In blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, diplomats and travellers, English nation and Italian nation, Maura O'Connor shows us the extent to which imagination, pleasure and politics were intimately interwoven in her story of the English middle-class fascination with the Italian peninsula from the early 1800s through to the 1860s. O'Connor uses a variety of sources, ranging from travel writings and the popular press to diplomatic dispatches and official correspondence, to illustrate how influential the romance of Italy was to the bourgeois, liberal, and above all English social...

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In essays that engage practical, methodological, and to reflect upon their own research. In essays that engage practical, methodological, and theoretical questions, these contributors assess the gains-but also the obstacles and perils of research that traverses national boundaries.