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Saturday 26 September 2009
A House in Sicily Reviews
Author: Daphne Phelps Edition: Publisher: Da Capo Press Binding: Paperback ISBN: 0786707941 Price: You Save: 88%
A House in Sicily
This is the captivating memoir of a resourceful woman who started life anew in the "most beautiful house in Sicily.A House in Sicily review. For fifty years, at Casa Cuseni in the small Sicilian town of Taormina, Daphne Phelps has extended her English charm and warm hospitality to seasoned travelers and professional escapists as well as to writers and artists like Tennessee Williams, Bertrand Russell, Henry Faulkner, and Roald Dahl. This memoir tells their story, and hers. It begins in 1947 when, thirty-four years old and war-weary, a modest Englishwoman arrived in Taormina with little Italian, less money, and a plan to sell the property she had unexpectedly inherited. Instead, she fell in love, not just with the airy quarters of the golden stone house on a hillside but also with a community and its way of lifeRead full reviews of A House in Sicily.
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author daphne phelps format hardback language english publication year 06 05 1999 subject the world ideas culture general interest subject 2 travel writing payment shipping rates returns a house in sicily product category books isbn 1860496806 title a house in sicily ean 9781860496806 authors phelps daphne binding hardcover publisher virago press ltd publication date 1999 05 06 pages 285 signed false first edition false dust jacket false list price msrp 18 99 height 1 1000 inches width 5 5900 in
A House in Sicily : Paperback : Little, Brown Book Group : 9781860496486 : 1860496482 : 18 May 2000 : A delightful and moving homage to the 'most beautiful house in Taormina, Sicily' and the colourful people of the local community by the modest, independent and generous woman who has inhabited it for over fifty years
Carroll & Graf New York: 1999. Softcover. Very good condition. The captivating story of one woman starting a new life in the "most beautiful house in Sicily." When artists and and writers like Tennessee Williams Bertrand Russell Roald Dahl and the painter Henry Faulkner visited Sicily they stayed at Casa Cuseni a perfectly proportioned house built in golden stone on a hillside near Mount Etna. For 50 years this has been the home of Daphne Phelps who now tells its story with warmth charm and style. ISBN: 0786706562.
This is the captivating memoir of a resourceful woman who started life anew in the "most beautiful house in Sicily." For fifty years, at Casa Cuseni in the small Sicilian town of Taormina, Daphne Phe
For fifty years, at Casa Cuseni in the small Sicilian town of Taormina, Daphne Phelps has extended her English charm and warm hospitality to seasoned travelers and professional escapists as well as to writers and artists like Tennessee Williams, Bertrand Russell, Henry Faulkner, and Roald Dahl. This memoir tells their story, and hers. It begins in 1947 when, thirty-four years old and war-weary, a modest Englishwoman arrived in Taormina with little Italian, less money, and a plan to sell the property she had unexpectedly inherited. Instead, she fell in love, not just with the airy quarters of the golden stone house on a hillside but also with a community and its way of life. To save Casa Cuseni from certain demolition, Daphne converted her enchanting inheritance into the wondrous pensione that for nearly half a century she has run with the blessing of every Taorminan from the local silk-shirted godfather, Don Ciccio, to Concetta Genio, her steadfast cook, housekeeper, and friend. "A loving portrait ... of a vanishing way of life." - New York Times Book Review; "The often humorous clash of cultures ... [and] the stories of the ordinary Sicilian men and women who populate the pages that make this book, and this place, so special,... so thoroughly alive." - Chicago Tribune.
"I had always been a bit of a maverick," writes Daphne Phelps, looking back on why--at the age of 34--when she unexpectedly inherited a grand house in Taormina, Sicily, she gave up her profession in London, left behind her ordered life with its museums, theater, family and friends, and embarked on a life-long adventure. Reading her intriguing memoir, one is glad Phelps chose the unconventional path: after inheriting her uncle's Casa Cuseni with its terraced gardens and staggering views of Mt. Etna, she struggles to make ends meet, but instead of selling the estate, opens its doors to a steady stream of paying guests and visitors--many of them artists, writers, and intellectuals.
Inheriting an estate in Italy in 1947 isn't quite like winning the lottery, it turns out. In short sketches, Phelps reminisces about stepping into small-town Sicilian life, war-weary, speaking very little Italian, and even more scandalous, being unmarried. With her no-nonsense British humor, she recounts the typical conversation with men, young and old: "Are you married?" "No." "When are you going to get married?" "Chi lo sa--who knows?'" And then, "Why aren't you married?"
Settling into daily life at Casa Cuseni, Phelps dons boots and digs into the garden, rolls up her sleeves and cleans the baroque carvings over the salon fireplace, and learns to manage the property and its full-time staff. As she points out in the book's conclusion, for more than 50 years now, house-related problems have kept her on her toes--those, and her amazingly devoted servant, cook, and even the local Mafia don, whom she all describes with more than a little condescension in a series of deft portraits. While Phelps's cynicism can be a bit hard to take when she's serving up her servants, she is, perhaps, at her best when telling stories about her famous houseguests: Bertrand Russell, Henry Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, even Roald Dahl. Some were charming, some were horrid. But the visitors came from 26 countries, with friends introducing their friends. Around the dining room table and in this volume Phelps has mixed people who in "normal life would be unlikely to meet." It is this Sicilian menagerie--anchored to a singular place and time, and viewed through a British prism--that makes Phelps's life story so worth the telling. --Kimberly Brown
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