Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Venice

By: Jan Morris
Narrated by: Sebastian Comberti
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £21.99

Buy Now for £21.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Venice stands, as she loves to tell you, on the frontiers of the east and west, half-way between the setting and the rising sun. Goethe calls her "the market-place of the Morning and the Evening lands". Certainly no city on earth gives a more immediate impression of symmetry and unity, or seems more patently born to greatness.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2010 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2010 Naxos AudioBooks
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Heaven's Command cover art
Conundrum cover art
A Time of Gifts cover art
Paris, Paris cover art
Victorian London cover art
Between the Woods and the Water cover art
I, Claudius cover art
The 8.55 to Baghdad cover art
Yorkshire cover art
The Emigrants: Ambros Adelwarth (Dramatised) cover art
Pictures from Italy cover art
Himalaya cover art
The Medici Murders cover art
Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days cover art
Shadow of the Silk Road cover art
Brazil cover art

What listeners say about Venice

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    54
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    44
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    42
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Evocative and informative

More social history than guide book, Morris paints a timeless portrait of this unique city. Whether you’re actively planning a visit or just an armchair traveller it’s well worth a read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unique love letter from a master

Love letter may be wrong, its almost a loving obituary, taking in to account the good the bad and the ugly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must listen masterpiece

The definitive guide, and in truth a love letter, to Venice. Absolutely fantastic. The book transported me to La Serenissima and I learned so much. A must listen for anyone who likes Venice or indeed a planning guide on where to go while you are there.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The beautiful vocabulary

I loved the fluent narration. I enjoyed all the factual information delivered in poetic phrases. The whole book is an absolute joy!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

All parts of this amazing book are so beautiful.

What an amazing book! What a story or history of Venice. Love this book very much and want visit the city and read it there.
The narrator is very good, but the sound is a little echoey. It distracts from the story sometimes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliantly narratef

Venice is a rich book, full of wonderful language. This audio book does it full justice with a narration that brings out the best in the writing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A book of lists

It's a shame that it was thought a good idea to update this book. It should have been left as a 1960s homage to Venice and its history The scope of the book is vast and complex so the odd tweaks that have been made sit uncomfortably with the rest. The book reflects the attitudes of the time it was written and there is a lot of racial stereotyping and a fair few patronising statements (hence 4 out of 5). Nevertheless it is an outstanding achievement and the narrator does it justice, managing to deliver the frequent and seemingly iterminable lists without running out of breath. I will admit to preferring Morris's Trieste as a book. This is definitely a Gormenghast castle of a book: large, rambling and full of unexpected things.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting but

This book is interesting but I would not recommend it to somebody new to Venice and its history. The book is broken into themes like “The Islands”, “The People”, etc. which makes it difficult to understand the development of Venice as a world power. It is largely based on the impressions of a rather knowledgeable lady about the city. It is puzzling why a guy was chosen to read this work. The book includes a few fun facts and humorous stories so can be interesting as an additional source of information.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Well informed but badly organised.

I love Audible. I've listened to some great history texts and I've learned so much. However, I'm sorry to say that Jan Morrs' Venice for all of its length has taught me very little.

I bought this as a history text, but really this text is more like a modern guide book with a big portion of history mixed in. This sounds fine, but the problem is that while there is content, it is so higgledy piggledy in its distribution that the information just gets tangled, mixed up and confused.

Just as frustrating is the style of the writing. This book is overwritten and, frankly, rather self indulgent. Don't get me wrong. Morris can write lovely, florid sentences, but there are so many of them here that when the information finally arrives, it takes you by surprise and you miss it.

As I listened, in frustration, I found myself thinking that perhaps this book would be more enjoyable to someone who already knows the city well. For me, however, a Venice virgin so to speak (ahem), something more focussed on content, and organised chronologically would have been far more rewarding.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Very dated

So many assumptions about the National and Regional characteristics of people that it’s hard to ignore.
Beautiful prose but just too many outdated and vaguely distressing comments for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!