Tuscany in Mind From Byron and the Brownings to Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, Robert Lowell, and Penelope Fitzgerald--Two Centuries of Great Writers Seduced by Tuscany

In her fourth literary travel companion, Alice Leccese Powers explores one of the most seductive regions of the world through more than two centuries of fiction, poetry, essays, letters, and memoirs by English-speaking visitors to northern Italy. The poet Shelley called Tuscany "a paradise of exiles"; it has long been a magnet for literary travelers and expatriates. Here are writers who have made their home in Tuscan villas, castles, and farmhouses, from the Shelleys, Byron, and the Brownings to Frances Mayes. Here too are Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Henry James, and E. M. Forster on the glories of Florence, Pisa's leaning tower, and the enchanting Tuscan countryside, alongside the tart wit of Mark Twain, Mary McCarthy, and Erica Jong. From James Boswell's record of his romantic dalliances to Laura Fraser's memoirAn Italian Affairto Sarah Dunant's novelThe Birth of Venus,Tuscany in Mindassembles a glittering mosaic portrait of an unforgettable place. Kinta Beevor James Boswell Elizabeth Barrett Browning Robert Browning Lord Byron Bruce Chatwin Ann Cornelisen Charles Dickens Sarah Dunant Lawrence Ferlinghetti Penelope Fitzgerald E. M. Forster Laura Fraser Paul Gervais Barbara Grizzuti Harrison Robert Hellenga William Dean Howells Henry James Erica Jong D. H. Lawrence David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell Robert Lowell Frances Mayes Mary McCarthy H. V. Morton Eric Newby Iris Origo John Ormond Elizabeth Romer John Ruskin Mary Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley Kate Simon Tobias Smollett Matthew Spender Stephen Spender Mark Twain Edith Wharton From the Trade Paperback edition.

Alice Leccese Powers is the editor of the anthologies Italy in Mind, Ireland in Mind, and France in Mind, and coeditor of The Brooklyn Reader: Thirty Writers Celebrate America's Favorite Borough. A freelance writer and editor, she has been published in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Newsday, and many other newspapers and magazines. Ms. Powers also teaches writing at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband.