The best books about Venice (non-guidebooks)

Meredith Small Author Of Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization
By Meredith Small

Who am I?

I am an anthropologist who became attached to Venice after spending time in Italian language school there and returning over and over, often staying for months. What tourists see is the superficial beauty of the city. But Venice is a place of incredible depth and complexity, both historically and today. During my many visits, I began to hear (on the street) and read (in museums) of the many inventions that happened in Venice. I soon started making a list and, with additional reading, this list grew to 220 inventions—such as quarantine and the paperback book—and realized how much we owe to Venice for how we navigate the world today.


I wrote...

Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization

By Meredith Small,

Book cover of Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization

What is my book about?

An epic cultural journey that reveals how Venetian ingenuity and inventions—from sunglasses and forks to bonds and currency—shaped modernity.

How did a small, isolated city—with a population that never exceeded 100,000, even in its heyday—come to transform western civilization? Acclaimed anthropologist Meredith Small examines the unique Venetian social structure that was key to their explosion of creativity and invention that ranged from the material to the social.

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The books I picked & why

Venice

By Jan Morris,

Book cover of Venice

Why this book?

Although this book was published in the 1960s, it is absolutely the best book about Venice, both its history and what it’s like to be there no. Jan Morris was the master of travel writing, and her glorious prose and detailed descriptions take your breath away, even if you don’t yet know anything about Venice.

Venice

By Jan Morris,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Venice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Often hailed as one of the best travel books ever written, Venice is neither a guide nor a history book, but a beautifully written immersion in Venetian life and character, set against the background of the city's past. Analysing the particular temperament of Venetians, as well as its waterways, its architecture, its bridges, its tourists, its curiosities, its smells, sounds, lights and colours, there is scarcely a corner of Venice that Jan Morris has not investigated and brought vividly to life.

Jan Morris first visited the city of Venice as young James Morris, during World War II. As she writes…


Book cover of Venice Is a Fish: A Sensual Guide

Why this book?

Venice is a Fish is the book to carry to Venice so that you can sit in a campo somewhere (or at a café with a spritz) and read it during your stay. A funny, fun, and informative book about Venice as it is now, as well as over its long history. Then you can follow in the book’s footsteps and go for a walk and get lost.

Venice Is a Fish: A Sensual Guide

By Tiziano Scarpa,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Venice Is a Fish as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Every year, hundreds of books on the city are published, but none resembles this one' - Independent

'This gem of a book offers practical advice but in a distinctly lyrical tone. If you are lucky enough to be going there, take Venice is a Fish and you will want for nothing' - Sunday Telegraph

Built on an inverted forest, paved with a tortoiseshell of boulders, Venice is a maze of tiny alleys, bridges and squares. Tiziano Scarpa wanders through the city, recounting the customs and secrets that only Venetians know. With everything from practical advice for aspiring Venetian lovers to…


Book cover of Veneziaenigma: Thirteen Centuries of Chronicles, Mysteries, Curiosities and Extraordinary Events Poised Between History and Myth

Why this book?

Toso Fei is a Venetian author who writes about the quirks and mysteries of Venice. He has several books about ghost stories, strange events, and inventions. All his books are great because he not only writes well but is knowledgeable as only an insider can be.

Book cover of A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century

Why this book?

This creative non-fiction book is both the real history of a couple in love and the story of di Robilant discovering their letters in the family palazzo. The drama plays out during the 18th century, a time when Venice is heading for decline. His other books are also wonderful, especially Irresistible North about the Zen brothers exploring the North Sea.

A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century

By Andrea di Robilant,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Venetian Affair as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the waning days of Venice’s glory in the mid-1700s, Andrea Memmo was scion to one the city’s oldest patrician families. At the age of twenty-four he fell passionately in love with sixteen-year-old Giustiniana Wynne, the beautiful, illegitimate daughter of a Venetian mother and British father. Because of their dramatically different positions in society, they could not marry. And Giustiniana’s mother, afraid that an affair would ruin her daughter’s chances to form a more suitable union, forbade them to see each other. Her prohibition only fueled their desire and so began their torrid, secret seven-year-affair, enlisting the aid of a…


Venice Observed

By Mary McCarthy,

Book cover of Venice Observed

Why this book?

Here you get McCarthy’s whit and her fine descriptions about living in Venice. Although her stay happened long ago, her stories about interacting with her landlord and other Venetians, and all the adjustments one must make when living in a water-bound city, ring true today as well.

Venice Observed

By Mary McCarthy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Venice Observed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A penetrating work of reportage on Venice. “Searching observations and astonishing comprehension of the Venetian taste and character” (New York Herald Tribune).


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