Florence and Tuscany: A Literary Guide for Travellers (Literary Guides for Travellers) - Hardcover

Ted Jones

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848858361 ISBN 13: 9781848858367

Publisher: I.B.Tauris, 2012

Synopsis

The magical landscapes and rich culture of Tuscany have fostered the inspiration and settings for literature since the works of the great Florentine poets Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio in the 14th century and has been a magnet for expatriate writers since the arrival in Florence of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer in 1372. With its historic cities and villages; its verdant countryside and crepuscular coastline; its treasury of art covering five millennia and, above all, its long heritage of authorship, Tuscany one of the most celebrated and well-travelled regions in the world. As the source of the Italian language and birthplace of the Renaissance, Tuscany lies at the historic and cultural heart of Italy, and has remained an irresistible attraction to writers for six centuries. This book is a journey that follows in their footsteps; from John Milton and Thomas Gray to the Brownings, the Shelleys, Charles Dickens, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, E. M. Forster, Mark Twain, Muriel Spark and many others. Florence and Tuscany: A Literary Guide for Travellers takes the literary-minded traveller (either in person or in an armchair) on a vivid and illuminating journey, retracing the footsteps of writers who have lived and worked in, or been inspired by, the history and landscape of Tuscany from John Milton and Thomas Gray to the Brownings, the Shelleys, Charles Dickens, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, E.M. Forster, Mark Twain Muriel Spark and many others. For anyone who has fallen under a Tuscan spell, as so many have before, this book - the first of its kind - will prove enthralling reading.

About this title

Review:

I m fascinated to learn that Milton visited Galileo, that Freud could be bowled over, and that Emerson described the Duomo as like an archangel s tent. Bravo, Ted Jones, for gathering a trove of writers responses to Tuscany and for writing such an engaging context for their travels. Knowing of those who traveled before us deepens our own responses to a place. This book enriches my own journeys in this fabled land. --- Frances Mayes, author of Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life

About the Author:

Ted Jones is a writer and journalist who specialises in travel and the arts. He is the author of The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers (Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2007).

About this edition

• Publisher: I.B.Tauris
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1848858361
• ISBN 13: 9781848858367
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256