including the novels
The Groves of Academe
(1952) and
The Group
(1963).
McCarthy studied at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York and graduated in 1933. McCarthy moved to city of New York and incisively wrote as a known contributor to publications such as the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books. Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps (1942), initiated her ascent to the most celebrated writers of her generation; the publication of her autobiography Memories of a Catholic Girlhood in 1957 bolstered this reputation.
This literary critic authored more than two dozen books, including the now-classic novel The Group , the New York Times bestseller in 1963.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McC...
McCarthy studied at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York and graduated in 1933. McCarthy moved to city of New York and incisively wrote as a known contributor to publications such as the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books. Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps (1942), initiated her ascent to the most celebrated writers of her generation; the publication of her autobiography Memories of a Catholic Girlhood in 1957 bolstered this reputation.
This literary critic authored more than two dozen books, including the now-classic novel The Group , the New York Times bestseller in 1963.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McC...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
August 21, 2013
A rollicking, highly informative biography of Florence. McCarthy touches upon everything: current day (she's writing in 1956) Florentines, tourists, architecture, art, politics, wars, rulers, religions. There's so much packed into 230 pages that one reading isn't enough, unless you are already an expert.
This excerpt where she talks about the Mannerists (a subset of Florentine artists) gives you a taste of her learned snark:
Iridescent or opaline colour, used by Andrea [del Sarto] for religiose effects of light and shade, became the specialty of the Mannerists, who loved the two-tone effects now found chiefly in sleazy taffetas popular with home-dressmakers for an ungainly girl's first 'formal' - orange turning yellow, flame turning red, lavender turning rose. Il Rosso's [Rosso Fiorentino] colour is more garish than Pontormo's. In his 'Madonna, Saints, and Two Angels' in the Uffizi, the principal personages are all dressed in 'shot' textiles. The Madonna is wearing a two-toned pinky purple dress with peach-coloured sleeves; Saint John the Baptist has a Nile-green shoulder-throw and a mauve toga; Saint Jerome's bare ancient shoulders, shrunken neck, and ferret-like head are emerging from what is best described as an evening stole, in dark grey iridescent taffeta. The mauves, peaches, and purples are reflected, like a stormy sunset, on the flesh of the holy group; clawlike hands have red transparent fingers as if they were being held up to the sun or to an infernal fire. A simpering, rouged, idiot Child sits on the Madonna's lap. The eyeholes of the Child, the Madonna, and the red-winged Angels are circled by blackness, like melting mascara; their reddened, purpled features are smudged and blurred; and the whole party appears intensely dissipated or lunatic - a band of late roisterers found at dawn under a street lamp. Other sacred paintings of Il Rosso, like the 'Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro', also in the Uffizi, suggest, again, the half-carnival atmosphere of an insane asylum or of a brothel during a police raid.
July 21, 2015
Very useful for thinking about the 14th century and its role in shaping the Renaissance and Florence more generally. This has a lot of good insight into Florence's history and character (for want of a better term) and the ambivalences and frequent turn-arounds which mark its cultural evolution. It also runs on a little long on a number of the frescoes, which gets to be tedious reading. Glad to have read it, but got bogged down in spots.
July 8, 2016
Sometimes you want to be somewhere other than where you are, but lack the funds to make it so. This stream of consciousness (for lack of a better description) romp through Florentine history and art history fills the void. Don't try to make it something it's not - just read and imagine the people while googling the art.
June 22, 2025
Although I have just finished reading a text only edition of this book, and found it marvellous, I cannot divorce my opinion from my first experience of the the heavy beautifully illustrated edition I first looked at and read, at least parts of, as a ten year old exploring the wonders of my father's library over fifty years ago. I don't know if it is possible now to understand the powerful impact a fascinating text illustrated by wonderful images that related to the text had back in those pre-internet days. Ms. McCarthy's book on Florence introduced me to wonderful architecture and art but also in the text but especially the photographs, such as that of Pontormo's frescoe in the salone of the Medicean Villa of Poggio a Caiano, to insights into myself that I was just beginning to understand.
Although it is an old fashioned book it also is remarkably good at capturing a Florence that it is so easy to miss today with the surfeit of tourists. It is easy now to smile at McCarthy writing about the Arno flooding as some sort of ancient curse when barely seven years later the city was devastated by the apocalyptic floods of 1966. But far more interesting is to read about the Scoppio del Carro or the Calcio Storico which are still, despite tourism, Florentine festivals. It is even more amazing that the Archiconfraternita della Misericordia still exists and only abandoned their voluminous black hoods and masks in 2006 for health and safety reasons.
The book is anything but dated because Florence has not dated, or has been dated since the end of the Republic in 1530, or maybe since the death of Gian Gaston in 1737? There are a hundred Florences and Mary McCarthy brings to life both its apotheosis and its long aftermath.
I only suggest that you try and get hold of the illustrated edition - it provides so much additional wonder because the photographs are of an era in Florence now as vanished as that of the Medici.
Although it is an old fashioned book it also is remarkably good at capturing a Florence that it is so easy to miss today with the surfeit of tourists. It is easy now to smile at McCarthy writing about the Arno flooding as some sort of ancient curse when barely seven years later the city was devastated by the apocalyptic floods of 1966. But far more interesting is to read about the Scoppio del Carro or the Calcio Storico which are still, despite tourism, Florentine festivals. It is even more amazing that the Archiconfraternita della Misericordia still exists and only abandoned their voluminous black hoods and masks in 2006 for health and safety reasons.
The book is anything but dated because Florence has not dated, or has been dated since the end of the Republic in 1530, or maybe since the death of Gian Gaston in 1737? There are a hundred Florences and Mary McCarthy brings to life both its apotheosis and its long aftermath.
I only suggest that you try and get hold of the illustrated edition - it provides so much additional wonder because the photographs are of an era in Florence now as vanished as that of the Medici.
November 29, 2010
I read this book at the same time as The Food of France, by Waverly Root, and came to the same conclusion about both of them.............essential reading about the places, best digested in small bits here and there, not read cover to cover. Both from the library, so I'll buy both and enjoy them for years.
Both written in the late 50's, rich with Floretine and French history, art and food, sprinkled with tidbits many of us don't know about the history/culture/food/art of both places.
September 15, 2015
This book reads like a love letter to Florence. As such, I think it's better to read this after you have been there rather than before--it's not the first book to read to get to know Florence. It's a book you read to recognize the city you've been to.
Having said that, it's full of interesting details and stories. The chapters are loosely thematic. It is also full of confident statements about Florence, Florentines, art, history, and everything else. The experience of the past in Florence is immediate and simultaneous--she creates an aggregate rather than a linear narrative (which is hard for me, both because I don't really know all the history in order and also because I'm a historian and I like it linear).
Having said that, it's full of interesting details and stories. The chapters are loosely thematic. It is also full of confident statements about Florence, Florentines, art, history, and everything else. The experience of the past in Florence is immediate and simultaneous--she creates an aggregate rather than a linear narrative (which is hard for me, both because I don't really know all the history in order and also because I'm a historian and I like it linear).
December 9, 2018
This book is tells us almost as much about the author’s sometimes acerbic views as it does about Renaissance Florence. The art layout is great and the style of writing informative with witty asides on politics, personal details and pleasurable in its erudition.
The writer was a friend of Hannah Arendt, an unapologetic intellectual and a fighter for the truth.
The writer was a friend of Hannah Arendt, an unapologetic intellectual and a fighter for the truth.
April 19, 2016
What. A. Fabulous. Book. And. Story.
April 26, 2022
I was surprised that when I began reading this book, the first chapter portrayed Florence as repugnant and ugly. It was almost as if the author was intent on stripping away any romantic notions one might be holding about this city of art and history.
"Florence is a manly town, and the cities of art that appeal to the current sensibility are feminine, like Venice and Siena." pg.9
The author takes us through the checkered history of the city, the family feuds and political intrigues and the foibles of artists, popes, and politicians. She sprinkles in lots of quirky anecdotes, such as this one:
"...hell had been advertised, to take place at the Carraia bridge, in a theatre that was set up on boats in the river; there were flames, naked souls shrieking for mercy, master demons, devils with pitchforks. Overloaded with spectators who had crowded to see the performance, the bridge collapsed, and all, supposedly, were drowned, so that it was said afterward in Florence that those who had gone to see hell got what they were looking for." pg. 95
I wish I had read this in tandem with _The Agony and the Ecstasy _, because the panoply of characters could have been reinforced in my mind. I find the array of Italian names tends to get confusing! I did often stop and look up YouTube videos about the artistic works mentioned, which was supportive. It would have taken me a year to get through the book had I looked up every one!
After reading the tortured history of Florence, I had the same question I asked after reading the aforementioned _Agony and the Ecstasy _. Did the hardships and the trouble actually enhance the creation of art? How would the timeless masterpieces have been different if the artists hadn't had to contend with tensions of body and soul? Would they even have been created at all?
"Science, magic, art, ‘inspiration’ were curiously bound together in the Florentine Renaissance. A ‘break-through’ occurred here, on all fronts simultaneously, which did not have a parallel for five centuries. . ." pg. 100
This book was not an easy read. It covered so much ground, and so many disciplines, and such a pantheon of characters that it was dizzying. I probably only retain a small percentage of its content, but I am glad I plowed through. It's brilliant.
"Florence is a manly town, and the cities of art that appeal to the current sensibility are feminine, like Venice and Siena." pg.9
The author takes us through the checkered history of the city, the family feuds and political intrigues and the foibles of artists, popes, and politicians. She sprinkles in lots of quirky anecdotes, such as this one:
"...hell had been advertised, to take place at the Carraia bridge, in a theatre that was set up on boats in the river; there were flames, naked souls shrieking for mercy, master demons, devils with pitchforks. Overloaded with spectators who had crowded to see the performance, the bridge collapsed, and all, supposedly, were drowned, so that it was said afterward in Florence that those who had gone to see hell got what they were looking for." pg. 95
I wish I had read this in tandem with _The Agony and the Ecstasy _, because the panoply of characters could have been reinforced in my mind. I find the array of Italian names tends to get confusing! I did often stop and look up YouTube videos about the artistic works mentioned, which was supportive. It would have taken me a year to get through the book had I looked up every one!
After reading the tortured history of Florence, I had the same question I asked after reading the aforementioned _Agony and the Ecstasy _. Did the hardships and the trouble actually enhance the creation of art? How would the timeless masterpieces have been different if the artists hadn't had to contend with tensions of body and soul? Would they even have been created at all?
"Science, magic, art, ‘inspiration’ were curiously bound together in the Florentine Renaissance. A ‘break-through’ occurred here, on all fronts simultaneously, which did not have a parallel for five centuries. . ." pg. 100
This book was not an easy read. It covered so much ground, and so many disciplines, and such a pantheon of characters that it was dizzying. I probably only retain a small percentage of its content, but I am glad I plowed through. It's brilliant.
December 8, 2009
Bonito, interesante y entrañable libro en torno a Florencia y sus artistas renacentistas. No es un libro de historia, ni de arte; tal vez es superficial y algo caprichoso, pero se lee con placer y es un perfecto acompañamiento a un viaje por la maravillosa cuidad Toscana. El libro, de tono “menor”, cobra importancia gracias la trascendencia del puñado de personajes que convivieron en las calles de Florencia y que inventaron nada menos que el Renacimiento, tan decisivo en la Historia del Arte y de la Humanidad. El mayor mérito del libro consiste en acercar al lector no iniciado como yo a este maravilloso ámbito.
En mi caso, Piedras de Florencia me ha ayudado a disfrutar de la mágica Florencia, durante el maratoniano viaje de 2009. Y a volver a saborear (a recordar) su dimensión artística tras el viaje. Tal vez gracias a este libro permanecerán algún tiempo más en mi memoria Brunelleschi (Duomo y Capilla Pazzi en Santa Croce, Sacristía de San Lorenzo, Palacio Pitti), Fra Angelico (Anunciación en San Marcos), Donatello (Anunciación en Santa Croce), Miguel Angel (David), Masaccio (Trinidad en Santa María Novella), Giotto (Campanille, Cristo en Santa María Novella), Ghiberti (Baptisterio), Alberti (Santa María Novella), San Miniato... No es poca cosa, desde luego.
Además, el libro recoge alguna anécdota graciosa, como la memorable frase de Miguel Angel al escultor del Neptuno de la Piazza de la Signoria: Ammanato, Ammanato, che bel marmo hai rovinato.
En mi caso, Piedras de Florencia me ha ayudado a disfrutar de la mágica Florencia, durante el maratoniano viaje de 2009. Y a volver a saborear (a recordar) su dimensión artística tras el viaje. Tal vez gracias a este libro permanecerán algún tiempo más en mi memoria Brunelleschi (Duomo y Capilla Pazzi en Santa Croce, Sacristía de San Lorenzo, Palacio Pitti), Fra Angelico (Anunciación en San Marcos), Donatello (Anunciación en Santa Croce), Miguel Angel (David), Masaccio (Trinidad en Santa María Novella), Giotto (Campanille, Cristo en Santa María Novella), Ghiberti (Baptisterio), Alberti (Santa María Novella), San Miniato... No es poca cosa, desde luego.
Además, el libro recoge alguna anécdota graciosa, como la memorable frase de Miguel Angel al escultor del Neptuno de la Piazza de la Signoria: Ammanato, Ammanato, che bel marmo hai rovinato.
April 26, 2014
This is Mary McCarthy's better known companion travel book to her "Venice Observed." Both books are compilations of history, art, literature, politics and societal customs laced with the author's wry observations. Too overwhelming with minutiae and esoterica to serve as a guidebook. I nonetheless got a spirit of the place as she knew it once upon a time, and which may still resonate in the present.
March 26, 2025
this was my public transport book + not what i expected because for some reason i thought these would be personal essays in and around florence...but dare i say what i got was a million times better, these are some of the most attentive and well-written essays i've come across in a while. what a treat!
— “This republic never existed as a political fact but only as a longing, a poignant nostalgia for good government that broke out in poems and histories, architecture, painting, and sculpture. That view of a pink towered city in the background of early Florentine fresco (it soon became a white Renaissance city with classic architecture and sculpture) is the same as Dante’s vision and Machiavelli’s, the vision of an ideal city washed in the pure light of reason, even though Dante and Machiavelli, both moved by despair, looked to a Redeemer from above (an emperor or a prince) to come as a Messiah to save the actual city, just as Savonarola looked to Jesus and to a constitution modelled on that of Venice and the poor people of Florence looked to the angels.”
— “This republic never existed as a political fact but only as a longing, a poignant nostalgia for good government that broke out in poems and histories, architecture, painting, and sculpture. That view of a pink towered city in the background of early Florentine fresco (it soon became a white Renaissance city with classic architecture and sculpture) is the same as Dante’s vision and Machiavelli’s, the vision of an ideal city washed in the pure light of reason, even though Dante and Machiavelli, both moved by despair, looked to a Redeemer from above (an emperor or a prince) to come as a Messiah to save the actual city, just as Savonarola looked to Jesus and to a constitution modelled on that of Venice and the poor people of Florence looked to the angels.”
July 22, 2025
Somehow I recently found myself on TripAdvisor at 3am reading the collected posts of a bitchy old expat who refuses to suffer tourists in Florence. Nothing sets him off more than pleas for an itinerary to cram through the highlights in three days or less. “You can’t be serious,” he writes. “Please reconsider visiting if you can’t afford the time necessary to really revel in the place. A better fit might be an outlet mall back in the states.”
Amid all the gleeful shaming, he notes a few times that Mary McCarthy has the best stories about Florence, and though many of them will be familiar to those with some knowledge of the Italian renaissance, he’s probably right. Unhurried, rich with anecdote, and more than a little judgy, you can understand why he loves it and why you will too.
Amid all the gleeful shaming, he notes a few times that Mary McCarthy has the best stories about Florence, and though many of them will be familiar to those with some knowledge of the Italian renaissance, he’s probably right. Unhurried, rich with anecdote, and more than a little judgy, you can understand why he loves it and why you will too.
February 20, 2018
Intellectual history of Florence and its arts for the traveler up through 16th Century. Written with a panache that is usually missing from the "History" section of your typical Guidebook. I don't know if there is a "coffee table" edition of this book; reproductions of the paintings mentioned would have helped. If I ever spend any serious time in Tuscany (i.e. weeks/months) I would definitely consult this book again.
March 9, 2022
Travelogues written in the 1950s are not my usual cup of tea but this book was among those given to me by my well-read Tante Shirley whose eclectic literary tastes usually opened my eyes to books I would have otherwise overlooked. So thanks again, Tante S, for exposing me to a brilliant literary travelogue about a place I once visited briefly in my youth, primarily to see Michelangelo's David and the Slaves. I wish I had known then what I now know about Florence - its history, the important parts that art, architecture, and politics played in that history, and the way a skillful, erudite writer can weave these facts together to make a city come alive.
I have a feeling that what McCarthy wrote in 1959 was a snapshot in time of her experience with Florence. Yet I also feel that this book will arm any present or future traveler with a depth and breadth of knowledge that will enhance their experience of this fascinating city.
I have a feeling that what McCarthy wrote in 1959 was a snapshot in time of her experience with Florence. Yet I also feel that this book will arm any present or future traveler with a depth and breadth of knowledge that will enhance their experience of this fascinating city.
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June 16, 2025A fascinating read about my favorite city. I certainly could not have appreciated this book the way I did if I hadn’t learned and studied in Florence for 3 months. McCarthys knowledge of Florentine history summarizes the names and places I became so familiar with. I feel so lucky to have such a deep familiarity and knowledge of Florence, to be able to deeply connect with the mentions of a specific statue in a museum I was able to draw in my sketchbook class and even to identify exactly where the cover photo was taken. My heart is tied to the city of Florence, and to know it so deeply-the art, history, architecture, etc is very special.
June 14, 2022
Book 3 read while trying to finish Moby Dick
July 1, 2016
McCarthy's essays wind with acerbic style through Florentine history, bringing to fore the city's renaissance past against the background of her writing's present (1959). The opening essay offers ample reason to hate contemporary Florence, to want never to go there; while 2016 Florence seems much more comfortable than 1959 Florence, McCarthy's criticisms of the city make the place somehow more magical, and by essay's end one wants to spend as much time in the noisy, tumultuous city as possible. And this is a great magic trick permitted by McCarthy's style, swift and elegant, and her great cultivation--she handles excellently every topic, from the art to the most peripheral questions of Tuscan politics, that churns out of her broad, smartly tangential essays. For the visitor, there's no need to pick up a Baedeker, though one will want a map of the city. For the dreamer, though, McCarthy's book is without flaw, and this lover of the city can think of no better way to revisit his favorite Italian town without suffering those long-distance flights.
April 23, 2015
Mary McCarthy's book first published in 1956 regards Florence, Italy. The first chapter seemingly disparages Florence and asks in essence, why would one want to visit Florence while only providing discouragement to do so. However, remarkably, by the end of the book I found myself quite excited and looking forward to my upcoming visit to Florence, Italy. The way that Mary McCarthy talks about Florence is rather like having coffee with her and hearing her go a and on about this and that covering the various ages, artists , architect, the Medicis and etc.…with a lot of interesting insight and stories but all the while she is assuming I know more than I do about Florence. I did not have a foundation for a lot of which she spoke and that made me do some independent research so to get a bit more up to speed. Once one has some knowledge foundation, there are a lot of interesting orts that might not be as easily or entertainingly found elsewhere.
January 13, 2016
A hatchet job
We live in Florence half of the year and it is clear that McCarthy is blind when she trashes what to us is the jewel of the Renaissance. It made me sick to read her continuous fault finding. She has virtually nothing good to say about Florence and as a guide to understanding the city she totally fails to offer anything of value. Don't waste your time or money on this hatchet job.
We live in Florence half of the year and it is clear that McCarthy is blind when she trashes what to us is the jewel of the Renaissance. It made me sick to read her continuous fault finding. She has virtually nothing good to say about Florence and as a guide to understanding the city she totally fails to offer anything of value. Don't waste your time or money on this hatchet job.
August 14, 2016
This book has been described as a love letter to Florence and that is very accurate. Delves into the Florentine mindset of yesterday and today - political, artistic, physical, philosophical. Lots of verbal descriptions and scene settings. Would have really loved this book if it had included pictures of the many paintings and architecture included in the text.
April 2, 2015
Ni guide touristique efficace (car trop peu organisée et sans structure) ni essai holistique « Stones of Florence » se place entre deux chaises en mettant bien trop d’informations historiques sur trop peu de place. Une déclaration d’amour à l’une des plus belles villes du monde, certes, mais une déclaration mal exécutée.
July 10, 2009
If you haven't been to Florence, don't let Mary McCarthy's first chapter dissuade you. Once you're beyond it, McCarthy will give you a sound history lesson of the city and will prepare you for its wonders, the palaces, churches, gardens, the Arno, myths about Florence and more.
January 25, 2011
I liked learning stories surrounding the art and architecture of Florence with only minimal references to the politics and torture. Home to the Duomo. I must someday see the work of Brunelleschi, Giotto, Ghiberti, Uccello, etc.
January 11, 2013
Have a pen and paper nearby to take notes when you read this wonderful book about Florence, Italy. Ms. McCarthy really gives Florence its own personality and voice--a must read for any one who has been and is going back to that great city.
April 13, 2013
"The eternal Florentine has no need to be sentimental about the past, which does not seem remote but as near and indifferently real as the clock on the tower Palazzo Vecchio to the housewife who pits her head out the window to time her spaghetti by it".
August 25, 2014
Interesting and fascinating cultural and social history of this city i will be visiting in a few weeks. at times i found it hard to follow who was allied with whom and who were sworn enemies. Yet again, it is Italy, isn't it? Well written in a narrative style.
November 13, 2014
I loved this book. Highly literate, engaging, flowing prose, and a sense of humor. What's not to like?
It's worth noting that this is *not* a guidebook. It's *not* organized - more like sprawling observations about the history of a city the author loves.
It's worth noting that this is *not* a guidebook. It's *not* organized - more like sprawling observations about the history of a city the author loves.
September 11, 2016
Some parts are interesting, but on the whole, it drags. I also think that because it is so dated, some parts do not ring true. Worth a quick read before a trip to Florence, if for nothing else, another reference for historical background.
April 5, 2010
THE book to read when you're heading to Florence. It lightly treads on all history, culture, and even the fundamental meaning of being Florentine. A must read!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews