- Published: 1 September 2010
- ISBN: 9780099422563
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 512
- RRP: $35.00
Venice
- Published: 1 September 2010
- ISBN: 9780099422563
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 512
- RRP: $35.00
Peter Ackroyd has the gift of transmuting other men's sober research into the golden sentences that make his books on men and cities so irresistible, entrancing, occasionally weird but undeniably grand...Ackroyd...has turned their diligence into effulgent, mesmeric, satisfying prose
Richard Davenport-Hines, Literary Review
Combative, omnivorous and beady-eyed as ever, the author has no trouble in persuading us, nonetheless, that the 'pure city' is not quite ready to collapse into its primal mud
Jonathan Keates, The Spectator
Decent book ... Ackroyd is acute ...
Tobias Jones, Sunday Times
It is all here, in Ackroyd's dense and articulate prose. He writes in short, sharp sentences, firing out facts with machine-gun speed. He pulls the reader through the city's winding calli on a vivid, frenzied journey of discovery. It is an ever-shifting scenery of stern-faced Dogi, secretive statesman, canny merchants, thieve, whores, artists, geniuses: all jostling for favour in Ackroyd's city of intrigue.... Highly evocative...he writes beautifully and succinctly.
Sarah Vine, Times
We could not have a better tour guide to take us on a journey through the colourful history of 'the bride of the sea. Ackroyd's fans will love his vision of this glorious city
Books Quarterly
Ackroyd has managed... to give us a beautifully crafted, ruminative, well-illustrated, and utterly readable volume...vibrant and evocative
David Laven, History Today
Elegant and erudite
Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler
Ackroyd's view of Venice is not that of an infatuated lover... but more the magisterial distillation of much knowledge and reading, conveyed in prose that aspires to the glassy elegance of La Serenissima herself
Harry Eyres, Financial Times, Travel books of the year
Opulent, shimmering prose
Celia Brayfield, The Times, Christmas books
Ackroyd, hugely intelligent and industrious, has produced an encyclopaedic account of the sumptuous Italian city
Daily Telegraph
Ackroyd does Venice, his sonorous, scene painting prose advancing in rhythmic columns until no quarter of the city has escaped assimilation.
Ian Pindar, Guardian
Ackroyd's achievement is to bring the city back to life and help you to experience differently. Take it with you next time you visit.
Kate Quill, The Times
His dark tapestry ... deserves a place in every visitor's luggage
Independent
Ackroyd writes about Venice as an idea, with stylish meditations on such topics as time, light, water, sexuality, politics and psychopathology...he writes so well that at times he'd drive you mad - "Venice represented an idea that was itself eternal" - but if you just climb into his gondola and go where he takes you, the rewards are great indeed
Arminta Wallace, The Irish Times
Many books have been written about Venice by authors like Mary McCarthy and Jan Morris. Ackroyd's advantage is his poetic eye
Colin Waters, Sunday Herald
Ackroyd writes beguilingly as he weaves his way around the lagoon, supplying interesting details en route...
Jane Knight, The Times
Yet another wonderful biography of a city
Lesley McDowell, The Independent on Sunday
Ackroyd takes an erudite and entertaining look at the city of doges, gondolas, carnival masks and canals
Eithne Farry, Marie Claire