Great reading that provides a sense of the city, from the Traveler online Ultimate Travel Library.
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Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann (1912)
A middle-aged German count nurses an obsessive infatuation with a beautiful young boy that proves fatal when the city suffers a cholera outbreak; Luchino Visconti made the novella into a film in 1971.
The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James (1902)
James frequently wrote in and about Venice, a city he loved; this ethereal tragedy of a terminally ill American heiress and the money-grasping maneuverings of those around her was adapted for a film in 1997.
Death at La Fenice, by Donna Leon (1992)
The first in Leon’s ongoing series of Venetian murder mysteries featuring the unflappable police commissioner Guido Brunetti, who seeks justice but doesn’t always find it.
The World of Venice, by Jan Morris (1960, revised 1995)
A classic portrait of the city, its history, and inhabitants.
City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (2005)
A peek into the lives of prominent Venetians and their feuds in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed the La Fenice opera house.
A Venetian Affair, by Andrea Di Robilant (2003)
Fascinating love story about a Venetian nobleman and his illegitimate half-English secret lover, reconstructed from letters the author’s father found in the family’s Grand Canal palazzo; reveals much about Venetian social mores.
