Rome and a Villa - Couverture rigide

Republished in a beautiful new package, the eternal classic that captures the Eternal City in all its vibrant enchantment

Bringing to life the legendary city's beauty and magic in all its many facets, Eleanor Clark's masterful collection of vignettes, Rome and a Villa, has transported readers for generations.

In 1947 the young American writer traveled to Rome on a Guggenheim fellowship. But instead of a novel, Clark created a series of sketches of Roman life written mostly between 1948 and 1951. Wandering the streets of this legendary city, Eleanor fell under Rome's spell—its pace of life, the wry outlook of its men and women, its magnificent history and breathtaking contribution to world culture. Rome is life itself—a sensuous, hectic, chaotic, and utterly fascinating blend of the comic and the tragic. Clark highlights Roman art and architecture, including Hadrian's Villa—an enormous, unfinished palace—as a prism to view the city and its history, and offers a lovely portrait of the Cimitero acattolico—long known as the Protestant cemetery—where Keats, Shelley, and other foreign notables rest.

Harper Perennial first published Rome and a Villa in 1992, forty years after its original hardcover publication. This newly republished edition is sure to enthrall today's readers and generations to come.

“These essays gather up Rome and hold it before us, bristling and dense and dreamlike, with every scene drenched in the sound of fountains, of leaping and falling water.” (The New Yorker)

“Perhaps the finest book ever to be written about a city.” (New York Times)

“Witty without being flippant, unhurried without being slow, informative without being pedantic, contemplative and poetic without heaviness or affectation, Eleanor Clark’s book about Rome is, of course, a book about human destiny. To be as good as it is, it could not simply be about the buildings of Rome. (New York Herald Tribune)

“Like Rome itself, Rome and a Villa is sensual, demanding attention, patience, and pause. Reading the book is a meditative experience. . . The only thing to do in the face of this overwhelming emotional onslaught is to give in to it, as Clark did.” (New Criterion)

“A brilliant piece of traveler’s impressionism, written with verbal polish.” (Time magazine)