Florence fiction

Hi - Can anyone help? I'm going to Italy next year and I'd love to read some fiction set in Tuscany, or Florence in particular. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I see that you own A Room With a View--if you've not read it, the first part is set in Florence. Salman Rushdie's latest is The Enchantress of Florence, and I understand that part of it is set in Renaissance Florence (I've not read it myself).

Do you know how to do a tagmash? If you do a tag search for "fiction, Florence" or "fiction, Tuscany," it turns up a lot of matches.

I enjoyed The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. Even though it's historical fiction (set in Renaissance Florence), and I've never been to Florence, I thought Dunant did a good job of evoking the place (and the time). Plus it deals with Renaissance art, which of course abounds in Florence.

There's always the obvious, Under the Tuscan Sun

There is a group on LT, The City and the Book that does exactly what you are asking. They discuss and recommend books set or evocative of a certain city. You may want to ask over there.

The Agony and the Ecstasy is a very visual novel about the life of Michelangelo.

Thanks for the suggestions!!

The tagmash "Tuscany,fiction" brings up a few more nice things, like John Mortimer's Summer's lease. Obviously, a great many novelists have been able to set their holidays in Tuscany against income tax by writing books about them...

Odd how both this tagmash and "Florence,fiction" bring up Dante - I wouldn't have thought of that as "fiction".

If you know A room with a view already, then it might be fun to read Where angels fear to tread. And there's always Henry James, of course, although that wouldn't necessarily be fun.

Last time I went to Tuscany I read D.H. Lawrence's Etruscan places, which is non-fiction, but makes a nice change from wall-to-wall renaissance.

To the majority of the non-librarians out there I believe that the world of books is divided into fiction and non-fiction, with poetry and plays falling clearly into the fiction camp.

If I'd only found this two months ago.... went to Florence in the last week of June and was looking for just this before then!

A Rich Full Death is a great Florence book. Technically a murder mystery but with oodles of cultural stuff.

Off now to look at the tagmash results myself! Enjoy your trip.

> 8

And there's always Henry James, of course, although that wouldn't necessarily be fun.

Hey! Some people like Henry James! ;-)

The Stars Compel and The Stars Dispose by Michaela Roessner. Highly detailed fantasies set in Renaissance Florence. They even have period recipes in them. The books are out of print, but you should be able to get them used or from the library.

>11 lilithcat:

Well, chacun a son goût...

Nothing against HJ - I was just suggesting that there might be more laughs in Forster.

ETA: aargh - can't get rid of the italics!

</i>Ta-da!!

ETA: Whenever somebody forgets to close their tag and the thread is stuck in italics, it requires two closing tags in your post to turn it off. Like so: </i></i>

Thanks, everyone! I am excited to start looking for some of these... I don't go until next spring (April) so I have plenty of time to read up.

When I was in Florence, my friend told me about her vivid memories of the 1966 flood when she was a small child. She mentioned the "mud angels" (angeli del fango) who flocked to Florence to help with the restoration. There's a book about that, Angels of the Flood by Joanna Hines, which I haven't read, but fully intend to someday if and when I come across it. That might be interesting.

And one could re-read Dante.

edit: should add that Joanna Hines's book is fiction -- mystery -- rather than memoir.

You could have a look at this forum
some one did the same request

http://glyphs.gardenweb.com/forums/load/paradise/msg011916028495.html?18

http://glyphs.gardenweb.com/forums/paradise/

masgar

For a more gruesome trip there's always Thomas Harris's Hannibal.

Ooh, Angels of the Flood def going on the TBR list!!

I know you asked for fiction but if you're interested in good nonfiction read, I'd suggest Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King. Its a history of the Duomo in Florence - since its one of the central points in Florence, I really enjoyed learning about how it was built, why, culture at the time, etc.

There is always Romola by George Eliot, set in Renaissance Florence.

I second Brunelleschi's Dome. It's non-fiction, but has a strong narrative and reads almost like a novel. I read it for a class I took at university and then passed it on to my 85 year old father who loved it.

...and I third Brunelleschi's Dome. It's an absolutely fabulous read. We made it up inside the dome early int the morning on our last day in Florence. One piece of graffiti on the inside skin of the dome reads, "BRUNELLESCHI IS MAGIC", and I have to say, I totally get where they're coming from :-)

I had been in the Duomo twice before I read the book, but now after reading it, I'm not sure I'll go back in . . . let's just say the engineering science and building codes & standards were a little different 600 years ago. I'm not sure how it's still standing. :-)

>19 FlossieT:: The reviewers on Amazon really disliked Angels of the Flood. I still haven't read it because the tbr pile is so high that I haven't got to my request-from-the-library list. A Rich Full Death comes with a recommendation from this thread so it's probably a better bet. ;)

>Brunelleschi's Dome is a fabulous read. There's also a children's book on the subject, Waiting for Filippo, which is a pop-up and great fun, especially if you have a child going to Florence as well.

Thanks again to everyone for the recommendations. I read a couple I was able to get on BookMooch - Summer's Lease, Birth of Venus... maybe I'll even (gasp!) buy a couple if I can't Mooch them. I still have a few more months to read before the trip.