Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: Books Set in Rome

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics

23rd May: Things That Make Me Instantly Want to Read a Book (Auto-Buy Authors)
30th May: Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book
6th June: Books or Covers that Feel/Look Like Summer
13th June: Bookish Wishes
20th June: Books on My Summer 2023 To-Read List
27th June: Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023

This week’s freebie topic, I thought I’d use to celebrate the fact that I am going abroad for the first time in … decades! Unless you count EuroDisney which is technically in France but felt about as French as, well, Disney. I mean, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it – even I found it hard to be cynical there – but it did not feel real, let alone foreign!

And in preparation for the trip I decided to sign up to DuoLingo and learn Italian – which has taught how to ask for a coffee – posso ordinare un caffè per favore? or vorrei un caffè per favore – how to ask directions – dov’è la libreria – and bizarrely philosophical questions such as perche moriamo or che succede quando muori… To the writers and editors of DuoLingo, are you okay?

Anyway, as a reader I also wanted to pre-visit in my reading the city where I am going so these are a series of books set in Rome. To be fair, many of these are yet to be read!

The Aeneid, Virgil

After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote the Aeneid to honour the emperor Augustus by praising his legendary ancestor Aeneas. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, the Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece. It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven-year journey: to Carthage, where he falls tragically in love with Queen Dido; then to the underworld,; and finally to Italy, where he founds Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, of love and war, hailed by Tennyson as ‘the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man’.

The foundational myth of the city itself… can we say that a book is set in Rome when Rome is only founded at the end?

Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare

This edition of one of Shakespeare’s best known and most frequently performed plays argues for Julius Caesar as a new kind of political play, a radical departure from contemporary practice, combining fast action and immediacy with compelling rhetorical language, and finding a clear context for its study of tyranny in the last decade of the reign of Elizabeth 1. The richly experimental verse and the complex structure of the play are analysed in depth, and a strong case is made for this to be the first play to be performed at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

I couldn’t not put one of Shakespeare’s Roman plays on the list and Julius Caesar is iconic!

I, Claudius, Robert Graves

Bringing to life the intrigue of ancient Rome, Robert Graves’s I, Claudius is one of the most celebrated, gripping historical novels ever written

Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors: from the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia to the sadistic Tiberius and the insane excesses of Caligula. Written in the form of Claudius’ autobiography, this is the first part of Robert Graves’s brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome.

It’s been a long time since I read this… and in my mind it is synonymous with the BBC adaptation with Derek Jacobi, John Hurt and… Brian Blessed?!

The Silver Pigs, Lindsey Davis

A NEW EMPEROR SEEKS AN EXPERIENCED AGENT

Marcus Didius Falco is a private informer, the closest thing that first-century Rome has to a detective.

A new emperor, Vespasian, has ascended to power. The tides of money and power are in flux, and Rome’s vicious games swirl more ferociously than ever.

When Falco rescues a young girl in trouble, he catapults himself into a dangerous game involving stolen imperial ingots, a dark political plot and, most hazardous of all, a senator’s daughter connected to the traitors Falco has sworn to expose.

The rule of law is tenuous for ordinary citizens of Rome. Only a man with a mind as sharp as a gladius can prevail.

This looks a fun historical thriller… probably rather mindless and I’m not sure how historically reliable but fun… Its blurb feels rather like C. J. Sansom…

The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone

Irving Stone’s powerful and passionate biographical novel of Michelangelo.

His time: the turbulent Renaissance, the years of poisoning princes, warring popes, the all-powerful Medici family, the fanatic monk Savonarola.

His loves: the frail and lovely daughter of Lorenzo de Medici; the ardent mistress of Marco Aldovrandi; and his last love – his greatest love – the beautiful, unhappy Vittoria Colonna.

His genius: a God-driven fury from which he wrested the greatest art the world has ever known.

Michelangelo Buonarotti, creator of David, painter of the Sistine ceiling, architect of the dome of St Peter’s, lives once more in the tempestuous, powerful pages of Irving Stone’s marvellous book.

Michaelangelo is certainly an iconic roman figure…

The Woman of Rome, Alberto Moravia

The glitter and cynicism of Rome under Mussolini provide the background of what is probably Alberto Moravia’s best and best-known novel — The Woman of Rome. It’s the story of Adriana, a simple girl with no fortune but her beauty who models naked for a painter, accepts gifts from men, and could never quite identify the moment when she traded her private dream of home and children for the life of a prostitute.

One of the very few novels of the twentieth century which can be ranked with the work of Dostoevsky, The Woman of Rome also tells the stories of the tortured university student Giacomo, a failed revolutionary who refuses to admit his love for Adriana; of the sinister figure of Astarita, the Secret Police officer obsessed with Adriana; and of the coarse and brutal criminal Sonzogno, who treats Adriana as his private property. Within this story of passion and betrayal, Moravia calmly strips away the pride and arrogance hiding the corrupt heart of Italian Fascism.

Sliding into a more modern version of Rome now, this looked incredible!

Four Seasons in Rome, Anthony Doerr

On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins, Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize, an award that gave him a year-long stipend and studio in Rome…

‘Four Seasons in Rome’ charts the repercussions of that day, describing Doerr’s varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world, and the first year of parenthood. He reads Pliny, Dante, and Keats – the chroniclers of Rome who came before him – and visits the piazzas, temples, and ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He and his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, and bakers of the neighbourhood, whose clamour of stories and idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself.

This intimate and revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood and a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers.

Of all the books on this list, this is probably the one that I would be most excited to read! I loved Doerr’s novels and his writing style, so the idea of his turning his language on the joys of Rome and of parenthood sounds wonderful!

Rome Tales, Helen Constantine

Presenting a vivid mosaic of dramatic, comic, and tragic stories, all set in the Eternal City, these twenty absorbing tales capture the delight of discovering and exploring one of the world’s most beloved cities. Spanning seven hundred years, this marvelous collection includes works by Italian authors ranging from Boccaccio and Casanova to Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alberto Moravia. Rather than being ordered chronologically, old and new appear alongside one another, reflecting the dual identity of Rome as both an ancient city that is one of the wonders of the world, and a thriving, modern metropolis. The tales are wonderfully varied in style, tone, and subject matter: a notorious Spanish prostitute in Renaissance Rome endures a public hiding without flinching; Pope John Paul II uncovers a vast conspiracy against him; a medieval revolutionary demagogue suffers almost the same fate as Mussolini. Each story is illustrated with a black-and-white photograph and there is a map of Rome to help readers locate the sites featured in the text.

This colelction of short stories just sounds an amazing little gem – and apparently it contains a map!

The Food of Love, Antonio Capella

Laura Patterson is an American exchange student in Rome who, fed up with being inexpertly groped by her young Italian beaus, decides there’s only one sure-fire way to find a sensual man: date a chef. Then she meets Tomasso, who’s handsome, young — and cooks in the exclusive Templi restaurant. Perfect. Except, unbeknownst to Laura, Tomasso is in fact only a waiter at Templi — it’s his shy friend Bruno who is the chef.

But Tomasso is the one who knows how to get the girls, and when Laura comes to dinner he persuades Bruno to help him with the charade. It works: the meal is a sensual feast, Laura is utterly seduced and Tomasso falls in lust. But it is Bruno, the real chef who has secretly prepared every dish Laura has eaten, who falls deeply and unrequitedly in love.

A delicious tale of Cyrano de Bergerac-style culinary seduction, but with sensual recipes instead of love poems.

Italy is synonymous with food and a love of food and a love of love…. bringing the two together sounds a recipe for pleasure!

The Dark Angel, Elly Griffiths

Dr Ruth Galloway is flattered when she receives a letter from Italian archaeologist Dr Angelo Morelli, asking for her help. He’s discovered a group of bones in a tiny hilltop village near Rome but doesn’t know what to make of them. It’s years since Ruth has had a holiday, and even a working holiday to Italy is very welcome!

So Ruth travels to Castello degli Angeli, accompanied by her daughter Kate and friend Shona. In the town she finds a baffling Roman mystery and a dark secret involving the war years and the Resistance. To her amazement she also soon finds Harry Nelson, with Cathbad in tow. But there is no time to overcome their mutual shock – the ancient bones spark a modern murder, and Ruth must discover what secrets there are in Castello degli Angeli that someone would kill to protect

The streets of Rome – and its environs – also seems like a great place to site a murder mystery…

The Raphael Affair, Iain Pears

Flavia di Stefano is the kind of Italian beauty that art dealer Jonathon Argyll doesn’t normally get to meet in his line of work. But, it turns out, all he had to do was get caught breaking into one of Rome’s churches – for Flavia is the Art Theft officer tasked with interviewing Jonathon. A strange way to meet, perhaps, but then Jonathon has an even stranger tale to tell.

His claim that the church contains a lost classic, hidden under another painting, is treated with cautious scepticism. But when the picture first vanishes, then turns up in the hands of a British art dealer claiming it’s a newly discovered Raphael, it’s clear there’s more to it than meets the eye. When vandalism is followed by murder, it’s up to Jonathan and Flavia to discover just how much more – a quest for the true nature of a painting with a lethal history…

Again, what is Italy most famous for? If it’s not its food, it is its art.

Angels and Demons, Dan Brown

CERN Institute, Switzerland: a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest.

The Vatican, Rome: the College of Cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Somewhere beneath them, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion.

In a breathtaking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible – the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.

Oh, Dan Brown! Why give up a lucrative and successful formula? I have enjoyed his novels – in the same way I enjoy a packet of crisps, with no illusion that this is good writing at all but enjoying it nonetheless! Ancient conspiracies, clues, art and murder… what’s not to love?

It was actually rather hard to come up with this list which surprised me. Rome is so replete in history and atmosphere that I assumed there would be a surfeit of novels set there… Plese do let me know of any I missed!.

Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Themes

July 18: Books With One-Word Titles (submitted by Angela @ Reading Frenzy Book Blog)
July 25: Ten Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish (Feel free to tell us why if you want, but if you do please be nice to the authors and don’t tag them when you mention your post on social media!)
August 1: Forgotten Backlist Titles (Spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore!)
August 8: Books I’ve Read/Want to Read Because of Top Ten Tuesday (books you discovered through Top Ten Tuesday, or they kept appearing in top tens and you got intrigued) (submitted by Ellie at Curiosity Killed the Bookworm)