Owen, Richard – The Bell Bookshop

Chaucer’s Italy

Emma — Tue, 02 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Geoffrey Chaucer might be considered the quintessential English writer, but he drew much of his inspiration and material from Italy. In face, without the tremendous influence of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio (among others), the author of The Canterbury Tales might never have assumed his place as the ‘father’ of English literature.Nevertheless, Richard Owen’s Chaucer’s Italy begins in London, where the poet dealt with Italian merchants in his roles as court diplomat and customs official. Next Owen takes us, via Chaucer’s capture at the siege of Rheims, to his involvement in arranging the marriage of King Edward III’s son Lionel in Milan and his missions to Genoa and Florence. By scrutinising his encounters with Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the mercenary knight John Hawkwood – and with vividly evocative descriptions of the Arezzo, Padua, Florence and Milan that Chaucer would have encountered – Owen reveals the deep influence of Italy’s people and towns on Chaucer’s poems and stories.Much writing on Chaucer depicts a misleadingly parochial figure, but as Owen’s enlightening short study of Chaucer’s Italian years makes clear, the poet’s life was internationally eventful. The consequences have made the English canon what it is today.

Chaucer’s Italy

Emma — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Geoffrey Chaucer might be considered the quintessential English writer, but he drew much of his inspiration and material from Italy. In fact, without the tremendous influence of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio (among others), the author of The Canterbury Tales might never have assumed his place as the ‘father’ of English literature.Nevertheless, Richard Owen’s Chaucer in Italy begins in London, where the poet dealt with Italian merchants in his role as court diplomat and customs official. Next Owen takes us, via Chaucer’s capture at the siege of Rheims, to his involvement in arranging the marriage of King Edward III’s son Lionel in Milan and his missions to Genoa and Florence. By scrutinising his encounters with Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the mercenary knight Sir John Hawkwood – and with vividly evocative descriptions of the Arezzo, Padua, Florence, Certaldo, and Milan Chaucer would have encountered – Owen reveals the deep influence of Italy’s people and towns on Chaucer’s poems and stories.Much writing on Chaucer depicts a misleadingly parochial figure, but as Owen’s enlightening, short study of Chaucer’s Italian years makes clear, the poet’s life was internationally eventful. The consequences have made the English canon what it is today.

Hemingway In Italy

Emma — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Ernest Hemingway is most often associated with Spain, Cuba, and Florida, but Italy was equally important in his life and work. This book, the first full-length study on the subject, explores Hemingway’s visits throughout his life to such places as Sicily, Genoa, Rapallo, Cortina, and Venice.Richard Owen describes how Hemingway first visited Italy during World War I, an experience that set the scene for A Farewell to Arms. The writer then returned after World War II, where he would find inspiration for Across the River and into the Trees. When Men without Women was published, some reviewers declared Hemingway to be at heart a reporter preoccupied with bullfighters, soldiers, prostitutes, and hard drinkers, but their claims failed to note that he also wrote sensitively and passionately about love and loss against an Italian backdrop. Owen highlights the significance of Italy in the writer’s life. Showing how the Italian landscape, from the Venetian lagoon to the Dolomites and beyond, deeply affected one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, Hemingway in Italy demonstrates that this country belongs alongside Spain as a key influence on his writing-and why the Italian themselves took Hemingway and his writing to hear.

Hemingways Italy

Emma — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Owen describes how Hemingway first visited Italy during World War I, an experience that set the scene for A Farewell to Arms. The writer then returned after World War II, where he would find inspiration for Across the River and into the Trees. When Men without Women was published, some reviewers declared Hemingway to be at heart a reporter preoccupied with bullfighters, soldiers, prostitutes, and hard drinkers, but their claims failed to note that he also wrote sensitively and passionately about love and loss against an Italian backdrop. Owen highlights the significance of Italy in the writer’s life. On the night he shot himself in July 1961, for example, Hemingway sang a song he had once learned in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Hemingway returned to Italy again and again, and the places he visited or used as inspiration for his work are many. At the same time, the inspiration goes both ways: Owen describes how the fifteenth century villa Ca’ Erizzo at Bassano del Grappa, where the American Red Cross ambulances were stationed, is now a museum devoted to the writer and World War I. Showing how the Italian landscape, from the Venetian lagoon to the Dolomites and beyond, deeply affected one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, Hemingway in Italy demonstrates that this country belongs alongside Spain as a key influence on his writing-and why the Italian themselves took Hemingway and his writing to heart.