Venice for Lovers - Softcover

Begley, Louis; Muhlstein, Anka

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802144357 ISBN 13: 9780802144355

Publisher: Grove Press, 2009

Synopsis

Venice for Lovers is a memorable collaboration by two fine stylists who have fashioned their own personal homages to Venice, one with a novella, the other with a personal essay. Every year for all the thirty they have been married, Begley and Muhlstein have escaped to Venice to write. In her contribution to the book, Muhlstein charmingly describes how she and her husband dine at the same restaurant every night for years on end, and how becoming friends with restaurateurs has been an unsurpassed means of getting to know the city and its inhabitants, far from the tourists in San Marco Square. In his short novella, Begley writes a story of falling in love with and in Venice. His twenty-year-old protagonist, enamored with an older, far worldlier woman of twenty-seven, is lured by her to the City of Water, only to be unceremoniously dumped and left to fend for himself after a brief rendezvous. But he discovers a lasting love for Venice itself not an uncommon romance, as Begley’s brilliant literary essay on the city’s place within world literature demonstrates: Henry James, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Mann were all illustrious predecessors.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Poland in 1933, Louis Begley is the author of many novels, including Wartime Lies, About Schmidt and Shipwreck. His wife of thirty years, biographer Anka Muhlstein is the author of La Salle: Explorer of the North American Frontier and, most recently, A Taste for Freedom: The Life of Astolphe de Custine. They live in New York.

From AudioFile

Take two well-known writers, novelist Louis Begley and his biographer wife, Anka Muhlstein, give them two decades of summer writing in Venice, add their passion for food and skillful observations about local color, and you've got the makings for great listening. The promise is fulfilled with Malcolm Hillgartner's facile pronunciations, his ease in uniting three short pieces of different genres, and his liveliness, which will capture listeners whether they've experienced the magic of Venice or not. The production's wide variety includes Muhlstein's enticing descriptions of four Venetian restaurants and the owners who seduced the pair of appreciative diners; Begley's nonfiction accounts of Venice's power over Henry James, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Mann; and Begley's novella about a young man who parlays unrequited sex into an ardor for Venice. S.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0802144357
• ISBN 13: 9780802144355
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224