Venice in Autumn- City of Dreams

If New York is the city that is so good that they named it twice then what does that make Venice?

The view from the Campanile of San Giorgio Maggiore

The Grand Canal from the Accademia Bridge

La Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, La Dominante, City of Masks, City of Bridges,The Floating City, City of Canals and Venezia. The multinominal champion of cities. Venice, the dream city, the city that if left unvisited will leave a lacuna in any traveller's cultural history. 

St Mark's Square reflected on the San Giorgio Vaporetti Stop

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs:
A palace and a prison on each hand..Byron

The Centro Storico is home to less than 60,000 residents who host an annual influx of 20 million visitors. Venetians seem inured to the wonder around them. They seem content in the knowledge that their home is the citta per eccellenza and they consider the rest of the world as merely 'campo', an outland. 

Local Graffiti of an Outlander

Outside Cafe Florian

"Streets flooded. Please advise" Telegram to his Editor from Robert Benchley.

A Night at the Opera

Seeing and being seen at La Fenice.

You will rarely meet a Venetian in Harry's Bar or Cafe Florian, except perhaps, during the deep night when the exhausted incomers have wearily decamped to their hotel beds. You will perhaps spot the Venetians if you venture to Teatro La Fenice for an opera or to Teatro Goldoni to see a play. In these cultural oases, in their Italian finery and jewellery, they gather to be seen as much as to see.

During our last visit the goddess Fortuna smiled on us and allowed us the pleasure of attending a performance of the Globe Theatre's production of The Merchant of Venice at the Goldoni. Tickets were a steal at around 22 Euros and with a long run under their belts the cast gave a flawless performance. Jonathan Pryce ( 'as seen in' Brazil, Tomorrow Never Dies, Evita, Glengarry Glen Ross and currently in BBC's Taboo, as the DVD blurbs burble, )  was particularly Shylockian playing opposite his real life daughter Phoebe as Jessica,the daughter of Shylock. Father and daughter and the Merchant IN Venice, a double whammy.

Many a time and oft in The Rialto you have rated me..

Teatro Goldoni in the rain

Taking a richly deserved bow

Apart from the Temples, Churches, Galleries, Museums and Architecture, Venice has myriad other pleasures. Getting lost in the labyrinthine alleys away from the signposted arteries to the Rialto and St Mark's, stumbling upon obscure piazzas, visiting the outer islands such as Torcello and San Michele the burial place of Ezra Pound, Stravinsky and Diaghilev, supping inexpensive Aperol Spritz while savouring a variety of gorgeous chichetti in a canalside bar, these just a few of the pleasures of Venice.

Spritz for two

The piazza of Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore

Shop window display, St Mark's Square

Everyone has noticed the Venetian taste in shop displays, which extends down to the poorest
bargeman who cuts his watermelons in half and shows them, pale pink,with green rims against
 the green side-canal, in which a pink palace with oleanders is reflected- Mary McCarthy

 As John Ruskin wrote, 'And now come with me, for I have kept you too long from your gondola: come with me, on an autumnal morning to a low wharf or quay at the extremity of a canal, with long steps on each side down to the water, which latter we fancy for an instant has become black with stagnation; another glance undeceives us, -- it is covered with the black boats of Venice'.

Che bello, che magnifici, che luce, che colore!

Footwear in Paintings by 'Old Masters'.

Recently, I was fortunate to have an opportunity to visit art galleries in Venice, Haarlem and in The Hague. I focussed on the costumes, hats and shoes worn by the figures in the paintings. As I wandered through the galleries' Medieval and Renaissance sections peering at shoes, I was amazed at how modern they were. Twenty-first century designers could copy many of the shoes, boots and sandals shown in the following photographs. Just look closely at the pictures because they are footwear we might wear today. Don't they speak about a universal desire for fashion? Apparently, through the ages we have loved well-crafted and beautifully coloured footwear as well as simply serviceable shoes.

Accademia, Venice

We begin with naked feet ( above), perhaps in need of a new pair of sandals.

Too fancy?

These look more comfortable

Now for the shoes I noticed. These pairs appeal.

The following examples of footwear were painted during the fifteenth century. They look comfortable, a far cry from long pointed toes that were a fashionable addition to a courtier's wardrobe during the Fourteenth century.

The fabulous boots shown below also appeal to my twenty-first century taste, especially the green and red boots.

            These are amongst my favourites. Note that they are mid-sixteenth century

If you lived during the Medieval period you might go on a pilgrimage. In this case, you will have staff and hat as well as wearing comfortable shoes. You would most likely collect a few pilgrim badges to pin on your hat as souvenirs, and possibly as proof of your piety.

My latest novel, The Woman in the Shadows, is set in London, during the early 16th century. It will reach bookshops August 2017. Whilst writing this novel, I researched textiles in art, looking for beautiful fabrics and clothing in paintings from the Medieval and Renaissance Era discovering, as I examined a painting, that there is much to learn about late medieval and Renaissance fashion from the 'old masters'.

Women at the Time of Conquest

The Battle of Hastings 1066

This year is a special 1066 anniversary. Recently I was the co-ordinator for The Historical Novel Society Conference in Oxford. I also spoke on two panels, one of which was about medieval women. My angle was how life changed for women after the Norman Conquest as well as what happened to the noble Godwin women and other female survivors.

A possible image for medieval woman

A major difference post Conquest was that women's legal rights changed. We discover the earliest written law codes of the Germanic kingdoms (post Roman Empire) in the Anglo- Saxon law codes, found in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, and made by Athelbert of Kent in the seventh century. They were written in the vernacular. In these we find that women may be abducted but cash payments settled the outcome. Sexual encounters were not condemned. They were priced.

An early medieval woman's will

Many marriages of Anglo-Saxon women were political arrangements designed to establish connections. Interestingly, Anglo-Saxon women held land in their own right and wrote wills. My first medieval heroine, Edith Swan-Neck, King Harold's handfasted wife was an heiress who owned land in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex and Kent. After Conquest, these lands reverted to the crown and most found their way into the possession of the Breton knight Alan of Richmond who abducted Gunnhild, Edith's and Harold's daughter, from Wilton Abbey- or did Gunnhild elope willingly with him? The abduction happened some years post Conquest. And, Count Alan was, after all an important personage, William the Conqueror's second cousin. These lands made him very wealthy.

From a Church capital

Women were a commodity before and after Conquest. In truth, pressure was always put on them to marry as their fathers and brothers wished but, at least, before Conquest they could own title to their own land. After 1066 women could be heiresses, but during the later twelfth century it became common to divide estates among heiresses from a family in equal shares. A price was fixed for an heiress and they became wards. Ward-ships were bought from the crown by rich and powerful barons. The girls married whom the guardian chose and he chose according to the best price and alliance offered. Women were passed on as property rather than owning it.

Marriage

Primogeniture and a new attitude to illegitimacy are part of changes in inheritance that swept through Europe during the eleventh century. Children had not been barred from inheritance if they were illegitimate in Anglo- Saxon England. Illegitimacy was not even a bar to Kingship. After Conquest this changed.  Being a woman was a bar to ruling in her own right. Henry I tested this. He chose his daughter Matilda to follow him as Queen but according to the deep seated notion of primogeniture and attitudes towards a queen in sole command, this was unacceptable and civil war followed. Matilda was never accepted as Queen. For a time her cousin, Stephen ruled, followed by her son, Henry II. Primogeniture dictated that the nearest eldest male son inherited, usually the eldest son, and he got all. He was responsible for his sisters' dowries and his mother's third portion. That left many second and third sons without inheritance. They became fighting knights or churchmen. Girls were given a dowry and a portion and forthwith married off.

The Church, which was the whole circumference of one's whole world, personal and universal,  during the Middle Ages, had a terrible attitude towards women. Either they were Eves dragging men into sin or they were Madonnas to be respected as nuns or mothers of children (born into wedlock of course). 

Younger sons often became mercenary knights

There was still a possible future for women, however, in the new Europe and in England during the medieval period. They did as widows inherit a third portion but they were soon married off again and lost that. If they were married to a tradesman in the increasingly growing towns during medieval times, they could follow his trade. Most wives of tradesmen were involved in their husbands' businesses in any case. Some guilds accepted them but it was still hard to survive as a trader in a man's world.

The Church dominated the lives of all people

It was not until the sixteenth century that a queen ruled England and the second Tudor queen ( not counting Lady Jane) was one of the greatest monarchs who has ever ruled England.

The last novel in the Trilogy 

Ill-fated Marriages in Literature

I often think that my favourite novels do not depict marriages in a happy light. This, of course, allows the writer to explore tensions and create jeopardy in the story. It permits the writer to be forgiving. I have selected a few of those ill-fated marriages where I think the author does this well- all rate highly amongst my favourite books.



Handfasting

The marriage between Thea and Vladimir of Kiev in The Betrothed Sister was not easy but this couple come through difficulties and threats together to discover happiness in their lives. The marriage between Gunnhild and Alan of Richmond in The Swan-Daughter does not work out as she might have foreseen as she falls in love with another and he already loved another. That between Edith Swan-Neck and King Harold in The Handfasted Wife, whilst a love match was handfasted and he set her aside for another when he was crowned King of England. However somehow before his death on Senlac Hill they do find peace together and after his death she remembers him as her only true love.

George Eliot

Here are several ill-fated marriages in a few of the novels that I have enjoyed reading -

Dorothea Brooke and Edward Casaubon from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Well worth reading!

Dorothea Brooke, idealistic, young and beautiful, passionate, orphaned and intent on making something purposeful of her life accepts the offer of marriage from a fossilized, idealistic clergyman, Edward Casaubon. She plans to dedicate herself to this great man who spends his years  writing a key to all mythologies. The couple are clearly unsuited as is illustrated early in the novel on their ill-fated honeymoon. Dorothea had expected to be overcome by a food of feeling at what she saw in Italy but her husband reflects that his 'stream of affection' has turned out to be 'exceedingly shallow'. He has sensed that his new wife is not a protection against his sense of inadequacy but a perpetual threat and reproach. I like this novel's enduring subtlety and humanity. The other pairings in Eliot's novel are filled with traps as sticky as spider webs.


Lara and Yuri from Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak



The Cossacks attack demonstrators in Doctor Zhivago 

Although this pair never actually married, they were an ill-fated couple. The story takes place at the time of the Russian Revolution. They are both married to others but come together briefly and subsequently are parted as political events overtake their lives. They have hidden from the world in Yuri's country retreat in the Urals. It is a poignant time as it is so short and because Tonya, Yuri's wife loves him and he has conflicted loyalties. In Doctor Zhivago the personal story is set against a sweeping political background. It is a passionate story with depth and understanding. This is one of my five favourite novels, beautifully and sympathetically written.


Tristram and Iseult told by Matthew Arnold



Image from Wikipedia

There is an emphasis in the tale of Tristram that love can be so extreme it ends up leading to death of the partners. Arnold's retelling of the story displays simple family concerns where Iseult of Brittany is an abandoned wife with two small children. Arnold suggests a retreat into the imagination and immoral love as an escape from reality. It is a classic historical romance with many twists, turns and stories within stories but it is one with an unfortunate ending. It is a most influential medieval love story and is on the surface a love triangle story between the hero, his uncle's wife and the uncle. A love potion was mistakenly given to Iseult on her wedding night and the tale's events follow consequences from this chance mistake. Tristram eventually marries another Iseult in this version but he cannot consummate the marriage because of his love for his original Iseult. He searches for her but dies of grief before she, too, searching for the love of her life reaches him. Soon after this, Iseult dies of a broken heart. The story has many different tellings, but whichever telling, it remains the classic story of an ill-fated relationship and, moreover, it illustrates very well how obstacles can inhabit a good story to thwart the successful conclusion of love between hero and heroine. 

Caroline and Faraday in The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

One of my favourite novels

In this tale, Faraday is a country doctor called to Hundred's Hall, a faded 18thC estate. He strikes up a friendship with Caroline Ayres, the unmarried daughter of the family. After a young girl is mauled by Caroline's previously gentle Labrador it seems that the house contains a malevolent energy. The relationship between Faraday and Caroline wavers between romance and friendship. They, none the less, plan to marry. On the night of their wedding disaster strikes. The haunting narrative in this novel and its constant tension plays out through the story. This story addresses insanity, poltergeists, and family secrets. The romance is haunted by a sense of developing dread and this I love! Gothic.

Claire and Henry in The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The author dyed her hair red to say goodbye to Claire and Henry

A man and woman meet in a Chicago library and in due course they marry. However, Henry is a time traveller and is whisked away just before the ceremony. An older Henry falls back through the years to take his place. The writer uses Henry's time travel to illustrate a sense of slippage in a long term relationship, in that each partner views the relationship differently. I felt a sense that their lives were mapped out to the extent that the time of their deaths are told. It is a poignant novel exquisitely told and one can not help but feel sad for both Henry and Clare.