Florence Stories (Everyman’s Library Pocket Classics Series)

Ah, Florence! Travel there and become enchanted. Live there and learn to breathe deeply as breezes from the Arno River cool the city on the hottest days. Pick up this beautiful volume of collected stores as you find a shade tree in the Boboli Gardens. As usual, Everyman’s Pocket Classic has published this lovely beribboned book filled with classic tales of the city of Florence. We begin, of course, with Dante and The Divine Comedy, but move into the modern with Somerset Maugham, Mary McCarthy, and D. H. Lawrence. These stories are wonderful; indeed jewels from the best writers lauding and inspired by the magnificent city. There are twenty-five stories in all. Many were not as well known to me as some of them.

Behold the home of Dante, of Michelangelo, of Leonardo de Vinci. Stendahl writes in the story, Rome, Naples, and Florence (1817). Read how Aaron in the D.H. Lawrence story, Aaron’s Rod becomes resurrected after a bleak start in his pensione. Even if we cannot travel there, this book immerses us in the historic and cultural ambiance of this ancient city.