Desiring Italy

July 1, 1997
In her collection of 19th- and 20th-century British and American authors writing about Italy, Powers (The Brooklyn Reader, LJ 12/93) has chosen the somber, brooding poetry of the Romantics--Robert Browning, Byron, and Shelley--and the self-reflective contemporary verses of Joseph Brodsky, Richard Wilbur, and Charles Wright. She represents the American and British confrontation with Italian manners through two short stories (by Malamud and Wharton) and in excerpts from the fiction of Forster, James, and John Mortimer, among others. Conversely, Cahill (Wise Women, LJ 5/1/96), whose selections are exclusively by women, has included the ballads of Francesca Alexander and a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Focusing on the effect of Italy's sensual pageant on visitors' emotional and psychological makeup, she selects the fiction of Francine Prose, Elizabeth von Arnim, and Shirley Hazzard. Travel literature forms the largest segment of both anthologies. Both collections preface each entry with bio-bibliographical information, but Cahill adds, as epilog "for the literary traveler," a fascinating contemporary walking tour of the places mentioned in each selection. She also includes a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. These complementary anthologies are fine additions to the travel collections of public libraries and academic collections supporting the travel literature genre.--Lonnie Weatherby, McGill Univ. Lib., Montreal