Tra le rovine

A callow monograph that fails to deliver on its driving ambition. Preoccupied perhaps with dispersing personal details, including photos of his wife, the author makes an interesting case and walks away in almost half sentence. What we have is a nice collage of images and citations: a Sebald without

An unexpectedly romantic book, which interweaves artistic and historical vignettes with Woodward's personal experiences in the ruins of Italy and Britain. Woodward sees ruins as deeply meaningful and aesthetically important structures in their own right, and argues against reconstructions which migh Leggi tutto

The author of this gem possesses a great combination--he has impressive scholarly qualifications (he is a museum director in England), and he is also a gifted writer. He gently leads us through the world of the appreciation of the utter beauty and inspiration of the ruins of Europe. You'll learn so

An enjoyable look at attitudes towards ruins--especially those of artists and writers. I hadn't read before about the "follies" where wealthy people had fake ruins constructed on their properties. It is sad to read about the way ruins were treated before there was an appreciation for their historica Leggi tutto

very enjoyable and edifying read about the perception of ruins from antiquity to the present, which might sound utterly boring to you, but i was caught up in the writer's deep enthusiasm, which is why i'm finally getting around to reading de lampedusa's THE LEOPARD.

This book is a compilation of quotes and history, with the author chiming in here and there about how he responds to and regards ruins. So you get tidbits like the following, about William Stukeley, who was later the first secretary of the Society of Antiquaries: p. 130 "...his delight in the benefic Leggi tutto

poetic, and intellectually delightful. nonfiction unlike anything I have read in a long while, the kind that makes you realize you had suppressed a wondering curiosity, a reader's hunger you didn't know you had. not just about history, or architecture, or memory, it's much more about dreams and fant Leggi tutto

The goal of this book, to survey various literary and artistic reactions to both the idea and reality of (mostly ancient) ruins, is an admirable one. It's also an ambitious one, and just as ruins themselves frequently demonstrate, between the idea and the reality falls the shadow. Woodward does not

In Ruins follows the same format as Schama's Landscape and Memory, grouping vignettes on painters, architects, and authors into loosely connected chapters. Woodward's prose is less defined, less artful, and more ambiguous than Schama's, and he is even less inclined to present theses and historical c Leggi tutto

A beautiful study on the power of the fleeting yet immortal.