Italy in Mind

by POWERS, ALICE LECCESE

• ISBN13: 9780679770237
• ISBN10: 0679770232
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1997-04-29
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Comprised of short stories, novel excerpts, essays, poetry journals and letters, this work will delight anyone who loves Italy or great travel writing. Pieces include Barbara Grizzuti Harrison marveling at baroque Sicilian confections, Mary McCarthy celebrating Venice's threadbare dignity, and Henry James's Isabel Archer succumbing to the treacherous antiquities of Florence.

Author Biography

Alice Leccese Powers is the editor of the anthologies Italy in Mind and Ireland in Mind and the co-editor of The Brooklyn Reader: Thirty Writers Celebrate America’s Favorite Borough. A freelance writer and editor, she has been published in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, Newsday, and many other newspapers and magazines. Powers teaches writing at the Corcoran School of Art and Georgetown University. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and three daughters.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xv
HOMER BIGART
"Cassino, Once Thriving, Is Turned Into a Scene of Unrelieved Grimness" (CASSINO)	3	(7)
HAROLD BRODKEY
from Profane Friendship (VENICE)	10	(5)
JOSEPH BRODSKY
"December in Florence" (FLORENCE)	15	(5)
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
Letter to Mrs. Ogilvy (NORTHERN ITALY)	20	(5)
ROBERT BROWNING
"Up at a Villa--Down in the City"	25	(5)
GEORGE GORDON
LORD BYRON
"On Rome" (ROME)	30	(1)
"To the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird" (VENICE)	31	(2)
JOSEPH CALDWELL
from The Uncle from Rome (NAPLES)	33	(13)
JOHN CIARDI
"Poems from Italy"	46	(4)
ELEANOR CLARK
"Fountains" (ROME)	50	(10)
ANN CORNELISEN
from Women of the Shadows (SICILY)	60	(9)
CHARLES DICKENS
"Genoa and Its Neighbourhood" (GENOA)	69	(9)
LAWRENCE DURRELL
"Erice" (SICILY)	78	(14)
GEORGE ELIOT
Journals from Italy (ROME, BOLOGNA, PADUA, VENICE)	92	(7)
E. M. FORSTER
"In Santa Croce with No Baedeker" (FLORENCE)	99	(15)
BARBARA GRIZZUTI HARRISON
from The Islands of Italy (SICILY)	114	(9)
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
from A Farewell to Arms (THE ITALIAN LAKES)	123	(7)
JOHN HERSEY
from A Bell for Adano (SICILY)	130	(13)
PAUL HOFMANN
"The Art of Arrangement"	143	(10)
HENRY JAMES
from The Portrait of a Lady (FLORENCE)	153	(16)
D. H. LAWRENCE
"To Sorgono" (SARDINIA)	169	(8)
R. W. B. LEWIS
"Vespucci Territory: 1987" (FLORENCE)	177	(10)
BERNARD MALAMUD
"The Maid's Shoes" (ROME)	187	(15)
MARY McCARTHY
"The Loot" (VENICE)	202	(6)
"Venice Preserved" (VENICE)	208	(5)
HERMAN MELVILLE
"Venice"	213	(1)
"In a Bye-Canal" (VENICE)	214	(1)
"In a Church of Padua" (PADUA)	215	(1)
MARY MORRIS
"On Italian Time"	216	(4)
JOHN MORTIMER
from Summer's Lease (TUSCANY)	220	(17)
WILLIAM MURRAY
"The Queen of the Bogs" (MILAN)	237	(10)
MICHAEL ONDAATJE
from The English Patient (TUSCANY)	247	(6)
TIM PARKS
"Residenza" (VERONA)	253	(8)
JOHN RUSKIN
from The Stones of Venice (VENICE)	261	(6)
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
"Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples" (NAPLES)	267	(2)
MARY TAYLOR SIMETI
from On Persephone's Island (SICILY)	269	(11)
KATE SIMON
"For Women"	280	(6)
SUSAN SONTAG
from The Volcano Lover (NAPLES)	286	(6)
MATTHEW SPENDER
"San Sano" (TUSCANY)	292	(8)
CALVIN TRILLIN
"Defying Mrs. Tweedie" (SICILY)	300	(9)
MARK TWAIN
"The Buried City of Pompeii" (NAPLES)	309	(9)
GORE VIDAL
"The City Today" (VENICE)	318	(6)
EDITH WHARTON
"Roman Fever" (ROME)	324	(16)
RICHARD WILBUR
"A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra" (ROME)	340	(4)
CHARLES WRIGHT
"Roma I" (ROME)	344