Numerous writers have made declarations of love to cities, but Against Venice speaks not of love, but of dislike. It is a counterblast to intellectuals who regard Venice as the city where existentialism should be experienced, at parties in the palazzi of friends. Debray criticises this world in a refreshingly irreverent way, luring the traveller back to this seductive city.
"In his trenchantly written polemic, Debray scorns the tone of elegaic mawkishness in accounts of Venice by the likes of Proust and Morand. His excoriating little pamphlet is a corrective to our self-consciously poetic vapourings about Venice." - Ian Thomson, Sunday Times
"He can write brilliantly. Debray's mischievous polemic denounces not only the modern tourist but the so-called sophisticate for swooning over a Venice that is little more than a narcissistic reflection of the viewer's own pretensions. Debray is funny, hugely intelligent, immensely quotable and possibly quite insincere." - Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
"Debray's diatribe is witty and elegant ... he fires off his fusillades with great panache, and I relish his unbuttoned aplomb." - Richard Cork, Modern Painters
Numerous writers have made declarations of love to cities, but Against Venice speaks not of love, but of dislike. It is a counterblast to intellectuals who regard Venice as the city where existentialism should be experienced, at parties in the palazzi of friends. Debray criticises this world in a refreshingly irreverent way, luring the traveller back to this seductive city.
Praise
"In his trenchantly written polemic, Debray scorns the tone of elegaic mawkishness in accounts of Venice by the likes of Proust and Morand. His excoriating little pamphlet is a corrective to our self-consciously poetic vapourings about Venice." - Ian Thomson, Sunday Times
"He can write brilliantly. Debray's mischievous polemic denounces not only the modern tourist but the so-called sophisticate for swooning over a Venice that is little more than a narcissistic reflection of the viewer's own pretensions. Debray is funny, hugely intelligent, immensely quotable and possibly quite insincere." - Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
"Debray's diatribe is witty and elegant ... he fires off his fusillades with great panache, and I relish his unbuttoned aplomb." - Richard Cork, Modern Painters
