Venetian Stories
Venetian Stories by Jane Turner Rylands, published by Pantheon on May 6, 2003, is a collection of twelve short stories that delve into the hidden and everyday life of Venice, Italy. This edition, comprising 304 pages, presents a vivid portrayal of the city’s intriguing characters, who come from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods. The narratives intertwine the lives of a postman, a gondolier, an architect, and various other residents and visitors, revealing the playful and surprising connections among them.
Readers will find themselves immersed in the amusing quirks and habits of both locals and outsiders as they navigate the complexities of Venetian society. The stories explore themes of rivalry, jealousy, and the intricate social hierarchies that define this unique environment. Through Rylands’ insightful observations, the collection captures the essence of Venice, portraying it as a small town with a rich tapestry of life behind its grand façades. The poignant subtext reflects the fragility of this iconic city, making Venetian Stories a thoughtful exploration of its uncertain future.
Official synopsis Publisher
In these twelve wry and fascinating stories Jane Turner Rylands has brilliantly evoked the hidden and day-to-day life of one of Europe’s most mysterious cities. The thoroughly engaging characters who are the focus of these stories are from different backgrounds and various Venetian neighborhoods, but their lives—and the stories—overlap and intersect in surprising and playful ways. We meet such workers as a postman, a gondolier, and a mason; and from a different circle, an architect, the mayor, a visitor (an American decorator), a contessa, a baronessa, and an English lord. There are avenging ghosts, a deceitful husband, and a fiendish mother among these.
Through Rylands’ eyes we observe the amusing quirks and habits of the natives as well as of outsiders who are absorbed into this very closed society with all its rivalries, petty jealousies, and hierarchies. For all its elegance and sophistication, Venice comes to life as a small town. Suddenly, we have a sense of what is happening behind the seemingly inscrutable Gothic façades of those timeworn palazzos lining the Grand Canal.
These stories draw us into a complex, scheming, almost farcical society, but the poignant subtext is the profound fragility of a city with an uncertain future. Jane Turner Rylands has written a book that is as memorable and luminous as Venice itself.
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