Customer Reviews
"Even now, until you have seen Venice, there is an asymmetrical gap in your education" - By: Nicholas Casley, 30 Nov 2008 
So declares Jan Morris, famed travel writer & quasi-Venetian. This is a review of the fourth edition of 1993. The book was originally publishedin 1963.
In her foreword to this fourth edition, Jan Morris says that this is neither a history nor a guide book; "nor is it exactly a report. When I wrote it,in 1960, I thought it was. I was a foreign correspondent then, & I planned this book as a dispatch about contemporary Venice." But instead the book is, according to the author, "a highly subjective, romantic, impressionistic picture less of a city than of an experience."
The book is split into three parts: the people, the city (should not this have been first?), & the lagoon, & all is sandwiched by an introduction & a coda that describes arrival & departure from this world-within-a-world. The language of arrival is poetic, the city's "towers survey the lagoonin crotchety splendour ... a paragon of landfalls." Venice "stood ... somewhere between a freak & a fairy tale." On departure, we are told that, "Her past is enigmatic, her present contradictory, her future hazedin uncertainties."
Jan Morris admits that, "More slush has been written about Venice than anywhere else on earth ... Venice is paved with purple passages." But despite the poetry of her words, there are many occasionsin Jan Morris's text when we are confronted with the more prosaic form of lists. Indeed, I do not think that I am being too extremein saying that most of the book is actually a book of lists. And these can be very tedious, no matter how well the author tries to dress them up with her powers of description & the powers of her observations.
There are problems with some of the `facts' presented. For instance, on Venetian prisons, she seems to have fallen for some of the Napoleonic propaganda made at the time of the capture of the city by the emperor. Sure, there were problems, but thosein Venice were far better maintained than most of thosein the rest of Europe (England included). But Jan Morris also has an insightful eye for explaining partially-hidden truths too. For example, on the mysterious runes carved onto one of the stone lions guarding the main gate of the Arsenale, she elaborates that "modern scholars have interpreted its general sense as implying that Kilroy, with friends, was there."
Another example of her way with words & her powers of observation combiningin an effective analogy is her description of the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello: "To the west there extends the ribbed & vaulted architecture we call Gothic - Rome, Chartres, Cambridge & the monasteries of Ireland. To the east stand the domes: Mount Athos, Istanbul, the bulbous churches of Russia & the noble mosques of Cairo, Samarkand, Isfahan & India. On one side of Torcello is the Palace of Westminster, on the other the Taj Mahal." I'm not sure that this works so conveniently, but it does make one think.
There are some anachronisms relevant to the 1960s rather than the 1990s, such as references to Kings Road gallants, & "the sad steam-whistle of the trains", & the steamboat & steamboat pontoon. The aged ships no longer are seen rotting away at Poveglia, & the rabbits there arein full view as the shrubberies have been cleared away. The Lido no longer has trolleybuses & the "trim little Fiat" is now more likely to be a fat BMW. And what are we to make of references to "fifty years ago ..." Can we really be sure that she is referring to 1943 rather than 1913?
It may be unfair to criticise this book for lacking references to the numerous quotes, for an academic treatise it is not. But I would have liked to have been told who said that "Other cities have admirers. Venice has lovers." All that she will reveal is that it was a nineteenth-century Frenchman. I did learn a few new things, though, such as that parish priests are elected by the parishioners. But is the Correr museum really to be ranked as just a second-class sight? I would recommend all visitors should go there on their first day. But you cannot see everything. Yet Morris writes, "There are palaces to see everywhere & precious churches, & bridges, & pictures by the thousand, & all the criss-cross pattern of antiquity that is picturesque Venice." The author has spent many years living there; we have not. We can be assured that the author knows them all. Not only is the city itself covered; the third part - `The Lagoon' - ventures across the waters from Chioggiain the south to Jessoloin the north with many places inbetween.
Like Venice itself, this is not a book to race through from beginning to end. It does not contain a linear argument, a chronological narrative, or a geographical map to guide us. It is best read chapter by chapter, or dipped into little by little, best read lingeringly, sentence by sentence. Otherwise, the often intricate descriptive prose, so pungent with its rich aroma of images, blurs.
Alas, there are no illustrations, but then, which would you choose from the billions available? But the book ends with a concise chronology of the city's history with relevant page references. There is also an index with map references too. This is not "the best book of Venice ever written", as the blurb from the Daily Telegraph declares on the cover (I prefer Francesco da Mosto's volume), but it is like a sculpture of a Venetian lion - to be admiredin its graceful movements, but not to be embraced too closely.
To sum up a description of Jan Morris's look at Venice, we can use a quote from her own pages: like the city, her book "is a cheek-by-jowl, back-of-the-hand, under-the-counter, higgledy-piggledy, anecdotal" one, "richin piquant wrinkled things, like an assortment of bric-a-bracin the house of a wayward connoisseur ..."
An exquisite love letter to Venice - By: kimbofo, 13 Nov 2006 I decided to read "Venice"in preparation for a week-long stayin the Italian city.
Broken into three sections -- The People, The City, The Lagoon -- "Venice" is not a chronological history of the city but a meandering look at its past, present & future. Nor is it a guidebook, although it does contain a mine of information about what to see & where to go.
I think "The Times" probably described it best when they said it was "a classic love letter to Italy's most iconic city", because it is, indeed, a beautiful missive dripping with exquisite descriptions. I found it an enormously engaging & evocative read by an accomplished writer who really knows how to string a simile or two together.For example: "Venice is a cheek-by-jowl, back-of-the-hand, under-the-counter, higgledy-piggledy, anecdotal city, & she is richin piquant wrinkled things, like an assortment of bric-a-bracin the house of a wayward connoisseur, or parasites on an oyster-shell (page 201)".
And: "There are palaces to see everywhere, & precious churches, & bridges, & pictures by the thousand, & all the criss-cross pattern of antiquity that is picturesque Venice, mocked by the materialists, sentimentalised by the Romantics, but still by any standards an astonishing phenomenon, as fruity as plum pudding, as tart as the brand that flames about its holly (page 219)".
In fact the writing throughout this superb book is sublime (much like Venice itself) & I would quote entire chapters here, except it's probably better if you just took my word for it & got hold of a copy of "Venice" for yourself. It's a beautifully written & researched book, jam-packed with anecdotes & all kinds of historical fact. Whether you have been to Venice or not, I'm sure once you have read Jan Morris's delightful memoir you will be clammering to book your flights!
the real Venice - a personal view, but very evocative - By: Mr. Ian A. Macfarlane, 20 Dec 2005 
This is a wonderful book which catches the flavour of Venice & is beautifully written. Jan Morris is one of the most individual & memorable of all travel writers, & this city is one she knows well & loves greatly ; that is evident on every page. The visual descriptions are precise & quirky, the little stories from Venetian myth & legend add character to the book & her knowledge of the history & culture of the place, worn lightly & always enlightening, never intrusive, make this a fine book. Above all she is a marvellous writer.
Brilliant, passionate prose intertwining past and present - By: , 31 May 2005 The most evocative & well balanced description of a place & people. Morris writes beautiful prose with passion, knitting together the present & pastin a seamless fashion which is nothing short of genius. The only criticism is that lists of things foundin Venice can be a little tedious e.g. the description of the different Venetian Lions
Am I a Philistine? - By: Mr S P Driver, 03 Mar 2005 
I purchased this book after carefully reading the reviews, the majority of which were ecstatic! On receiving it, I found it to be (dare I say?) rather "high brow" & not really a guidebook at all but a literary tribute to a glorious past of Venice. Please don't think that I am a McDonald's hunting moron, but as a first time visitor to Venice, I don't think I can use it to find my way around the city too clearly
