The Smiles of Rome - A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers

Zusatztext "Cahill does a fine job combining practical suggestions with writings by some of the usual suspects.... Her section on Renaissance and Baroque Rome is original and fascinating." Richard B. Woodward! The New York Times Informationen zum Autor Edited by Susan Cahill Klappentext Take a Roman holiday with some of the world's greatest writers Explore the Palatine with Elizabeth Bowen. Visit the temple of the Vestal Virgins with Georgina Masson. Analyze Michelangelo's Moses with Sigmund Freud. Stroll through ancient streets with Goethe and with Henry James. Share Alice Steinbach's midnight epiphany on a shabby hotel balcony. Learn the art of love from Ovid. Visit villas and gardens with Edith Wharton. Enjoy Rome's myriad moods and pleasures with Robert Browning, Eleanor Clark, Susan Vreeland, and many others. An irresistible collection of writing about one of the world's most beloved destinations, The Smiles of Rome spans the centuries from ancient times to the present day. Each essay resonates with the richness and turmoil of the past and overflows with a great wealth of fascinating facts and intriguing tidbits for today's avid readers and travelers. "Rome,” writes Susan Cahill, "has the power to blow your mind and heart.” This delicious, many-layered collection honoring the city that is the heart and soul of European civilization has the same power to thrill.ANCIENT ROME The Palatine Hill , The Roman Forum , Circus Maximus Theater of Marcellus , Ostia Antica , The Pantheon Hadrian’s Tomb , Hadrian’s Villa , The Colosseum Elizabeth Bowen , Georgina Masson , Ovid , Jane Alison Marguerite Yourcenar , Christopher Woodward The melancholy of the antique world seems to me more profound than that of the moderns, all of whom more or less imply that beyond the dark void lies immortality. But for the ancients that “black hole” is infinity itself; their dreams loom and vanish against a background of immutable ebony. No crying out, no convulsions—nothing but the fixity of the pensive gaze. . . . —Flaubert ELIZABETH BOWEN 1899–1973 Elizabeth Bowen grew up in Dublin, Bowen’s Court in County Cork, and London. A prolific novelist—The Last September, The House in Paris, The Death of the Heart—who wrote in air-raid shelters during the blitz, she traveled the world. When she arrived in Rome, commissioned to write the city’s portrait, she confessed a “monstrous” ignorance and confusion as she tried to find her way around. But getting lost was never a waste of time. “Among Rome’s splendours is its unexpectedness. . . . If one cannot enjoy this, one enjoys nothing.” Eventually, she walked the city into her head, as she put it, and “kept it there.” The elegant proof is A Time in Rome, excerpted here, one of the most popular books ever written about the city she called “my darling, my darling, my darling,” when the time came to say good-bye. From A Time in Rome THE PALATINE hill People I met in Rome legitimately wanted to know what I was doing.—Writing something?—Not while I was here.—No, really?—Pity to stay indoors.—Sightseeing, simply?—Partly.—Ah, gathering background for a novel to be set in Rome!—No.—No? look at Henry James.—Yes.—Then a travel book: where was I going next?—I was staying here.—Then, something in the way of a gay guide-book?—I was afraid I should be no help to anyone else.—Then it would have to be a book of impressions: but why Rome?—What was the matter with Rome?—It was not Greece.—I supposed not.—Did I, for instance, for an instant imagine that Rome was old?—It was not too old.—Not too old for what?—Me.—Then I did not care for antiquity?—Not in the abstract.—What did I see in Rome, then?—Beginning of today.—That made today long!—Today is being a long day. But what did I like about Rome?—It was substantial.—And?—Agreeable.—Once, or now?—Altogether.—Agreeable...

Product details

• Authors: Susan Cahill, Susan (EDT) Cahill
• Assisted by: Susan Cahill (Editor)
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.03.2005
• EAN: 9780345434203
• ISBN: 978-0-345-43420-3
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 209 mm x 19 mm
• Subject: Travel > Travel guides > Europe