The Riviera Set, The Unfinished Palazzo and The Last Castle

2017-11-30T13:06:00-05:00

The gleaming low white villa was set into the rocks behind it, as though it belonged there, and guests who glanced out of the windows or stepped onto the private balcony of their bedroom would get the impression that it was almost hanging over the blue sea. The swimming pool, considered the best on the Riviera, was housed in a basin blasted out of the rocks and featured a water-chute so that bathers could slide down into the sea below and swim to a raft tethered just offshore.

Back in October, the Book Review published a trio of reviews, for three newly published house histories. The three homes, well known at least in their time, all belonged to the famous, wealthy or both.

First, Sadie Stein reviews Mary S. Lovell's, ritzy Riviera history of the Château de l’Horizon. Next, Judith Martin looks at the history of Ca’ Nonfinito, an 18th-century Venetian building, which Judith Mackrellexplores through the lives of three "notoriously eccentric women" (Marchesa Luisa Casati, Lady Castlerosse and Peggy Guggenheim) who lived in it.

Finally, Vicky Ward argues that Denise Kiernan's "wider lens on the Gilded Age" results in fuller understanding of the story behind "America’s Original McMansion".

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The Riviera Set, The Unfinished Palazzo and The Last Castle