The Beginning of a Journey. Diary entry: Venice, Nov. 4th

One day while browsing a list of ebooks on Venice, I came upon a book published in 1892, titled “A Daughter of Venice” by John Seymour Wood, now among the free downloadable books available online.  I wondered who would be so fortunate as to be named the “daughter” of such a magical city whose beauty I reminisce often; the place where I found and reveled in the peace one finds in solitude and the thrill one finds in navigating a new and unfamiliar place.  And so I downloaded the book and read the first sentence, which reads:

“I resume my diary-neglected for so many months-for the reason, sufficiently satisfactory to myself, that here, in Venice, those who come after me, and who may see fit to peruse it, will find written less of myself  and more of what I note in this strange, sad old city.”  

These humble words further sparked my interest.  I browsed online for some information on the book or the author and came up empty handed.  This added to the sense of mystery around the book.  I soon came up with the idea of dedicating a blog to my thoughts and discoveries on the book as I try and unravel the meaning behind the title, the meaning behind this diary entry, and simply read through the diary to see what the narrator “notes” in Venice and why this sense of sadness.  I don’t believe this to be a place to summarize the book, but one that perhaps is a starting point for other thoughts on Venice, maybe even unrelated to Venice, but acting as a point of departure and inspiration for something else.  What that will be will uncover as I read through these diary entries and I hope you will join me on this journey.   Welcome.


Note: The illustration above by Francis Thayer is taken from the first diary entry in the book.