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Historical novels set in Venice

17 years ago

I'd like to read some historical novels set in the city of Venice. I know there have been many written over the years, and I've read a few, though more that were set in Florence. I thought I could tap the wisdom of the forum to see if I could get some suggestions for more titles.

Rosefolly

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Comments (7)

veer
17 years ago
Would Death in Venice by Thomas Mann be 'historical enough? It was written about 100 years ago. Made into an excellent Visconti film staring Dirk Bogarde.
Sarah Dunant's In the Company of the Courtesan is set in Rome and then Venice during the sixteenth century.
And although Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers is set in modern day Venice one can feel the age of the city and its damp crumbling buildings through every page. A most evocative read.

Here is a link that might be useful: Miss Garnet's Angel
dido1
17 years ago
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M.Forster starts off in Venice - very evocative. Though I know that some people have difficulty with Forster's 'tone'. Personally, I love his gentle but biting irony very much indeed.

Dido
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I will go look for it at my library. Sounds intriguing! I read Wolf Hall but I'm waiting on the 2nd book until the 3rd is published - has anyone heard when that will be? I had a little trouble with the style at first, but once I got into it I found it a good read. I do like the Tudor era - bur I am a Richard III fan. ( And Elizabeth I.) It can get hard to find decent books, especially fiction, of a time period as popular as Tudor England. There's a ready market and so some hogwash gets published as well as the good stuff. So many are made up out of whole cloth and I just want to fling them at their writers' heads! Good fiction can still have a grounding in fact. Happily for me, these days more and more folks with degrees in history are writing fiction and mysteries so they are much better and I don't get nearly as as fed up as I used to. There was so much upheaval in the world in those years. Books were more widely available (at least among the middle & upper classes ) and that played a large part, I think. Upheaval and social change are great fodder for books. Karen Harper has a good series featuring Queen Elizabeth, just started re-reading them - mysteries - the first is The Poyson Garden.
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ginny12
17 years ago
I hope you don't mind my pointing out that the first part of "A Room with a View" is set in Florence, not Venice. I bought both the book and the wonderful movie for my trip to Florence last fall.

A site I just discovered the other day is BiblioTravel. You can enter any location and some suggestions pop up. It's not really a forum like this but you join for free and add your listings. Or just read others' listings.

Here is a link that might be useful: BiblioTravel
ginny12
17 years ago
I just checked BiblioTravel and it lists 27 books set in Venice, many of them historical novels. Of course, getting the personal feedback of people here is best but it's good to have another source.
carolyn_ky
17 years ago
The Venetian Mask by Rosalind Laker was pretty good fiction.
Chris_in_the_Valley
17 years ago
Eco's Baudolino has scenes in Venice, as does Stephenson's Quicksilver.
bwilliams5980
17 years ago
Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli is a YA novel set in Renaissance Venice. Based on a the life one of the first female scholars of the time, it is beautifully written, full of historical details, and tackles topics such as the rights/roles of women during that time and the oppression of the Jewish population (but not at all in a heavy handed way.) I really loved this book and feel that it has an appeal to readers of all ages - not just young adults. (Oh! and I just remembered - it has the added attraction of accounts of printing/bookbinding in Renaissance Venice. The heroine - in disguise as a boy - befriends a Jewish boy who gets her work as a copyist. And there are lots of details about Venetian architecture and art as well as daily life. I really love this book. lol. I forgot how much. I'm going to have to re-read it I think!

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