A Journey to Rome With Dickens, Shelley, Ruskin, Goethe, Stendhal

by Danièle Ohnheiser

Paintings by Ms. Ohnheiser, depicting the Roman landscape, along with descriptions, in Italian and English.

Genres: Art

93 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Sarah Abanamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book just when we left Rome and it kept me smiling the whole time I was reading it in the airplane. It was like reading a poem in a beautiful garden, maybe the Borghese Gardens of Rome! The aquarelles are very beautiful & moving & the words of poets/writers/artists make you feel that you are walking endlessly in the unique streets of Rome. It is a shame that some letters went missing in some paragraphs, otherwise the book would have been perfect! The funny thing when reading this book is finding out that you have the same feelings/impressions about this enchanting city as most of the writers who were cited in the book... even if you read their words decades later!

[Tri · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely beautiful piece of art.

[Dominika Bolgáčová · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend reading while in Rome ✨

[Anna P (whatIreallyRead) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 🌟 This book is a collection of excerpts from letters and diaries of famous people - like Zola, Dickens, Goethe, Stendhal, Henry James, Shelley, Ruskin etc. - who write about their visits to Rome and their reactions to the city and its landmarks. The text is accompanied by beautiful full-color watercolor illustrations of the city landscape on every other page. The paper is high quality and pleasant to the touch. The text is bilingual - Italian and English.

I bought this lovely album when I was actually in Rome a while ago, and it's the perfect souvenir. Reading it was a delight, and brought up nice memories of the trip. I particularly enjoyed the artwork.

What I didn't like:
- There were many typos, surprising given how little text there was - did they not employ an editor or what?
- Each excerpt was only accompanied by the author's last name, not where the quote is from or when it was written. I felt like this was a bummer. When I was done, I found there was a bibliography in the back with this info, but I think it would have been better to include it on the page.