Earthly Remains, the series' 26th installment and 2017 release, allows the Commissioner to access island animals and readers to assemble Guido Brunetti menageries as derivative Donna Leon zoos for Fathers Day farmscapes.
Apartment living without domesticated animals in an island city of real pigeons and symbolic lions brings the Commissioner interactions with animals as ingredients in Venetian cuisine. Chiara, the younger of the Commissioner's two teen-aged children, considers cats, and a classmate whose family collects them as companionable pets, smelly in Death and Judgment. Commissario Guido Brunetti delights in demanding back and forth with a shop's mynah bird Ciao! Come ti stai? (Hi! How are you?) in A Noble Radiance.
Donna Leon exposes her Commissioner to Marcus Tullius Cicero's (Jan. 3, 106 B.C.-Dec. 7, 43 B.C.) private and public crimes and his animals to toxic wastes.
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Website: http://www.donnaleon.net/
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Comments
WriterArtist, Thank you for stopping by and talking about one of my favorite subjects: wildlife.
Donna Leon comes up with another Guido Brunetti mystery at the beginning of each spring. It's fascinating how many species she mentions and, as you notice, how many turn into long-term Venetian residents.
In this latest, Transient Desires, she tackles once again how pollution hurts people and water-world animals and plants.
This is a celebration of animal and bird lovers. I have come across many such people who cannot afford a menagerie and yet they are out in the wild and in the city feeding and saving wild life. Venice seems to be full of life with not only humans but all kinds of friendly species who have made the city their home.
Tolovaj, Thank you for appreciating Venice.
Donna Leon's novels and her writings on music appeal to me because she's accurate in her descriptions -- and took the time to become fluent in Italian and Venetian -- of the watery wonderland that is La bella Venezia.
I find it charming that Pietro Longhi chose to depict Clara the Indian rhinoceros (1738-April 14, 1758) during the historic moment of her losing her horn in Venice.
Thanks for these lovely sparklings from one of the most romantic cities in the world (despite the overload of tourists). A rhinoceros was a total surprise to me!
As always an educational and informed article I really enjoyed seeing the The Rhinoceros by Pietro. Longhi
blackspanielgallery, Yes, I realize that the birds and sealife are realistic renditions of the Metropolitan City of Venice's wildlife even though boa constrictors, elephants, pit vipers and rhinoceroses are not. My hypothetical, imaginary menagery merely unites all the animals that Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti references, as character comparisons (someone being like a snake) or as Venetian icons (eagles, lion of San Marco), as Venetian inhabitants or, in the case of the elephant and the rhinoceros, as Venetian visitors.
Veronica, Thank you for appreciating my Maine Coon kittycat, Augusta, nicknamed Gusty and Gusty-Gus (in honor of Mark Wahlberg's career as Marky Mark in his pre-acting days), and her companions Randall known as Rennie and Rose Aurora known as Rosy.
Yes, I've been, which is why I appreciate Donna Leon's authentic depiction of Venice as the buildings, canals and streets really are.
I can see how birds and sealife might be natural, but some of these would be curiosities in an island setting like Venice.
Derdriu
What a coincidence! my next door neighbour has recently bought a Maine-Coon; I had never heard of one before and now you post this lovely tribute.
Anything to do with Venice is wonderful for me. You have chosen lovely images . Have you ever been ?