The Stones of Florence

A tribute to the author’s beloved Florence, blending history, artistic reflection, and keen social observation.

Renowned for her sharp literary style, essayist and fiction writer Mary McCarthy offers a unique history of Florence. From its inception to the dominant role it came to play in the world of art, architecture, and Italian culture, McCarthy captures the brilliant Florentine spirit and revisits the legendary figures Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and others who exemplify it so iconically. Her most cherished sights and experiences color this timeless portrait of a city that is as famous as it is alluring.

“Mary McCarthy...may be writing the most stimulating guidebooks of our time.”—Lincoln Kirstein, The Nation

“Miss McCarthy is not only well versed in the subject but her taste is sure and her style—cool, astringently witty, yet eloquent—seems tailor-made for depicting the brilliant, mercurial, skeptical Florentines....no student of the Renaissance should be without The Stones of Florence.”—Carlo Beuf, The New York Times Book Review

“A solid tribute to the city and its people past and present, an estimate achieved without the least sentimentality, and free of solemn artiness.”—William D. Patterson, Saturday Review Syndicate