Venice for Lovers by Louis Begley
Every year for the thirty they have been married, Louis Begley and Anka Muhlstein have escaped to Venice to write. In Venice for Lovers, Begley and Muhlstein fashion their own personal homages to Venice, one with a novella, the other with a personal essay. 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. They meet Venetians like Ernesto, who tells them of the great flood that nearly destroyed the beautiful city; and Nerone, an authoritarian chef who serves the freshest seafood and throws yesterday's catch to the cats. And they spend blissful hours at Da Fiore, named by the International Herald Tribune as one of the ten best restaurants in the world but which, unfazed, retains its rustic simplicity. 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, is lured by her to the City of Water, only to be unceremoniously dumped after a brief rendezvous. But he discovers a lasting love for Venice itself--not an uncommon romance, as Begley's brilliant essay on the city's place within world literature demonstrates. By turns humorous, nostalgic, and spellbinding, Venice for Lovers is a memorable collaboration by two fine stylists--a very private view of a place that will forever inspire dreams of love and passion.Anka Muhlstein was born in the city of Paris in the year 1935. Muhlstein's works include biographies of Queen Victoria, James de Rothschild, Cavelier de La Salle, and Astolphe de Custine, as well as studies of Catherine de Médicis, Marie de Médicis, and Anne of Austria, a double biography of Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, and, most recently, Balzac's Omelette (Other Press). She has received two Académie française prizes, as well as the Goncourt Prize for Biography. Venice for Lovers is a book she and her husband, Louis Begley, wrote about Venice. They are residents of New York City.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780802118752 |
| ISBN 10 | 0802118755 |
| Title | Venice for Lovers |
| Author | Louis Begley |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press |
| Year published | 2008-11-01 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |