McCarthy does a spectacular job of weaving it all together -- economics, politics, science, diplomacy, wars, plagues, and, of course, art -- reflecting the incredibly complex tapestry of Florence in its heyday. And she does it with wit.
The previous reviewers who call this book "boring", or who want their money back, simply don't know enough about Florence to understand what they're trying to read. This not "an idiot's guide". It's a book for those who already know a bit about the subject. And watching TV shows about "Godfathers of the Renaissance" and other such rubbish simply won't do -- because they have nothing to do with reality. The shelves groan with all of the books written about Florence. Many of them are superb. Just to give a few examples, I recommend anything written by Miles Unger, especially, "Magnifico". Read a few of them before you try to read "The Stones of Florence", and then you will be able to enjoy it for what it is -- a true masterpiece.
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| Travel Adventures by Intrepid Women | “Written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. [Markham] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ...it really is a bloody wonderful book.” —Ernest Hemingway | “She made the land a permanent part of herself and, in this small, tender, old-fashioned, and engaging book, a part of the basic literature of American nature writing.” —Edward Abbey | “Stevenson’s travel writing, a small part of his nonfiction output, is as outstanding and influential as his fiction.” —The Guardian | "A strangely luminous landmark in the history of travel writing." —Aeon | “D. H. Lawrence was an incomparable observer and his travel writings are among his finest prose." —The Guardian | “[Lawrence] had more genius—more of God, if you like—than any man could be expected to handle.” —Philip Larkin |
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| My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir | A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir | The Stones of Florence by Mary McCarthy | Venice Observed by Mary McCarthy | A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird | The White Heart of Mojave by Edna Brush Perkins | |
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| Classic Travel Writing | “A man who in his singular way rediscovered America...an American pioneer, an American hero.” —Frederick Turner | “[Muir’s description of his first visit to the valley] ‘blazes from the page with the authentic force of a conversion experience.’” —Frederick Turner | “No student of the Renaissance should be without The Stones of Florence.” —The New York Times Book Review | “Searching observations and astonishing comprehension of the Venetian taste and character.” —New York Herald Tribune | “The book is a jewel case of keen perception, social analysis, and masterful description for this era.” —Chicago Tribune | “Among the best of the many Death Valley travelogues.” —The New Yorker |
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