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Fiction about or set in Italy
Books not to be believed, but sometimes fun to get
you in the mood. In no particular order.
The secret
Book of Grazia dei Rossi
I,
Claudius
The
Leopard
Iain Pears’ series with Flavia di Stefano of Rome’s Art Squad (for mystery lovers- written by an art hisorian)
Death
at La Fenice
(also in the same series, Blood From a Stone, Doctored Evidence, Uniform
Justice, and soon to be published Dressed for Death)
The
Sixteen Pleasures
(book restorer in Florence to help after the great Flood of 1966, comes
upon a book of erotic engravings and sonnets)
The
Anatomist
| The Fall of a Sparrow – Robert
Hellenga (about the Red Brigade and bombings in Bologna) |
| The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason Students discover a text that really exists (Hypnerotomachia Poliphili), and dumb it down for us to read. |
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| Now you've red that, read "The Real Rule of Four", an explanation of it all from the author who published the first complete English translation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. | |
| The Birth of Venus – Sarah Dunant A spoiled girl in 15th C Florence, pretty historically accurate. |
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| The Art of Falling – Deborah Lawrenson | |
| Europa – Tim Parks (set against the backdrop of the European Union, a british expat professor in Italy pieces his life together) |
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| Under the Tuscan Sun – Frances
Mayes I n the genre of "a year in Provence", this book started the genre of tuscan-set books. Mindless vacation reading or good to set the stage for one’s own Tuscan adventure. |
Death In Venice
(celebrated gay lit work, novella about German writer’s passion
for a young Pole in Venice and its tragic consequences)
The Name of the Rose
(a murder mystery set in a 14th c Italian monastery)
The Agony and the Ecstasy
(biographical “novel” of Michelangelo)
The Ruby Ring
("historical" romance about the love affair between Raphael
and his peasant “model”)
The Lives of the Saints
(a story of the forgotten Italy that is the heritage of many Italo-Canadians)
Romola – George Eliot
(a Victorian novel about Florence in 1492 – blending of fact and
fiction)
The Lion of Venice – Mark Frutkin
(about Marco Polo)
A Room with a View – E M Forster
(made famous by the Merchant Ivory film, a love story set in Florence)
A Bell for Adano – John Hersey
(Pulitzer Prize winner about an American general in WWII who wins the
respect of Sicilian townspeople when he tries to replace the church bell,
which had been melted down by the Fascists for bullets).
Romeo and Juliet
(Hey, this classic is set in Verona!)
Quo Vadis
(historical novel about Rome in the age of Nero, translated from Polish)
Galileo's
Daughter - Dava Sobel
Arttrav's custom reading list: Amazon "aStore"
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