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Paradise of Cities : Venice and Its Nineteenth-Century Visitors
The city of Venice through the eyes of nineteenth century visitors. For this portrait of Venice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Lord Norwich has abandoned the historical approach, preferring to look at the city through the eyes of the most distinguished of its foreign visitors or residents. Beginning with Napoleon with, perhaps, the most mysterious of all his mistresses we continue with Byron, who cut his usual swathe among the feminine population while embarking on the last great affair of his life. Ruskin, Browning, Wagner and Henry James are among the others who for a longer or shorter time made the city their own, together with the two great Anglo-American painters James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. The survey ends with the insufferable Baron Corvo , who poisoned the life of the British colony in Venice in the years immediately before the First World War. John Julius Norwich has long been the foremost authority on Venice and in Paradise of Cities he confirms his reputation as an unparalleled historical storyteller. His book will delight and fascinate all lovers of this remarkable city.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
19 people are currently reading
396 people want to read
About the author
John Julius Norwich
155 books674 followersJohn Julius Norwich was an English historian, writer, and broadcaster known for his engaging books on European history and culture. The son of diplomat and politician Duff Cooper and socialite Lady Diana Manners, he received an elite education at Eton, Strasbourg, and Oxford, and served in the Foreign Service before dedicating himself to writing full-time.
He authored acclaimed works on Norman Sicily, Venice, Byzantium, the Mediterranean, and the Papacy, as well as popular anthologies like Christmas Crackers. He was also a familiar voice and face in British media, presenting numerous television documentaries and radio programs. A champion of cultural heritage, he supported causes such as the Venice in Peril Fund and the World Monuments Fund.
Norwich’s wide-ranging output, wit, and accessible style made him a beloved figure in historical writing.
He authored acclaimed works on Norman Sicily, Venice, Byzantium, the Mediterranean, and the Papacy, as well as popular anthologies like Christmas Crackers. He was also a familiar voice and face in British media, presenting numerous television documentaries and radio programs. A champion of cultural heritage, he supported causes such as the Venice in Peril Fund and the World Monuments Fund.
Norwich’s wide-ranging output, wit, and accessible style made him a beloved figure in historical writing.
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October 25, 2025
John Julius Norwich Tells The History Of Venice From The Perspectives Of The Nineteenth Century's Most Iconic Artists, Poets, & Writers.
John Julius Norwich concludes his sweeping chronicle on the epic past of what is possibly the Adriatic Sea's most shining jewel, A History of Venice, on a somewhat melancholy note - with its unconditional surrender to the troops who would eventually become the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte, thus ending the War of the First Coalition with Austria assuming sovereignty of the former Serenissima as part of the terms of the Peace of Leoben in 1797. It is during that fateful year that the sequel, Paradise of Cities: Venice in the Nineteenth Century, resumes the narrative in a wonderfully vivid cultural & political history of one of the most timeless & breathtaking of European cities, viewed from the perspectives of the nineteenth century's most iconic artists, poets, & writers.
John Julius chose an interesting format for his continuation of the famous lagoon city's storied history - each of its twelve chapters, with the exception of the first & the sixth, is written from the perspective of a different historical figure. The individuals themselves were literary, cultural, or political giants of their day - Napoleon Bonaparte, who established a French empire to rival the Habsburgs of Austria, but ended his days in exile on the isle of Saint Helena; Lord Byron, the renowned English poet & translator, whose travels took him to Venice, where he found both romance & the inspiration to compose portions of his most famous poems, such as Childe Harold, & Don Juan; the famous English polymath John Ruskin journeyed to the lagoon with his wife, Euphemia Gray, in 1847, where he conducted research for his three-volume treatise on art & architecture, The Stones of Venice, which was also an intelligent political & social commentary.
The introduction begins with the author's straightforward explanation for continuing Venice's story by writing this resumption to an already-outstanding literary work - "It may well be considered that I have written enough about Venice. After two volumes of history, one anthology, and heaven knows how many articles, the appearance of yet another work on the subject will quite possibly be received with something like dismay. My excuse is, first, that I love the place so much that I can't really resist writing about it; second, to advance the story." Venice adapted to Austrian occupation in the years which followed Napoleon's takeover, becoming even more of a cultural & artistic safe haven for many Europeans who were in need of the solace it provided.
Norwich provides eloquent exposition on just what it was during the nineteenth century that made Venice such an attractive location - "Then, even more than today, Venice offered respite from the outside world. It was a city in which the pace of life was slower; geared either to the amble of the pedestrian or to the glide of a gondola; in which the sun shone, if not all the time, at least far more often than in more northern latitudes; and in which beauty was to be found on every side...For the rest of us - and I include not only the subjects of the following chapters but the Bronsons and the Curtises, W.D. Howells and James Fenimore Cooper, Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner, and countless others - Venice has been a tonic and an inspiration, an indispensable element in our lives. Hence this book."
The French emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte's first & only Venetian sojourn occurred in winter of the year 1807, & lasted from Sunday, 29 November to Tuesday, 8 December, his long-anticipated arrival unfolding in the midst of cold, rainy weather, after night had fallen on the lagoonal island metropolis. Napoleon had formally adopted & made Viceroy his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, & the previous year he had also appointed him Prince of Venice as part of his newly formed sovereign state, the Kingdom of Italy. Bonaparte spent a considerable amount of time ordering the strengthening Venetian defenses & the demolition of buildings to accommodate various projects he had planned for his engineers to undertake at a later date. He ordered reinforced the Venetian murazzi, a bastion of partially submerged, seaborne fortifications stretching from the island of Pellestrina to the stronghold at Chioggia, giving direction for the canals to be cleaned & the walls repaired, & four religious buildings were to be sacrificed to give the city its first public park on the Via Eugenia. The French emperor's eventful visit is explored in full in Chapter 2, Napoleon [1807].
Chapter 3, Byron [1817-1819] is an accounting which chronicles the approximately two-year visit to Venice of the English poet & writer George Gordon, a.k.a. Lord Byron, & the various literary & romantic endeavors he pursued during this time. The section unfolds in a series of short narrative sequences augmented by excerpts of Byron & his friends' correspondence to one another, detailing the lively historical personalities the poet acquaints himself with, such as the Countess Teresa Guiccioli, his main romantic interest & an intelligent young noblewoman married to an elderly count from Ravenna, Alessandro Guiccioli, & Percy Bysshe Shelley, another renowned English poet & the husband of the famous English writer, Mary Wollstencraft Shelley. During his Venetian repose Lord Byron completed work on 126 stanzas in the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, also finishing a verse drama, Manfred, that he had started writing while in Switzerland. This chapter is rich in atmosphere & setting, & the reader can almost imagine themselves in opulent locations such as the Hotel of Great Britain on the city's great canal, & taking part in the Countess Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi's elegant conversazioni at her luxurious Venetian palazzo.
The next section, Chapter 4, Ruskin [1849-1888], canvasses the life & work of the famed English art historian, John Ruskin, whose three-volume history of Venetian architecture, The Stones of Venice, explored the lagoon city's architectural past through what he classified as three different periods - Byzantine, Gothic, & Renaissance. Excerpts from it appear throughout the chapter & provide insight on Ruskin's writing style & the social commentary which underlies much of the work. The writer first journeyed to Venice in November 1849 with his wife, Euphemia, & it was during the cold winter months that he conducted the majority of his research, supplementing it with painstaking sketches & daguerreotype photographs of Venetian buildings & architecture. Norwich provides a number of interesting excerpts from The Stones of Venice, as well as Ruskin's other art-themed writings in this chapter, speaking to his eccentric views & opinions on Byzantine & Gothic architecture, architectural restoration, also his appraisals of Venetian landmarks such as St. Mark's Cathedral & the Doge's Palace.
The lives & literary careers of the English antiquarian Rawdon Brown & Scottish historian Horatio Brown are explored in Chapter 5, The Browns [1833-1926]. Rawdon Brown was an English resident of Venice for over fifty years, & according to Norwich his "most readable work" was published in 1854, Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII, a Selection of Despatches Written by the Venetian Ambassador, Sebastian Giustinian, and Addressed to the Signory of Venice, January 12th 1515, to July 26th 1519. John Julius also outlines Rawdon's daily routine of taking a walk, writing utensils at the ready, his destination one of a trio of Venetian scholarly repositories, & dedicating four or five hours toward the fulfillment of his latest literary endeavor. Horatio Brown took over Rawdon's projects in the years following his death in 1883, & he also was a close friend of the English historian & literary critic, John Addington Symonds, who has a portion of the chapter dedicated to his own life & literary studies. Horatio Brown spent much of his career working on various Venetian historical projects, among them, Life on the Lagoons in 1883, Venetian Studies in 1887, & Venice, an Historical Sketch in 1893.
Award-winning German composer Richard Wagner journeyed to Venice in search of a tranquil setting where he could compose his music & in his later years to alleviate his increasingly ailing health for which the mild Venetian climate seemed to be the only balm. He writes to his wife, Wilhelmine Planer, in the fall of 1854 - "..This town is exceedingly interesting, & the actual stillness - one never hears a carriage - is indispensable to me. I receive no visitors, and hope to live here totally withdrawn into myself." While staying in Venice at the Palazzo Giustinian in 1858, Wagner completed Act II of Tristan, & between 1876 & 1882 he & his family made numerous trips to Italy, which included visits to Bologna, Naples, Rome, Siena, Sorrento, & Venice - it was during one of these extended Italian holidays that he composed the majority of his final opera, Parsifal. Richard Wagner's fascinating experiences in Venice are discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 7, Wagner [1858-1883].
The English poet Robert Browning did not fall in love with Venice at first sight, as the saying goes - he gradually grew to love the famed city of the canals, first traveling to it in 1838, & then once again in 1851. He returned to Venice in his later years with his family in the fall of 1885, lodging at the Giustinian-Recanati before he unsuccessfully tried purchasing the Palazzo Contarini del Zaffo, following a cholera outbreak the previous year. Browning's son Pen was destined to become a professional painter - the pair found common ground in their love for Venice, & in 1887 when Pen became engaged at the age of thirty-five to a woman named Fannie Coddington, the aging poet was overjoyed at seeing his wayward son at last find happiness. Pen soon began a spirited renovation effort of the Cà Rezzonico, which saw completion in 1889, & upon finally visiting it Robert expressed his astonishment at his son's newfound creative talents in a letter Norwich cites at the end of this section. The elder Browning would spend his last months at the Cà Rezzonico, where he died on 12 December 1889, aged 77, from complications arising from a cough he had contracted only days earlier. All of this material is covered in Chapter 9, Robert Browning [1838-1889].
Chapter 10, The Layards [1874-1912], chronicles the life & career of Austen Henry Layard, beginning with his early travels in the Middle East in the company of his close friend Edward Mitford. The pair journey to numerous culturally & archaeologically significant cities & sites in the region before parting ways, & Layard begins pursuing a career in archaeology. After working in the field for a number of years he publishes a pair of studies, Ninevah and Its Remains & Ninevah and Babylon. He eventually settled in Venice in 1860 after his career had ended & as early as six years later he befriends Dr. Antonio Salviati, "..who believed that the traditional Venetian skills of glass manufacture and mosaic were in danger of being forgotten and was determined to revive them before it was too late." The duo form a partnership which becomes the Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Co. Ltd. that begins producing Murano glass in large quantities, leading to an artistic revival that spreads to other European countries, mainly England & France.
The eccentric lives & professional careers of the renowned painters James McNeil Whistler & John Singer Sargent are explored vis à vis an ingenious amalgamation of narrative exposition, written correspondence, & artistic criticism in Chapter 11, Whistler and Sargent [1870-1913]. Born in Massachusetts, James Whistler studied etching at the U.S. Coastal Survey before leaving America to embark upon the path to the painter's profession in Paris, where he attended the Ecole Impériale with several English students who themselves became artists of some renown. He eventually came into the employ of London's Fine Art Society & found his way to Venice after he was contracted by the society to produce twelve etchings of the lagoon city. John Sargent was an acclaimed oil painter who first traveled to Venice at a young age with his parents, & upon reaching his majority, he studied in Paris for five years under the tutelage of Carolus Duran before returning to the city he adored at the age of twenty-two. Perhaps his most famous Venetian themed painting is An Interior in Venice, which depicts the Curtis family in their home reading & enjoying tea amidst elaborate furnishings.
Overall, John Julius Norwich's Paradise of Cities: Venice in the Nineteenth Century, is an outstanding work of narrative exposition which, while not written in the same style or format as its predecessor, still managed to hold this reviewer's interest despite the reduced amount of action, fewer impactful events & comparatively greater emphasis on literature & the arts. While it may benefit the reader to have read Norwich's first Venetian history to provide historical background, it is by no means necessary to do so in order to fully enjoy this book, which requires far less time to complete than A History of Venice. The title possesses a degree of artistic & literary mystique which admirably complements the reclusive lagoon city's illustrious reputation as a center for learning, culture, & style. It would make a worthwhile addition to anyone's historical library, & is highly recommended. Thank you so much for reading, I hope that you enjoyed the review!
John Julius Norwich concludes his sweeping chronicle on the epic past of what is possibly the Adriatic Sea's most shining jewel, A History of Venice, on a somewhat melancholy note - with its unconditional surrender to the troops who would eventually become the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte, thus ending the War of the First Coalition with Austria assuming sovereignty of the former Serenissima as part of the terms of the Peace of Leoben in 1797. It is during that fateful year that the sequel, Paradise of Cities: Venice in the Nineteenth Century, resumes the narrative in a wonderfully vivid cultural & political history of one of the most timeless & breathtaking of European cities, viewed from the perspectives of the nineteenth century's most iconic artists, poets, & writers.
John Julius chose an interesting format for his continuation of the famous lagoon city's storied history - each of its twelve chapters, with the exception of the first & the sixth, is written from the perspective of a different historical figure. The individuals themselves were literary, cultural, or political giants of their day - Napoleon Bonaparte, who established a French empire to rival the Habsburgs of Austria, but ended his days in exile on the isle of Saint Helena; Lord Byron, the renowned English poet & translator, whose travels took him to Venice, where he found both romance & the inspiration to compose portions of his most famous poems, such as Childe Harold, & Don Juan; the famous English polymath John Ruskin journeyed to the lagoon with his wife, Euphemia Gray, in 1847, where he conducted research for his three-volume treatise on art & architecture, The Stones of Venice, which was also an intelligent political & social commentary.
The introduction begins with the author's straightforward explanation for continuing Venice's story by writing this resumption to an already-outstanding literary work - "It may well be considered that I have written enough about Venice. After two volumes of history, one anthology, and heaven knows how many articles, the appearance of yet another work on the subject will quite possibly be received with something like dismay. My excuse is, first, that I love the place so much that I can't really resist writing about it; second, to advance the story." Venice adapted to Austrian occupation in the years which followed Napoleon's takeover, becoming even more of a cultural & artistic safe haven for many Europeans who were in need of the solace it provided.
Norwich provides eloquent exposition on just what it was during the nineteenth century that made Venice such an attractive location - "Then, even more than today, Venice offered respite from the outside world. It was a city in which the pace of life was slower; geared either to the amble of the pedestrian or to the glide of a gondola; in which the sun shone, if not all the time, at least far more often than in more northern latitudes; and in which beauty was to be found on every side...For the rest of us - and I include not only the subjects of the following chapters but the Bronsons and the Curtises, W.D. Howells and James Fenimore Cooper, Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner, and countless others - Venice has been a tonic and an inspiration, an indispensable element in our lives. Hence this book."
The French emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte's first & only Venetian sojourn occurred in winter of the year 1807, & lasted from Sunday, 29 November to Tuesday, 8 December, his long-anticipated arrival unfolding in the midst of cold, rainy weather, after night had fallen on the lagoonal island metropolis. Napoleon had formally adopted & made Viceroy his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, & the previous year he had also appointed him Prince of Venice as part of his newly formed sovereign state, the Kingdom of Italy. Bonaparte spent a considerable amount of time ordering the strengthening Venetian defenses & the demolition of buildings to accommodate various projects he had planned for his engineers to undertake at a later date. He ordered reinforced the Venetian murazzi, a bastion of partially submerged, seaborne fortifications stretching from the island of Pellestrina to the stronghold at Chioggia, giving direction for the canals to be cleaned & the walls repaired, & four religious buildings were to be sacrificed to give the city its first public park on the Via Eugenia. The French emperor's eventful visit is explored in full in Chapter 2, Napoleon [1807].
Chapter 3, Byron [1817-1819] is an accounting which chronicles the approximately two-year visit to Venice of the English poet & writer George Gordon, a.k.a. Lord Byron, & the various literary & romantic endeavors he pursued during this time. The section unfolds in a series of short narrative sequences augmented by excerpts of Byron & his friends' correspondence to one another, detailing the lively historical personalities the poet acquaints himself with, such as the Countess Teresa Guiccioli, his main romantic interest & an intelligent young noblewoman married to an elderly count from Ravenna, Alessandro Guiccioli, & Percy Bysshe Shelley, another renowned English poet & the husband of the famous English writer, Mary Wollstencraft Shelley. During his Venetian repose Lord Byron completed work on 126 stanzas in the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, also finishing a verse drama, Manfred, that he had started writing while in Switzerland. This chapter is rich in atmosphere & setting, & the reader can almost imagine themselves in opulent locations such as the Hotel of Great Britain on the city's great canal, & taking part in the Countess Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi's elegant conversazioni at her luxurious Venetian palazzo.
The next section, Chapter 4, Ruskin [1849-1888], canvasses the life & work of the famed English art historian, John Ruskin, whose three-volume history of Venetian architecture, The Stones of Venice, explored the lagoon city's architectural past through what he classified as three different periods - Byzantine, Gothic, & Renaissance. Excerpts from it appear throughout the chapter & provide insight on Ruskin's writing style & the social commentary which underlies much of the work. The writer first journeyed to Venice in November 1849 with his wife, Euphemia, & it was during the cold winter months that he conducted the majority of his research, supplementing it with painstaking sketches & daguerreotype photographs of Venetian buildings & architecture. Norwich provides a number of interesting excerpts from The Stones of Venice, as well as Ruskin's other art-themed writings in this chapter, speaking to his eccentric views & opinions on Byzantine & Gothic architecture, architectural restoration, also his appraisals of Venetian landmarks such as St. Mark's Cathedral & the Doge's Palace.
The lives & literary careers of the English antiquarian Rawdon Brown & Scottish historian Horatio Brown are explored in Chapter 5, The Browns [1833-1926]. Rawdon Brown was an English resident of Venice for over fifty years, & according to Norwich his "most readable work" was published in 1854, Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII, a Selection of Despatches Written by the Venetian Ambassador, Sebastian Giustinian, and Addressed to the Signory of Venice, January 12th 1515, to July 26th 1519. John Julius also outlines Rawdon's daily routine of taking a walk, writing utensils at the ready, his destination one of a trio of Venetian scholarly repositories, & dedicating four or five hours toward the fulfillment of his latest literary endeavor. Horatio Brown took over Rawdon's projects in the years following his death in 1883, & he also was a close friend of the English historian & literary critic, John Addington Symonds, who has a portion of the chapter dedicated to his own life & literary studies. Horatio Brown spent much of his career working on various Venetian historical projects, among them, Life on the Lagoons in 1883, Venetian Studies in 1887, & Venice, an Historical Sketch in 1893.
Award-winning German composer Richard Wagner journeyed to Venice in search of a tranquil setting where he could compose his music & in his later years to alleviate his increasingly ailing health for which the mild Venetian climate seemed to be the only balm. He writes to his wife, Wilhelmine Planer, in the fall of 1854 - "..This town is exceedingly interesting, & the actual stillness - one never hears a carriage - is indispensable to me. I receive no visitors, and hope to live here totally withdrawn into myself." While staying in Venice at the Palazzo Giustinian in 1858, Wagner completed Act II of Tristan, & between 1876 & 1882 he & his family made numerous trips to Italy, which included visits to Bologna, Naples, Rome, Siena, Sorrento, & Venice - it was during one of these extended Italian holidays that he composed the majority of his final opera, Parsifal. Richard Wagner's fascinating experiences in Venice are discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 7, Wagner [1858-1883].
The English poet Robert Browning did not fall in love with Venice at first sight, as the saying goes - he gradually grew to love the famed city of the canals, first traveling to it in 1838, & then once again in 1851. He returned to Venice in his later years with his family in the fall of 1885, lodging at the Giustinian-Recanati before he unsuccessfully tried purchasing the Palazzo Contarini del Zaffo, following a cholera outbreak the previous year. Browning's son Pen was destined to become a professional painter - the pair found common ground in their love for Venice, & in 1887 when Pen became engaged at the age of thirty-five to a woman named Fannie Coddington, the aging poet was overjoyed at seeing his wayward son at last find happiness. Pen soon began a spirited renovation effort of the Cà Rezzonico, which saw completion in 1889, & upon finally visiting it Robert expressed his astonishment at his son's newfound creative talents in a letter Norwich cites at the end of this section. The elder Browning would spend his last months at the Cà Rezzonico, where he died on 12 December 1889, aged 77, from complications arising from a cough he had contracted only days earlier. All of this material is covered in Chapter 9, Robert Browning [1838-1889].
Chapter 10, The Layards [1874-1912], chronicles the life & career of Austen Henry Layard, beginning with his early travels in the Middle East in the company of his close friend Edward Mitford. The pair journey to numerous culturally & archaeologically significant cities & sites in the region before parting ways, & Layard begins pursuing a career in archaeology. After working in the field for a number of years he publishes a pair of studies, Ninevah and Its Remains & Ninevah and Babylon. He eventually settled in Venice in 1860 after his career had ended & as early as six years later he befriends Dr. Antonio Salviati, "..who believed that the traditional Venetian skills of glass manufacture and mosaic were in danger of being forgotten and was determined to revive them before it was too late." The duo form a partnership which becomes the Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Co. Ltd. that begins producing Murano glass in large quantities, leading to an artistic revival that spreads to other European countries, mainly England & France.
The eccentric lives & professional careers of the renowned painters James McNeil Whistler & John Singer Sargent are explored vis à vis an ingenious amalgamation of narrative exposition, written correspondence, & artistic criticism in Chapter 11, Whistler and Sargent [1870-1913]. Born in Massachusetts, James Whistler studied etching at the U.S. Coastal Survey before leaving America to embark upon the path to the painter's profession in Paris, where he attended the Ecole Impériale with several English students who themselves became artists of some renown. He eventually came into the employ of London's Fine Art Society & found his way to Venice after he was contracted by the society to produce twelve etchings of the lagoon city. John Sargent was an acclaimed oil painter who first traveled to Venice at a young age with his parents, & upon reaching his majority, he studied in Paris for five years under the tutelage of Carolus Duran before returning to the city he adored at the age of twenty-two. Perhaps his most famous Venetian themed painting is An Interior in Venice, which depicts the Curtis family in their home reading & enjoying tea amidst elaborate furnishings.
Overall, John Julius Norwich's Paradise of Cities: Venice in the Nineteenth Century, is an outstanding work of narrative exposition which, while not written in the same style or format as its predecessor, still managed to hold this reviewer's interest despite the reduced amount of action, fewer impactful events & comparatively greater emphasis on literature & the arts. While it may benefit the reader to have read Norwich's first Venetian history to provide historical background, it is by no means necessary to do so in order to fully enjoy this book, which requires far less time to complete than A History of Venice. The title possesses a degree of artistic & literary mystique which admirably complements the reclusive lagoon city's illustrious reputation as a center for learning, culture, & style. It would make a worthwhile addition to anyone's historical library, & is highly recommended. Thank you so much for reading, I hope that you enjoyed the review!
January 19, 2025
Venetië in de 19e eeuw vanuit het perspectief van buitenlandse bezoekers. Zeker een keer afwisselend voor een geschiedenisboek/reisboek, maar het ging soms wel veel over de personages en de stad. Toevallig tegen het lijf gelopen in de kringloop en de negentiende eeuw is natuurlijk altijd spicy! Heb door dit boek ook wat leuke plaatsen (en anekdotes) ontdekt. Al met al prima!
February 20, 2021
Venice in the nineteenth century was a poor, sad shadow of what she had been …
Paradise of Cities serves as coda to historian John Julius Norwich’s multi-volume history of Venice, beginning with the submission of the city-state to Napoleon, through the fifty-year Austrian occupation, and on into its eventual absorption into the Italian nation in 1866. Norwich – who wryly observes in the preface that a straight political history of the city’s nineteenth century would be a task depressing – instead approaches the period through a series of vignettes: the city as seen through the eyes of some its more famous visitors and expatriate residents, including poets Byron and Browning, author Henry James, painters Whistler and Sargent, and composer Richard Wagner.
The book is replete with Norwich’s trademark erudition, chocked full of historical fact, eye-witness accounts and tantalizingly tidbits and oddities, along with the historian’s entertainingly dry wit that regularly cuts through any pretentions to stodgy pedagogy. Still … the tone of Paradise of Cities is a melancholy one. With the loss of its independence, its wealth, and stripped of many of its best objet d’arts, the fortunes of the Venetian cosmopolis are sadly faded through many of the years chronicled in this book, the marble bones of its palazzo bleaching on the shores of sea and lagoon, or as Norwich observes, less the living city and more a tourists’ museum.
The format of the book is enjoyable – the final chapter on the tortured curmudgeon Frederick Rolfe (a.k.a. Baron Corvo) is my favorite – but its non-linear nature makes it feel more like a shared universe of short stories than straightforward history. The most puzzling aspect of the book is actually some of its production choices. Venice is nothing else if not a city of geography and despite a wonderful selection of paintings, portraits, and antique city images, there’s no map! The physical format of the book is also graceful, with wide margins and little flourishes around page numbers and title headers, but the mouse-type used for Norwich’s (again trademark) copious footnoting was quite hard to read and gave this reader more than a bit of eye strain.
There no greater historian in my eyes than John Julius Norwich. I stumbled upon the first volume of his history of Byzantium in my last years of high school and still credit it as one of the main reasons I have a lifelong love of history -- the real-life, rather salacious tales of this unknown empire; its Emperor, his unbeatable general Belisarius, and their saucy wives; alongside clever councilor Procopius, trusted confidante who surreptitiously penned an immensely scandalous Secret History of his royal masters beneath their noses -- nothing short of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings so captivated my imagination in those formative years.
Paradise of Cities is not the great historian’s best book, but for serious lovers of history, it is well worth time’s investment.
December 13, 2024
3,5
Venetië door de ogen van bekende Britten en Amerikanen in de 19de eeuw. Best onderhoudend maar enkel met een Angelsaksische focus. Over hoe Venetianen de 19de eeuw en hun stad beleefden, komen we weinig te weten.
Venetië door de ogen van bekende Britten en Amerikanen in de 19de eeuw. Best onderhoudend maar enkel met een Angelsaksische focus. Over hoe Venetianen de 19de eeuw en hun stad beleefden, komen we weinig te weten.
January 5, 2018
This was Venice seen through the eyes of some of it's famous and not-so-famous 19th Century visitors, and it was a really great read. Of course Byron was there, he's so repulsively fascinating that he had to be, and so too was Henry James (one of the more tedious visitors).
The book started with Napoleon and a fascinating account of the time he spent there and was given the keys to the city. I loved the insights that this gave me into the Venetian view of their occupation and of their city too, it really set the scene. On we went to Ruskin. Dear heavens, like Byron he was repulsively fascinating, though of course not in the same way. I've had a biography of his poor wife Effie on my reading list for ages, and this bumped it up the queue. How could the man be both so obsessive so meticulous and so boring! On we went through the Revolution past Wagner and Browning, to Whistler and Sargent and then to another complete belter of a boor, a man I'd never heard of who called himself Corvo. This last snippet of a bio gave a real insight into the massive changes which Venetian society had gone through in the span of the 19th Century, and it left me quite sad.
I've never visited the city. I read this because I'm writing a romance set there, and it really helped with the ambiance. But it also opened up a city to me that I long to visit now, not as it is but a hundred years ago. If you're looking for your first book on Venice, I'd recommend Ackroyd's Pure City before this one, simply because it gives a breadth that this doesn't, and it gives you the city as a character in the way this book does. But as a gossipy companion, I'd highly recommend this book.
The book started with Napoleon and a fascinating account of the time he spent there and was given the keys to the city. I loved the insights that this gave me into the Venetian view of their occupation and of their city too, it really set the scene. On we went to Ruskin. Dear heavens, like Byron he was repulsively fascinating, though of course not in the same way. I've had a biography of his poor wife Effie on my reading list for ages, and this bumped it up the queue. How could the man be both so obsessive so meticulous and so boring! On we went through the Revolution past Wagner and Browning, to Whistler and Sargent and then to another complete belter of a boor, a man I'd never heard of who called himself Corvo. This last snippet of a bio gave a real insight into the massive changes which Venetian society had gone through in the span of the 19th Century, and it left me quite sad.
I've never visited the city. I read this because I'm writing a romance set there, and it really helped with the ambiance. But it also opened up a city to me that I long to visit now, not as it is but a hundred years ago. If you're looking for your first book on Venice, I'd recommend Ackroyd's Pure City before this one, simply because it gives a breadth that this doesn't, and it gives you the city as a character in the way this book does. But as a gossipy companion, I'd highly recommend this book.
October 26, 2017
I was torn between a 2 and a 3 for this one. It was perfectly readable (hence the 3) but it was really confused about what it was as a book (hence the 2). It wasn't really about Venice and veered away from Venice at times when Norwich got caught up in the life of one of his subjects. But it wasn't really about the people who lived, visited and worked in Venice either since the chapters were so brief as to be sometimes cursory.
November 10, 2025
Paradise of Cities: Venice and its Nineteenth-Century Visitors by John Julius Norwich
"So now, thank God, Venice is no longer a mere word to me, an empty name," Goethe wrote in his journal on his arrival in the city on September 28, 1786. Three days later, he's griping about how filthy the streets are, making unfavourable comparisons with Dutch towns and drawing up sanitary regulations for "an imaginary police inspector" who would impose order and discipline.
Never a serious contender for European Party Animal of the Year, Goethe made no allowance for the fact that Venice had spent the entire age of enlightenment out on the town for one of the longest - and , by all reports, best - jollies in recorded history. Nor could he know that it was only a decade away from the end of its millennium-long existence as an independent republic.
Within a decade those police inspectors, no longer imaginary, would arrive in the uniforms of the French under the command of a Corsican general whose accent and manner must have appalled the Venetian gentry almost as much as what he had to say. Meanwhile, the continental wars and the resulting British blockade cut off the supply of milords who had helped to finance the previous festivities by stopping off on the way home from their grand tours to pick up "a couple of Canaletto’s and a mild dose of the clap", as John Julius Norwich puts it. Virtually overnight, Venice was transformed into something even worse than Goethe's "empty name": the brand name for a wholly owned hospitality and leisure amenity of the French, Austrian and finally Italian states.
Norwich's A History of Venice, deservedly the standard one-volume work on the subject in English, ends with the humiliating but typically pragmatic surrender of the republic to Napoleon. From a political perspective there is little to add here, although due space is given to the infamous pillaging of the city's artistic treasures by the French. As counsel for the prosecution, Norwich elides the fact that the four bronze horses that stood over the west door of St Mark’s and came to symbolise the swag carted off to Paris, had originally been looted by the Venetians together with much else during the sack of Constantinople in 1204. (The horses have since been returned, but their original plinths now support pollution-proof replicas; as so often in Venice, historical ironies can sometimes feel a mite heavy-handed.)
There is also a good account of the heroic but doomed uprising of 1848, led by the Jewish convert Daniele Manin, but basically this period is an uninspiring subject for a historian of the "politics, treaties and wars" school, and Norwich knows it. He has therefore chosen to treat his subject in a series of episodes dealing with some of the eccentric expatriates who lived there, as well as a selection of the more or less eminent foreigners who checked into Veniceland from time to time: Byron, Ruskin, Wagner, Henry James, Robert Browning, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Frederick William "Fr" Rolfe aka Baron Corvo.
As always with this author, the writing is supremely readable and often witty. There are some interesting anecdotes that were new to me, such as the fact that Byron wrote a preface to an Armenian grammar compiled by one of the monks of San Lazzaro, reprinted here, which reveals the Romantic idol doing a very creditable pastiche of Edward Gibbon; or that in 1881 Browning and Wagner sat a few seats apart at the Teatro Rossini for a performance of Paisiello's The Barber of Seville ("a monster of peacock-like vanity", was RB's verdict on RW).
Nevertheless, there is a structural problem. Henry James remarked that while it was a great pleasure to write the word "Venice", there was a certain impudence in pretending to add anything to it, and most of these visitors' comments on the city do not rise much above the level of Robert Benchley's "Streets Flooded Please Advise", a gag that tells you everything you need to know about The New Yorker's idea of sophisticated humour but nothing you didn't already know about Venice.
At the risk of still greater impudence, it might perhaps have been hoped that Norwich would take this opportunity to remedy the one lacuna in his history of the city - the dimension of social and everyday life - but the Venetians themselves are largely absent except for walk-on parts as gondoliers, faded aristocrats and sex toys.
"The only impression I derived from the exquisite ruin of this wonderful city as far as human interest is concerned," wrote Wagner, "was that of a watering-place kept up for the benefit of visitors." Our own era has increased the number of visitors and depleted that of the inhabitants by several orders of magnitude, but the basic picture remains much the same: an ace hotel with quite a nice museum attached.
The Guardian Michael Dibdin 28 Jun 2003
"So now, thank God, Venice is no longer a mere word to me, an empty name," Goethe wrote in his journal on his arrival in the city on September 28, 1786. Three days later, he's griping about how filthy the streets are, making unfavourable comparisons with Dutch towns and drawing up sanitary regulations for "an imaginary police inspector" who would impose order and discipline.
Never a serious contender for European Party Animal of the Year, Goethe made no allowance for the fact that Venice had spent the entire age of enlightenment out on the town for one of the longest - and , by all reports, best - jollies in recorded history. Nor could he know that it was only a decade away from the end of its millennium-long existence as an independent republic.
Within a decade those police inspectors, no longer imaginary, would arrive in the uniforms of the French under the command of a Corsican general whose accent and manner must have appalled the Venetian gentry almost as much as what he had to say. Meanwhile, the continental wars and the resulting British blockade cut off the supply of milords who had helped to finance the previous festivities by stopping off on the way home from their grand tours to pick up "a couple of Canaletto’s and a mild dose of the clap", as John Julius Norwich puts it. Virtually overnight, Venice was transformed into something even worse than Goethe's "empty name": the brand name for a wholly owned hospitality and leisure amenity of the French, Austrian and finally Italian states.
Norwich's A History of Venice, deservedly the standard one-volume work on the subject in English, ends with the humiliating but typically pragmatic surrender of the republic to Napoleon. From a political perspective there is little to add here, although due space is given to the infamous pillaging of the city's artistic treasures by the French. As counsel for the prosecution, Norwich elides the fact that the four bronze horses that stood over the west door of St Mark’s and came to symbolise the swag carted off to Paris, had originally been looted by the Venetians together with much else during the sack of Constantinople in 1204. (The horses have since been returned, but their original plinths now support pollution-proof replicas; as so often in Venice, historical ironies can sometimes feel a mite heavy-handed.)
There is also a good account of the heroic but doomed uprising of 1848, led by the Jewish convert Daniele Manin, but basically this period is an uninspiring subject for a historian of the "politics, treaties and wars" school, and Norwich knows it. He has therefore chosen to treat his subject in a series of episodes dealing with some of the eccentric expatriates who lived there, as well as a selection of the more or less eminent foreigners who checked into Veniceland from time to time: Byron, Ruskin, Wagner, Henry James, Robert Browning, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Frederick William "Fr" Rolfe aka Baron Corvo.
As always with this author, the writing is supremely readable and often witty. There are some interesting anecdotes that were new to me, such as the fact that Byron wrote a preface to an Armenian grammar compiled by one of the monks of San Lazzaro, reprinted here, which reveals the Romantic idol doing a very creditable pastiche of Edward Gibbon; or that in 1881 Browning and Wagner sat a few seats apart at the Teatro Rossini for a performance of Paisiello's The Barber of Seville ("a monster of peacock-like vanity", was RB's verdict on RW).
Nevertheless, there is a structural problem. Henry James remarked that while it was a great pleasure to write the word "Venice", there was a certain impudence in pretending to add anything to it, and most of these visitors' comments on the city do not rise much above the level of Robert Benchley's "Streets Flooded Please Advise", a gag that tells you everything you need to know about The New Yorker's idea of sophisticated humour but nothing you didn't already know about Venice.
At the risk of still greater impudence, it might perhaps have been hoped that Norwich would take this opportunity to remedy the one lacuna in his history of the city - the dimension of social and everyday life - but the Venetians themselves are largely absent except for walk-on parts as gondoliers, faded aristocrats and sex toys.
"The only impression I derived from the exquisite ruin of this wonderful city as far as human interest is concerned," wrote Wagner, "was that of a watering-place kept up for the benefit of visitors." Our own era has increased the number of visitors and depleted that of the inhabitants by several orders of magnitude, but the basic picture remains much the same: an ace hotel with quite a nice museum attached.
The Guardian Michael Dibdin 28 Jun 2003
September 16, 2023
‘The purpose of this book is to paint a picture of the century, not to record its chronological progress.’
Alas, I have never been to Venice, but the city appears so frequently in books I read that I feel some knowledge of it. At least, that is, knowledge of Venice between the ninth and sixteenth centuries. During the fifteenth century, Venice was at the centre of the world's commerce and had the largest port in the world with more than 200,000 inhabitants. In this book, Lord Norwich offers a different perspective of Venice. Instead of a chronological look at Venice through its own history, he looks at nineteenth-century Venice through the eyes of some of its famous visitors or residents.
I would have liked a map though, to chart my way through the places mentioned, to work out where the various people mentioned lived or visited. From Napoleon to the insufferable Baron Corvo (Frederick Rolfe), via Byron, Wagner, Henry James and others, Lord Norwich offers a mixture of eyewitness accounts, interesting facts, and aspects of changes to Venetian society during the nineteenth (and early twentieth) century.
My favourite chapters were ‘After the Fall (1797-9)’ and ‘Ruskin (1835-88)’ about John Ruskin.
An interesting read.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Alas, I have never been to Venice, but the city appears so frequently in books I read that I feel some knowledge of it. At least, that is, knowledge of Venice between the ninth and sixteenth centuries. During the fifteenth century, Venice was at the centre of the world's commerce and had the largest port in the world with more than 200,000 inhabitants. In this book, Lord Norwich offers a different perspective of Venice. Instead of a chronological look at Venice through its own history, he looks at nineteenth-century Venice through the eyes of some of its famous visitors or residents.
I would have liked a map though, to chart my way through the places mentioned, to work out where the various people mentioned lived or visited. From Napoleon to the insufferable Baron Corvo (Frederick Rolfe), via Byron, Wagner, Henry James and others, Lord Norwich offers a mixture of eyewitness accounts, interesting facts, and aspects of changes to Venetian society during the nineteenth (and early twentieth) century.
My favourite chapters were ‘After the Fall (1797-9)’ and ‘Ruskin (1835-88)’ about John Ruskin.
An interesting read.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
July 25, 2020
I remember buying this book second hand hoping it would help me like and appreciate Venice more, but I can't say it managed that. Each chapter is dedicated to a different 19th century personality who visited the city at some point. At its best this provides some interesting biography of some poets and artists. At its worst there are pretentious foot notes and long descriptions of military tactics (that might be your thing but it's not really mine). I felt the book could have focused more on some of the fascinating women who were clearly at the centre of some of the social circles as it is extremely male-centric. Also some of the more tenuous links end up getting an almost full (brief) biography, where as others spring up in their first Venetian visit with no background. 2.5 stars but rounding up as some of the chapters were quite interesting and the author clearly knows his stuff.
July 24, 2024
Not nearly as interesting as Norwich's History of Venice, the book focusses mostly on people who were a part of the British-American enclave in Venice during the Nineteenth century. But other than Napoleon or Byron, few of these people are well-known enough to a non-British audience to be of any real interest and their witness statements of Venice when it wasn't really Venice anymore (all that the city was renowned for, its artists and architects, its diplomats and navy, its riches and splendour, was in the past) therefore are neither impressive nor interesting. I'd recommend anyone to stop reading after the Byron chapter, skip to the bit about the revolution of 1848-1849 and look the others up on Wikipedia, if they are so inclined.
May 21, 2022
This book IS about Venice, but it's really much more about a handful of illustrious people, with Venice as a backdrop. And, in Norwich's hands, they are a fascinating group, even those I'd never heard of before. Norwich doesn't treat any of his subjects with undue deference. He'll tell you straight up that Lord Byron was an ass, Corvo impossible and impossible to like, Ruskin punctilious, and Whistler an arrogant jerk. He does seem to like Henry James and J.S. Sargent, and his love for Venuce shines through it all. This was, overall, a fun book, even if it was not the one I was expecting. Would definitely read more Norwich if I come across him!
November 7, 2016
This book takes compelling, confounding and provocative looks at a vanished Venice through the eyes of those who saw it. Respected historian John Julius Norwich examines the letters, journals and memoirs of the famous and infamous who visited, wrote about, lived in and painted La Serenissima in the 19th century. From Napoleon and Byron to Browning, Whistler and James, the reader gets very personal takes, not all of them flattering, on what is, for many, the most beloved city on the planet. Norwich's breezy, wry style keeps things moving.
July 8, 2017
To describe this book as "splendid" or "enchanting' would be doing the author a great injustice. Instead, I shall turn to a somewhat more contemporary (if borrowed) phrase - one used by a friend - and suffice to term it thus: "It's dope!" "Dope" it is.
June 26, 2020
Great read for Venice-lovers. Gets a bit gossipy in the last chapter, on Baron Corvo.
January 21, 2021
I enjoyed each and every page of this book. Familiar with most of the characters, seeing them in such a magical setting, with their pros and cons, was delightful.
Norwich is an excellent writer.
Norwich is an excellent writer.
May 27, 2022
Good read while in Venice.
June 28, 2023
Achingly dull.
October 3, 2024
If you want to know about Wagner, Ruskin, lord Byron, Henry James but also about Napoleon and the relationship with Venice than you will like this book...
December 30, 2024
The author certainly did his research and could certainly be useful for someone. That someone is just not me. This wasn't what I expected and it was mostly boring, so on my scale, it's a 1.
September 3, 2025
A magical account of the beautiful city of Venice in the 19th century and how Venice was seen through the gaze of various distinguished visitors. Be sure to read this book!
December 10, 2010
"The simplest thing to tell you of Venice is that I adore it - have fallen deeply and desperately in love with it.."
Henry James pp. 198
In this book Venice is seen as a magnet to the artists, composers and painters who came, stayed for years, and were captured by the city on the Adriatic. It reads like an historical novel, or a compilation of short stories, each chapter dedicated to a different historical person i.e. Henry James, Byron, Wagner, Napoleon, Browning, et.
The narrative flows, and is many times comical, and is always informative. Norwich is the perfect writer. He is like the history teacher on can dream of. He informs you, he makes you laugh, you learn a lot in the process, and you can't wait for his next class. This is his third book on Venice. He obviously loves the city, but with no many illusions, and with very open mind in presenting his characters. This is Venice with its canals, and architecture, and palaces, and churches, and art, and heart and soul.
Some of the people in his book you would want to meet, others you wouldn't want to meet under any circumstances. Norwich is a world class historian, who also happens to be an English Lord. I like his style of writing, even though there are times you feel like you are going over a hurdle.
Henry James pp. 198
In this book Venice is seen as a magnet to the artists, composers and painters who came, stayed for years, and were captured by the city on the Adriatic. It reads like an historical novel, or a compilation of short stories, each chapter dedicated to a different historical person i.e. Henry James, Byron, Wagner, Napoleon, Browning, et.
The narrative flows, and is many times comical, and is always informative. Norwich is the perfect writer. He is like the history teacher on can dream of. He informs you, he makes you laugh, you learn a lot in the process, and you can't wait for his next class. This is his third book on Venice. He obviously loves the city, but with no many illusions, and with very open mind in presenting his characters. This is Venice with its canals, and architecture, and palaces, and churches, and art, and heart and soul.
Some of the people in his book you would want to meet, others you wouldn't want to meet under any circumstances. Norwich is a world class historian, who also happens to be an English Lord. I like his style of writing, even though there are times you feel like you are going over a hurdle.
March 16, 2009
Very entertaining combination of history/biography/travel writing. It's organised as a series of profiles of mostly writers, artists and cultural patrons who lived in Venice over the course of the 19th century.
Having been to the city I found it easy to empathise with the individuals concerned in terms of their love for Venice. Even though the numbers of people visiting the city, its cultural profile etc have evolved out of all recognition since the end of the 19th century the physical fabric of Venice has remained remarkably unchanged (just compare that for a moment with London).
Amusing juxtaposition of chapters with one on Byron who sh***ed anything that moved followed by one on Ruskin who wouldn't/couldn't consumate his recent marriage.
Nicely illustrated with old black and white photographs and colour reproductions of paintings.
Having been to the city I found it easy to empathise with the individuals concerned in terms of their love for Venice. Even though the numbers of people visiting the city, its cultural profile etc have evolved out of all recognition since the end of the 19th century the physical fabric of Venice has remained remarkably unchanged (just compare that for a moment with London).
Amusing juxtaposition of chapters with one on Byron who sh***ed anything that moved followed by one on Ruskin who wouldn't/couldn't consumate his recent marriage.
Nicely illustrated with old black and white photographs and colour reproductions of paintings.
July 18, 2010
Excellent portrait of 19th Century Venice and the Brits and Yanks who traipsed across its stage. Perhaps a little self-indulgent too.
Like any good gossipy book, my favorite parts were about the sexual exploits of its characters. Lord Byron, it seems was able to have anything he wanted, and there are a few homoerotic tales of the kept gondoliers of British intellectuals.
I couldn't shake off the feeling that Lord Norwich wrote the book somehow as a self congratulatory act near the end of his life. As he establishes characters who influenced the city in the 19th Century he seems also to be establishing himself as a hero of the 20th. And why should this bother me? I don't quite know. I'll call it jealousy for now.
Like any good gossipy book, my favorite parts were about the sexual exploits of its characters. Lord Byron, it seems was able to have anything he wanted, and there are a few homoerotic tales of the kept gondoliers of British intellectuals.
I couldn't shake off the feeling that Lord Norwich wrote the book somehow as a self congratulatory act near the end of his life. As he establishes characters who influenced the city in the 19th Century he seems also to be establishing himself as a hero of the 20th. And why should this bother me? I don't quite know. I'll call it jealousy for now.
April 4, 2016
This is a collection of chapters about notable English and American expats who lived in Venice in the 1800s. It's supposed to reveal the character of the city. At the end, the author wonders if he focused too much on the eyes of the people instead of the city through their eyes. The answer is yes. It's a far too detailed account of the lives of a bunch of people, several of whom are only significant for having been a big part of the expat scene. But most of what he talks about for each one is their lives outside of Venice. I was hoping to get more of a sense of the social scene at the time. Instead, I know about this one's feud with the British museum and that one getting in a fight with a judge in Boston. I...really don't care.
July 21, 2015
Norwich's account of several ex-pats and their relation to the city of Venice is interesting mainly due in part to the covering of an often overlooked period in Venetian history. Most books on the subject of Venice usually tend towards a description of the city at its height when the dodges were still in power. But Norwich strays from this in covering the city in its first twilight where the palaces were abandoned and the city milleau began to change towards that as a refuge for those escaping their previous lives in their home countries. An excellent account of this period of history although lacking in any prominent Venetians other than Daniele Manin's account of the revolution of 1848.
August 9, 2010
This was probably more of a 2 star book, but it seems so cruel to give 2 stars to any book that talks about Italy! Norwich is very knowledgeable about the subject matter, almost too much so - if you don't know much about 19th century artists, writers, poets then he kind of leaves you in the dust. I was left in the dust...The first 3 chapters were actually really good, about Austrian rule in Venice and Italy's unification. But after that it just went downhill.
December 20, 2011
This book is great if you're really, really, really into the people profiled in it: Byron, Browning and Ruskin, etc. I have no knowledge or interest in those people so I skipped those chapters and read the chapters on Wagner, Henry James, and the shared chapter on Whistler and Sargent. Still, the book failed to excite me. I was hoping for more insight into the city itself, while Norwich focused on where Henry James had lunch in 1871. Meh.
February 3, 2008
Venice from the point of view of various visitors to and notables of that city. Of interest for just about anybody interested in history, and not just Venice's history either, because those through whose writings Norwich paints a picture of Venice at various times come from a broad spectrum of peoples, both artistic and not so artistic.
October 10, 2012
This isn't the book you'll turn to if you want a concise history of the city of Venice. But it is amusingly and intelligently written, and shares the stories of people I knew only little about, and suddenly wanted to know much more. Worth reading for the chapter on Lord Byron alone. ('now the sword outwears its sheath...')
August 23, 2007
Every chapter of this book is about a historical person who spent time in Venice in the 19th century. I found the biographical sketches of people like Byron and Napoleon as interesting as the picture of Venice itself.
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