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The Complete Travel Books of W.D. Howells (Illustrated Edition). William Dean Howells
Читать онлайн.Название The Complete Travel Books of W.D. Howells (Illustrated Edition)
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isbn 9788075838384
Автор произведения William Dean Howells
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
William Dean Howells
The Complete Travel Books of W.D. Howells (Illustrated Edition)
Venetian Life, Italian Journeys, Roman Holidays and Others, London Films & Seven English Cities
Published by
Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting
[email protected] 2017 OK Publishing ISBN 978-80-7583-838-4
Table of Contents
VENETIAN LIFE
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Chapter 2. Arrival and First Days in Venice
Chapter 3. The Winter in Venice
Chapter 6. Venetian Dinners and Diners
Chapter 7. Housekeeping in Venice
Chapter 8. The Balcony on the Grand Canal
Chapter 11. Churches and Pictures
Chapter 12. Some Islands of the Lagoons
Chapter 14. The Ghetto and the Jews of Venice
Chapter 15. Some Memorable Places
Chapter 18. Christmas Holidays
Chapter 19. Love-making and Marrying; Baptisms and Burials
Chapter 20. Venetian Traits and Characters
Chapter 22. Our Last Year in Venice
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In correcting this book for a second edition, I have sought to complete it without altering its original plan: I have given a new chapter sketching the history of Venetian Commerce and noticing the present trade and industry of Venice; I have amplified somewhat the chapter on the national holidays, and have affixed an index to the chief historical persons, incidents, and places mentioned.
Believing that such value as my book may have is in fidelity to what I actually saw and knew of Venice, I have not attempted to follow speculatively the grand and happy events of last summer in their effects upon her life. Indeed, I fancy that in the traits at which I loved most to look, the life of Venice is not so much changed as her fortunes; but at any rate I am content to remain true to what was fact one year ago.
W. D. H.
Cambridge, January 1, 1867.
Chapter 1.
Venice in Venice
One night at the little theatre in Padua, the ticket-seller gave us the stage-box (of which he made a great merit), and so we saw the play and the byplay. The prompter, as noted from our point of view, bore a chief part in the drama (as indeed the prompter always does in the Italian theatre), and the scene-shifters appeared as prominent characters. We could not help seeing the virtuous wife, when hotly pursued by the villain of the piece, pause calmly in the wings, before rushing, all tears and desperation, upon the stage; and we were dismayed to behold the injured husband and his abandoned foe playfully scuffling behind the scenes. All the shabbiness of the theatre was perfectly apparent to us; we saw the grossness of the painting and the unreality of the properties. And yet I cannot say that the play lost one whit of its charm for me, or that the working of the machinery and its inevitable clumsiness disturbed my enjoyment in the least. There was so much truth and beauty in the playing, that I did not care for the sham of the ropes and gilding, and presently ceased to take any note of them. The illusion which I had thought an essential in