Naples: A Traveller's Reader

by Desmond Seward

Many Italian cities look back with pride to the days when they were independent republics: Naples, on the contrary, remembers its days as a royal capital, the brilliant administrative and political centre of The Kingdom of The Two Sicilies, ruled over successively by the house of Anjou, Aragon and Bourbon. Once 'the third city of Europe', today it is one of the least visited of the continent's great cities. The same bustling lively atmosphere and magnificent buildings that one finds in Paris or London exist here.

This book is a topographical anthology which recreates for today's tourist the drama, the history and the life of a city in buildings and locations that still exist today. An indispensable companion, it brings the past of Naples vividly to life for the traveller of the present. Extracts from chronicles, memoirs, biographies, letters and novels refer to the most important and beautiful buildings in and around Naples, as well as the lives of travellers to and residents of this famous city.

This is a guide to the vanished glories of royal Naples: the departure of the Borbone King Francis II in 1860 as the Risorgimento movement brought about unification of Italy. It records the turbulent and bloodstained days of the Angevin Queens Giovanna I and II, and the revolt led by the young fisherman Masaniello; the artistic life of the city that Petrarch knew, where Caravaggio, Ribera and Giordano painted, and which attracted such diverse visitors as Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Casanova, Goethe, Mozart, John Evelyn and Angelica Kauffman among countless others. The dazzling world of the royalty - their palaces overlooking the legendarily beautiful Bay of Naples, their court balls and ceremonies - is described as well as the pulsing, overcrowded slums of the Spanish quarter and the seafront with its tarantella-dancers, iced-melon vendors, pickpockets and throbbing Neopolitan songs.

Naples is still, as it always has been, a city of challenging contrasts: sunlight and squalor, grandeur and decay, gaiety and despair. Its slums and its crime-rate have deterred many, but those who persist will discover, through this illuminating guide, the hidden glories of this famous city.

Genres: Travel, Italy

320 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Desmond Seward was an Anglo-Irish popular historian and the author of over two dozen books. He was educated at Ampleforth and St, Catherine's College, Cambridge. He was a specialist in England and France in the Middle Ages and the author of some thirty books, including biographies of Eleanor of Aquitane, Henry V, Richard III, Marie Antoinette and Metternich.

Reviews

[The Contented · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially I found the travel book on Naples hard going, having read little of that particular genre. Reaching the end though is like saying goodbye to a friend. I enjoyed this more than I expected:


‘During the last forty years the population increased by a quarter.
There was a wealth of public buildings, of good roads, aqueducts, ware-houses, free hospitals, bridges of stone, brick or iron, arsenals, arms factories, barracks, foundries, high schools, academies, universities, churches, royal palaces, convents, monasteries, harbours, docks, shipping, fortresses, prisons, orphanages, flourishing industries, scientific farming, prize herds, reclaimed marshes, reservoirs, rivers harnessed for irrigation, botanical gardens, pawnshops, corn exchanges, stock markets and finance houses, freeports, arts and crafts institutes, funded charities, savings banks, insurance agencies, shipping brokers, merchant banks, railways, electric and submarine telegraphs, and every other amenity of civilized life. As for crime, murder was rare. Paupers were few and hunger practically unknown, since there was provision by religious, private, municipal and government charities. There was no paper money, only gold and silver. Taxes were light and expenses small
- one lived very well on a modest income. Work was plentiful, prices low and holidays many. There was respect for the gentry, for the law, for authority, safety and order for everyone everywhere’

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of different perspectives on Naples from the 1200s to the 1800s. Can’t wait to read it again … in Naples itself.

[Rebecca Clarence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading historical writings across the centuries and from varying perspectives is really the best way to understand Naples and it’s history - a pity I did not read it before I went but having been, the way of describing the places I’d seen through various historiographical writings was truly fascinating! I will take this book with me again the next time I visit this wonderful, lively city.

[Liam J · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️. Of more interest after I had been in Naples.

[reveurdart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for research. I didn't expect how useful this book would turn out to be, but I should have known; reading Italians in their own words, throughout history, is always a very enriching experience I find. I would read this again in a heartbeat. Highly recommended.