Book Review – Venetian Vespers by John Banville

About the Book

Everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me. . .

1899. As the new century approaches, English hack-writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn’s plans of a substantial inheritance are thrown into doubt.

As the unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice at Palazzo Dioscuri – the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo – a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences exacerbate Evelyn’s already frayed is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city or is he losing his mind?

Format: Hardcover (368 pages) Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication date: 25th September 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Evelyn Dolman’s initial impression of Venice is not of a romantic city, but of a gloomy, cold and damp place hardly worthy of the title ‘La Serenissima’. For him, it’s a place of ‘glancing lights, distorting reflections, looming shadows’.

Venice was not his choice of location for their belated honeymoon but that of his wife Laura. Strangely, on arrival at their lodgings, the many-roomed but gently decaying Palazzo Dioscuri owned by the flamboyant but sinister Count Barbarigo, Laura seems to have no interest in exploring the city. Instead she urges Evelyn to go out on his own.

Arriving at the famous Cafe Florian he meets Freddie who says he went to the same school as Evelyn although, strangely, Evelyn has no memory of him. Freddie introduces Evelyn to his twin sister Francesca, known as Cesca, and Evelyn is instantly smitten by her beauty and wit. Harry and Cesca live a vagabond lifestyle, travelling from place to place and relying, Evelyn suspects, on the generosity of others to fund it. They persuade him to join them for a long series of nightcaps, introducing him to that powerful spirit, grappa.

The first six months of Evelyn and Laura’s marriage have not been a success. Laura rebuffs Evelyn’s sexual advances and in fact seems completely indifferent to him. It has become a source of increasing frustration which leads him in his drunken state to carry out an uncharacteristic act of violence. By the time he awakens the next morning, riven with guilt, Laura has disappeared without trace.

What follows sees Evelyn caught in a web of deceit, increasingly wondering if he can trust those around him or indeed trust in his own sanity. Unwilling to confess his actions prior to Laura’s disappearance, he attempts to hide her absence until the charade is unsustainable and he becomes the object of suspicion. Evelyn is a pompous figure, full of misplaced self-importance, but this hides a deep insecurity. We, the reader, sense fairly quickly that he is being manipulated, but to what end and by whom?

In the author’s hands, Venice is a place of damp, decay and menace in which no-one is quite what they seem. There’s a deliciously sinister atmosphere, with strange occurrences that might be supernatural or might be the work of human hands. There’s a pervasive sexuality to the story whether that’s the Count’s lascivious maid or Cesca’s teasing allure.

Venetian Vespers is an entertainingly sinister tale which effortlessly captures the style of the period in which it is set. Perfect for cold autumn nights.

I received a review copy courtesy of Faber & Faber via NetGalley.

In three words: Atmospheric, intriguing, sensuous
Try something similar: Dangerous by Essie Fox

About the Author

Born in Wexford, Ireland in 1945, John Banville has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Premio Nonino, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He lives in Dublin. (Photo/bio: Publisher author page)