"These essays gather up Rome and hold it before us, bristling and dense and dreamlike, with every scene drenched in the sound of fountains, of leaping and falling water." -- The New Yorker
"Perhaps the finest book ever to be written about a city." -- New York Times
Bringing to life the legendary city's beauty and magic in all its many facets, Eleanor Clark's masterful collection of vignettes, Rome and a Villa, has transported readers for generations.
In 1947 a young American woman named Eleanor Clark went to Rome on a Guggenheim fellowship to write a novel. But instead of a novel, Clark created a series of sketches of Roman life written mostly between 1948 and 1951. Wandering the streets of this legendary city, Eleanor fell under Rome's spell--its pace of life, the wry outlook of its men and women, its magnificent history and breathtaking contribution to world culture. Rome is life itself--a sensuous, hectic, chaotic, and utterly fascinating blend of the comic and the tragic. Clark highlights Roman art and architecture, including Hadrian's Villa--an enormous, unfinished palace--as a prism to view the city and its history, and offers a lovely portrait of the Cimitero acattolico--long known as the Protestant cemetery--where Keats, Shelley, and other foreign notables rest.
Eleanor Clark's timeless portrait of Rome reveals:
- A Classic Literary Travelogue: Discover the city through the eyes of a young American writer on a Guggenheim fellowship, as Eleanor Clark captures the spell of post-war Rome in a series of masterful vignettes.
- Art and Architecture as a Prism: Go beyond the guidebooks with a deep, personal exploration of the city's treasures, using Hadrian's Villa as a unique prism to understand Rome's magnificent history.
- Vivid Sketches of Roman Life: Immerse yourself in the sensuous and fascinating pace of life in the Eternal City, where the comic and the tragic blend on every chaotic street corner.
- Keats and Shelley in Rome: Visit the Cimitero acattolico, the Protestant cemetery, in a lovely and moving portrait of the final resting place of Keats, Shelley, and other foreign notables.
