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The Ancient City
This is a reproduction of a historical pair of stories written about a visit to Saint Augustine. It has nearly 30 drawings of the city and it's inhabitants circa 1874.
110 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 10, 2016
About the author
Constance Fenimore Woolson
199 books40 followersConstance Fenimore Woolson (March 5, 1840 – January 24, 1894) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. She was a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, and is best known for fictions about the Great Lakes region, the American South, and American expatriates in Europe.
Woolson was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, but her family soon moved to Cleveland, Ohio, after the deaths of three of her sisters from scarlet fever. Woolson was educated at the Cleveland Female Seminary and a boarding school in New York. She traveled extensively through the midwest and northeastern regions of the U.S. during her childhood and young adulthood.
Woolson’s father died in 1869. The following year she began to publish fiction and essays in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine. Her first full-length publication was a children’s book, The Old Stone House (1873). In 1875 she published her first volume of short stories, Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, based on her experiences in the Great Lakes region, especially Mackinac Island.
From 1873 to 1879 Woolson spent winters with her mother in St. Augustine, Florida. During these visits she traveled widely in the South which gave her material for her next collection of short stories, Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches (1880). After her mother’s death in 1879, Woolson went to Europe, staying at a succession of hotels in England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
Woolson published her first novel Anne in 1880, followed by three others: East Angels (1886), Jupiter Lights (1889) and Horace Chase (1894). In 1883 she published the novella For the Major, a story of the postwar South that has become one of her most respected fictions. In the winter of 1889–1890 she traveled to Egypt and Greece, which resulted in a collection of travel sketches, Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (published posthumously in 1896).
In 1893 Woolson rented an elegant apartment on the Grand Canal of Venice. Suffering from influenza and depression, she either jumped or fell to her death from a window in the apartment in January 1894. Two volumes of her short stories appeared after her death: The Front Yard and Other Italian Stories (1895) and Dorothy and Other Italian Stories (1896). She is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, and is memorialized by Anne's Tablet on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
Woolson’s short stories have long been regarded as pioneering examples of local color or regionalism. Today, Woolson's novels, short stories, poetry, and travelogues are studied and taught from a range of scholarly and critical perspectives, including feminist, psychoanalytic, gender studies, postcolonial, and new historicism.
(from Wikipedia)
Woolson was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, but her family soon moved to Cleveland, Ohio, after the deaths of three of her sisters from scarlet fever. Woolson was educated at the Cleveland Female Seminary and a boarding school in New York. She traveled extensively through the midwest and northeastern regions of the U.S. during her childhood and young adulthood.
Woolson’s father died in 1869. The following year she began to publish fiction and essays in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine. Her first full-length publication was a children’s book, The Old Stone House (1873). In 1875 she published her first volume of short stories, Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, based on her experiences in the Great Lakes region, especially Mackinac Island.
From 1873 to 1879 Woolson spent winters with her mother in St. Augustine, Florida. During these visits she traveled widely in the South which gave her material for her next collection of short stories, Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches (1880). After her mother’s death in 1879, Woolson went to Europe, staying at a succession of hotels in England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
Woolson published her first novel Anne in 1880, followed by three others: East Angels (1886), Jupiter Lights (1889) and Horace Chase (1894). In 1883 she published the novella For the Major, a story of the postwar South that has become one of her most respected fictions. In the winter of 1889–1890 she traveled to Egypt and Greece, which resulted in a collection of travel sketches, Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (published posthumously in 1896).
In 1893 Woolson rented an elegant apartment on the Grand Canal of Venice. Suffering from influenza and depression, she either jumped or fell to her death from a window in the apartment in January 1894. Two volumes of her short stories appeared after her death: The Front Yard and Other Italian Stories (1895) and Dorothy and Other Italian Stories (1896). She is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, and is memorialized by Anne's Tablet on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
Woolson’s short stories have long been regarded as pioneering examples of local color or regionalism. Today, Woolson's novels, short stories, poetry, and travelogues are studied and taught from a range of scholarly and critical perspectives, including feminist, psychoanalytic, gender studies, postcolonial, and new historicism.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 8, 2023
This “travel” book was written by Woolson in 1874 when she was thirty-four years old. A few years ago I read her Mentone, Cairo, and Corfu, another “travel” book, that one published in 1895 when she was fifty-five. I included quotation marks around “travel” in both cases because although describing travels and without naming herself, she appears to be the character telling the story and describing her fellow leisure class travelers. I believe both books were written for women’s magazines or travel magazines of the time. The type of treatment she gives the other characters makes them appear fictional in both books.
The travels in The Ancient City take place in St. Augustine Florida circa 1874 and are pleasant enough to read, describe the area in a light manner and soak up a little Florida sunshine in the early days of leisure travel there. I remember thinking the 1895 book, Mentone, Cairo, and Corfu was more polished and could imagine her using the characters in novels or short stories.
The travels in The Ancient City take place in St. Augustine Florida circa 1874 and are pleasant enough to read, describe the area in a light manner and soak up a little Florida sunshine in the early days of leisure travel there. I remember thinking the 1895 book, Mentone, Cairo, and Corfu was more polished and could imagine her using the characters in novels or short stories.
May 15, 2018
After finishing Woolson’s short stories set in St. Augustine, Florida, I was reminded of the existence of this hybrid piece, also set in the "ancient city". I suppose it wasn’t unusual at the time for a travel writer to effect a fictional persona for a nonfictional work (Dickens, for one, did it) but here the story is even more of a ‘story’ with various characters of various ages interacting, the men smitten with a beautiful young girl and an ‘older’ woman sheltering a secret sorrow.
Through conversation the ‘historical’ information for future tourists is charmingly told, as well as some of it humorously debunked. As did Woolson, her first-person narrator goes off the beaten path to talk with the proud Minorcan and freedmen populations. Woolson allows them to speak their own truths, in direct contradiction to what was being said about them by white Northern visitors.
I imagine this as a transitional piece, a bridge between Woolson’s earlier travel pieces (which I haven’t read) and the fiction for which she would shortly become famous (in her lifetime). Some of it—including the ‘dancing’ crane Woolson also encountered in real life—eventually found its way, more developed, into the aforementioned short stories, as well as into East Angels.
Through conversation the ‘historical’ information for future tourists is charmingly told, as well as some of it humorously debunked. As did Woolson, her first-person narrator goes off the beaten path to talk with the proud Minorcan and freedmen populations. Woolson allows them to speak their own truths, in direct contradiction to what was being said about them by white Northern visitors.
I imagine this as a transitional piece, a bridge between Woolson’s earlier travel pieces (which I haven’t read) and the fiction for which she would shortly become famous (in her lifetime). Some of it—including the ‘dancing’ crane Woolson also encountered in real life—eventually found its way, more developed, into the aforementioned short stories, as well as into East Angels.
January 9, 2026
This was (mostly) an enjoyable read. I love how it's a tongue-in-cheek travelogue, making fun of the things that tourists usually ooh and ahh over at a destination yet at the same time giving readers interesting and descriptive tidbits about the area. The characters are well-drawn and unique, and seeing St. Augustine from their perspective really brought the past to life. A light-hearted plot carries readers along at a good pace. I'm fascinated with this city, so this story provided valuable history. Of course, being written when it was (about ten years after the Civil War), it's a product of its time, so I didn't like how minorities were presented, but it provides valuable historical perspective even though it's frustrating to read.
All in all, I enjoyed my first foray into Constance Fenimore Woolson's writing and want to read more by her!
All in all, I enjoyed my first foray into Constance Fenimore Woolson's writing and want to read more by her!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews