Rome and a Villa

by Eleanor Clark

IN 1947 A YOUNG AMERICAN woman named Eleanor Clark went to Rome on a Guggenheim fellowship to write a novel. But Rome had its way with her, the novel was abandoned, and what followed was not a novel but a series of sketches of Roman life written mostly between 1948 and 1951. This new edition of the essential classic Rome and a Villa includes an evocative introduction by the preeminent translator William Weaver, who was close friends with the author and often wandered the city with her during the years she was working on the book.
Once in Rome, the foreign writer or artist, over the course of weeks, months, or years, begins to lose ambition, to lose a sense of urgency, to lose even a sense of self. What once seemed all-consuming is swallowed up by Rome itself; by the pace of life, by the fatalism of the Roman people, to whom everything and nothing matters, by the sheer historic weight and scale of the place. Rome is life itself - messy, random, anarchic, comical one moment, tragic the next, and above all, seductive.
Clark pays special attention to Roman art and architecture. In the book's midsection she looks at Hadrian's Villa - an enormous, unfinished palace - as a meta-phor for the city decaying, imperial, shabby, but capable of inducing an overwhelming dreaminess in its visitors. The book's final chapter, written for an updated edition in 1974, is a lovely portrait of the so-called Protestant cemetery where both Keats and Shelley are buried, along with other foreign notables.

Genres: Travel, Italy, Nonfiction, Memoir, Essays, Biography Memoir, Cities

450 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Eleanor Clark (July 6, 1913–February 16, 1996) was born in Los Angeles and attended Vassar College in the 1930s. She was the author of the National Book Award winner The Oysters of Locmariaquer, Rome and a Villa, Eyes, Etc., and the novels The Bitter Box, Baldur's Gate, and Camping Out. She was married to Robert Penn Warren.

Reviews

[Asya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel writing at its best. Witty, learned, a fascinating walk through the city and its history, yes, but also its atmosphere and its soul. No one like Clark and maybe James to make the city into such a vivid character for all of us armchair travelers and lovers of the city alike. Clark's prose is so rich and full of surprises it's its own monument, so read it by all means to discover Rome, but read it foremost to discover Clark.
Great review with some biographical background here, http://www.newcriterion.com/articles....

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I came to put this book on my Classics Club list, and I was delighted to see it pop up for my Classics Club Spin, but it was a huge disappointment. The book is a collection of essays written by the author after World War II about Rome and a villa near Rome. I found the information to be outdated and the opinions to be harsh. Probably just me.

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a famous book, well-reviewed when it came out, still highly recommended back when I was in college. It has marinated on my shelves for quite a while. And now, a great disappointment. Clark writes in a random, stream-of-consciousness, frequently run-on sentence style that I find quite off-putting. She often tends toward the epigrammatic (think Martial, but all of the epigram, none of the humanity). Sometimes she devolves into mere catalogs, e.g., for the fountains and palaces of Rome. These can grow quite tedious. She can be a judgmental Yankee. Sometimes she is lacking in aesthetics of language: Cesare Borgia is called Caesar Borgia; just doesn't sound right. Sometimes the problem is as simple as wordy descriptions of buildings or works of art where a picture would be better. I mostly just skimmed the last part of the book.

Clark covers Rome of all periods. "Roman Journal I" covers mostly ancient remains, II mostly Renaissance with a nod to the early Christian. One whole chapter, "Salvatore Giuliano," is devoted to a Sicilian bandit who had nothing to do with Rome or the Villa. The long chapter on Hadrian's Villa has its moments (a few), but is mostly a nastygram on Hadrian himself. "Beside the Pyramid," an addition to later editions, is largely about the English in Rome, particularly Keats and Shelley. The final chapter, is devoted to the Roman poet G.G. Belli. At least that brought back fond memories of a college Latin professor, the late and wonderful Carl Trahman, who would quote stretches of Belli in his course on Roman satire.

I gave this three stars more because of its reputation than my enjoyment. It may be the sort of thing you like, if you like that sort of thing.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a step down from Clark's brilliant, later book "The Oysters of Locmariaquer" (which I read first), "Rome and a Villa" still has moments of quirky grace and insight, but it mostly seems unfocused and labored next to the sustained complexity and beauty of Clark's later work.

[Birgit Sacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't read it. Out of date, hard to follow, not the style of writing I enjoy. Very pretentious.

[Mike Violano · Rating 2 out of 5]

The city is the museum when you’re in Roma as author Eleanor Clark describes the Eternal City circa 1950 and years past. This book of travel essays, or travel journal entries, is hard to assess. There are highlights especially the early discussion of the Campidoglio, the seat of government of ancient Rome designed by Michelangelo. The chapter on Hadrian’s Villa is also interesting, very informative and rich is historical details. There are also long boring stretches of disjointed notes about fountains, palaces, saints and martyrs, stairs, and church windows and ceilings. In the author's view the archeology of Rome gets two thumbs up but the Vatican and Renaissance art and artists are mostly ho-hum. Clark visited Rome countless times from childhood to late in life. In a preface written in 1974 she laments about all the sad changes in the city—traffic, smog, disrespect of statues, and the days of glory past. However, everything tends to fade somewhat when returning to any wonderful ancient city like Rome after your first glorious encounter.

[Jolie Ringash · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my gosh, glad others liked this but I am really struggling. If a picture is worth a thousand words then how I wish she’d had a small album. Remarkably dead book; endless descriptions of ruins; no people. The character of the author remains opaque though surely terribly boring…

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

love this glimpse of being a foreigner living in rome in the 50s.