Lear’s Italy

Michael Montgomery
Cadogan Guides (2005)
ISBN 1860112196
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (12/06)


Michael Montgomery’s “Lear’s Italy” is like a time travel machine – it transports the reader into a world both really familiar and really foreign at the same time. His narrative of Edward Lear’s life and travel in Italy from 1837 to 1888 is heavily supported by excerpts from Lear’s letters, diaries and travelogues and complemented by numerous small sketches made by Lear during his time in Italy.

Edward Lear was one of the leading artists of the Victorian era, best known for his work “The Book of Nonsense.” An accomplished writer and illustrator, he moved to Italy at the age of 25 and he spent most of his life there apart from a period during the ‘Risorgimento’ (Italian unification).  He died in 1888 and was buried in San Remo.  His work and travels took him to some of the best known places in Italy as well as into some of the most remote ones. He often traveled on foot or on horseback, interacting with local people and later describing them, their customs and their land in great detail. Some of the descriptions read like they were written yesterday, such as this charming description of his stay in Rapallo, a ‘dirty and dull place’: “Poste Hotel – ill-tempered hostess, particularly filthy room & nasty house. Ordered dinner& went out with G., but it rained, & I could hardly do anything. Bay of Rapallo dead & shut up. Women make lace. All is contrast to the La Spezia province. Dinner not very bad. Then insisted on, & got, a better room, & came to bed at 8. No sleep; fleas, bugs, gnats, ants, noisy geese, fidgety sea, lightning all night, crying child, & all sorts of disturbances…” If you’ve traveled some, I am certain that this description – well, maybe without the fleas – could have described many a hotel stay you have had; yet it was written in 1860’s.

And another one, which really made me smile, this time talking about his dislike for Venice: “Now, as you will ask me my impressions of Venice, I may as well shock you a good thumping shock at once by saying I don’t care  a bit for it & never wish to see it again… Canaletto’s pictures please me far better, inasmuch as I cannot in them smell these most stinking canals. Ugh!” Whereas I love Venice greatly and can not agree with Lear on his dislike of it, the smelly canals there have not improved since his visit in the late 1860’s.

Other parts of Italy pleased Lear far more, as is clearly evident from this vivid description of Lake Varese, visited shortly after Lear’s stay in Venice: “Those beautiful bright villas – those beautiful scenes, with the Lake below! And, spite of its small repute as an Italian Lake, Varese has some qualities wanting to all the rest: its endless delicate gradation of multiplicity of verdure – slopes of green - & far away bits of level mixed with shining water – long lines of distant blue plain – deep or faint, & grade beyond grade of more faintly delineated soft hills or more decided ridges, with Alpine snow above… the tall Lombard towers (their bells so fine in tone) – the rich green of the walnut, the almost yellow acacia – the grey willows, olives, poplars or aspens – the thick oak copses, where nightingales sing always – the smooth undulation & declivities of turf – the cheerful hayfields, the many winding paths – the glittering villages, & single silvery villas or cottages or chapels – the winding bright streamlets – fig, almond, pomegranate, corn, mulberry for foreground – who would not rejoice in the landscape of Lake Varese?”

If you are looking for a book with a strong plot and a fast moving, exciting story, “Lear’s Italy” will not be your cup of tea. If, on the other hand, you are one of those people who love good writing for its sake alone, if you can close your eyes and see Lake Varese clearly after reading Lear’s description of it, then I bet this book will be a great delight to you.  I would gladly recommend it to dreamers, artists, travelers and armchair travelers everywhere.

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