Venice

In this sumptuous vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty, set like a jewel in its glistening lagoon.His account is at once romantic and packed with facts, conjuring up the atmosphere of the canals, bridges and sunlit squares, the churches and the markets, the fiestas and the flowers.He leads us through the history of the city, from the first refugees arriving in the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century to the rise of a great mercantile state and a trading empire, the wars against Napoleon and the tourist invasions of today. Everything is here: the merchants on the Rialto and the Jews in the ghetto; the mosaics of St Mark's and the glass blowers of Murano; the carnival masks and the sad colonies of lepers; the doges and the destitute and the artists with their passion for colour and form - Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Tiepolo. There are wars and sieges, scandals and seductions, fountains playing in deserted squares and crowds thronging the markets.And there is a dark undertone too, of shadowy corners and dead ends, prisons and punishment. The language and way of thinking of the Venetians sets them aside from the rest of Italy. They are an island people, linked to the sea and to the tides rather than the land.'The moon rules Venice,' Ackroyd writes: 'It is built on ocean shells and ocean ground; it has the aspect of infinity.It is the floating world...changing and variable and accidental.'This book, like a magic gondola, transports its readers to thatsensual, surprising realm. We could have no better guide - reading Ackroyd's Venice is, in itself, a glorious journey and the perfect holiday.

ISBN 0701172851   Pages 416 ISBN13 9780701172855 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 740 Publisher Vintage   Published in London Imprint Chatto & Windus   Height (mm) 240 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 162 Publication date 03 Sep 2009   Spine width (mm) 40 DEWEY 945.311   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		List of Illustrations
		Map
I		City from the Sea
1		Origins		3
2		Water, Water Everywhere		17
3		Mirror, Mirror		30
II		The City of St Mark
4		The Saint Comes		37
5		Refuge		42
6		Against Nature		51
7		Stones of Venice		57
III		Ship of State
8		'Let it be everlasting'		63
9		The Chosen People		72
10		The Prison House		79
11		Secrets		83
12		Chronicles		93
IV		Republic of Commerce
13		The Merchants of Venice		101
14		The Endless Drama		120
15		Wheels within Wheels		137
V		Empire of Trade
16		The Lion City		151
17		Cities in Collision		166
18		A Call to Arms		176
VI		Timeless City
19		Bells and Gondolas		183
20		Iustitia		188
21		Against the Turks		192
VII		The Living City
		More...

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