Letters From the Palazzo Barbaro

by Henry James

Published 30 September 1998
The novelist Henry James arrived in Venice as a tourist, and instantly fell in love with the city - particularly with the splendid Palazzo Barbaro, home of the expatriate American Curtis family. This selection of letters covers the period 1869-1907 and provides a unique record of the life and work of this great writer.
Includes historical photographs and a foreword by Leon Edel, Henry James's biographer.

Surrounded by artists, writers and musicians who constituted her court in Boston as in Venice, Isabella Stewart Gardner, a passionate art collector with enormous funds, was as revered and sought after as royalty. Henry James had a real affection for her, and was inspired by the rich and powerful Mrs Gardner and her magnificent pearls, as well as by the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice, for his novel The Wings of the Dove made into a film in 1997. Mrs Gardner was to recreate a larger than life version of Palazzo Barbaro in Boston, which is now the Isabella Gardner Museum. These letters add another dimension to what we know of Henry James long relationship with Venice and the Palazzo Barbaro.