Henry James was a renowned observer of European culture, in both his fiction and in his life. In particular, he loved Italy, visiting it 14 times during his lifetime and setting several of his novels in the country. Between 1873 and 1909, he also wrote numerous essays and travelogues that were ultimately collected into one volume and published as [i]Italian Hours[/i]. James is famous for his fine perception and baroque prose and both are found in abundance in [i]Italian Hours[/i]. As one would expect, he is a wonderful cultural critic, providing passionate and discerning reviews of the highlights of Italy's art and architecture. He also presents a surprisingly familiar view of the changes that time and tourism were bringing to modern Italy.For all of his acute insights, [i]Italian Hours[/i] is, above all, an affair of the heart and will resonate with anyone who shares his love of the country. Stanfords Travel Classics feature some of the finest historical travel writing in the English language, with authors hailing from both sides of the Atlantic. Every title has been rest in a contemporary typeface and has been printed to a high quality production specification, to create a series that every lover of fine travel literature will want to collect and keep.