Against Venice (Pushkin Collection)

A beautifully designed new edition of Against Venice, an antidote to the cliches of Venice and an irreverent and witty criticism of the world of parties and palazzo, by Regis Debray, the famous controversial French intellectual who fought alongside Che Guevara. Cover by fashion designer Julie Verhoeven. Numerous writers have made declarations of love to the Serenissima, but no-one else has so refreshingly shown its vanities and its seduction. Published by Pushkin Press, Against Venice by Regis Debray is translated from the French by John Howe and has an afterword by the author. In his trenchantly written polemic, Debray scorns the tone of elegaic mawkishness in accounts of Venice by the likes of Proust and Morand. His excoriating little pamphlet is a corrective to our self-consciously poetic vapourings about Venice. --IAN THOMSON The Sunday Times^pHe can write brilliantly. Debray's mischievous polemic denounces not only the modern tourist but the so-called sophisticate for swooning over a Venice that is little more than a narcissistic reflection of the viewer's own pretensions. Debray is funny, hugely intelligent, immensely quotable and possibly quite insincere. --NICHOLAS LEZARD The Guardian^pDebray's diatribe is witty and elegant ... he fires off his fusillades with great panache, and I relish his unbuttoned aplomb. -- RICHARD CORK Modern Painters