This is the first anthology of British travel writing on Italy which traces the development of the genre and the history of the British perception of Italy from the Renaissance to the present. As an anthologie raissonnée it presents the texts in thematic clusters and chronological order, providing commentary and annotations for each of them and their nearly hundred authors (some of them, like Smollett, Byron, Dickens or Huxley, well-known, others virtually unknown, amongst them many unduly neglected women writers). Further features are a substantial introduction to the travelogue and the writing of Italy, more than thirty illustrations visualizing the British experience of Italy, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A compelling true-crime tale” (Elle) from an award–winning journalist about a murder in Italy and the controversial prosecution, conviction, and twenty-six-year sentencing of Amanda Knox—featuring a new epilogue “Clear-eyed, sweeping, honest, and tough . . . This is what long-form journalism is all about.”—Tim Egan, author of The Worst Hard Time The sexually violent murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, became a media sensation when Kercher’s housemate, Seattle native Amanda Knox, and her Italian boyfriend were arrested and charged with the murder. The story drew an international cult obsessed with “Foxy Knoxy,” a pretty honor student on a junior year abroad, who either woke up one morning into a nightmare of superstition and misogyny—the dark side of Italy—or participated in something unspeakable. The Fatal Gift of Beauty is Nina Burleigh’s literary investigation of the murder, the prosecution, and the conviction and twenty-six-year sentence of Knox. But it is also a thoughtful, compelling examination of an enduring mystery, an ancient, storied place, and a disquieting facet of Italian culture: an obsession with female sexuality.