William Riviere
Sceptre
Otago Daily Times, September 30th 2004
By the Grand Canal is a verbal watercolour of last-century postwar Venice. Well past her glory days as the capital of a trading empire, she is now faded and neglected, but retains the spirit of a more genteel and refined age. It is this which draws British diplomat Hugh Thorne back to the city in the aftermath of World War 1. Tired and sick at heart, he looks to Venice as a “place of promise, of possible renewal”. The novel follows Hugh, his friends, his mistress, and the widow of his best friend as they work their way through the complications of love, loss and change. Their quiet stories are satisfyingly believable, but it is Venice that is the central character — a rich and evocative presence on every page, and in every moment lived by those who dwell there. The author’s love of the beautiful, haunting city is obvious. I have never been there, but after reading this story I feel as if I know the city, and long to see it — if only to discover the truth of the visions Riviere invokes.
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