Pemble, John

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Holds doctorate.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol, 13 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, England. E-mail—johnpemble@talk21.com.

CAREER: University of Bristol, Bristol, England, former member of department of historical studies, became honorary senior research fellow.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Invasion of Nepal: John Company at War, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1971.

The Raj, the Indian Mutiny, and the Kingdom of Oudh, 1801-1859, Fairleigh Dickinson University (Rutherford, NJ), 1977.

(Editor) Miss Fane in India, Alan Sutton (Gloucester, England), 1985.

The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

Venice Rediscovered, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

John Addington Symonds: Culture and the Demon Desire, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Shakespeare Goes to Paris: How the Bard Conquered France, Hambledon & London (London, England), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: In his writings, John Pemble focuses on historical studies. These include books about the British presence in Southern Asia and India, as well as works of social, cultural, and intellectual history, such as The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South, John Addington Symonds: Culture and the Demon Desire, and Shakespeare Goes to Paris: How the Bard Conquered France. In his 1995 Venice Rediscovered, Pemble examines how that Italian city became a touchstone for modern travelers and romantics worldwide. He looks at the history of the city from the days when it was largely forgotten in the eighteenth century, to the modern day when it has become not only a center of the arts but also a work of art in its own right with its canals, palaces, and churches. Pemble also examines how the city has inspired many writers, including Thomas Mann, Henry James, Marcel Proust, Ezra Pound, and among others, Friedrich Nietzche.

Reviewing Venice Rediscovered in the Washington Post Book World, Daniel Pinchbeck noted that Pemble "incisively documents … the artistic fascination with Venice [that] led to its poignant afterlife as modern myth and stagnant backwater." A critic for Kirkus Reviews found Venice Rediscovered to be "a nicely anecdotal introduction to Western cultural history as encapsulated in a single, magical city." Similarly, a contributor for the Italian Voice wrote: "Venice Rediscovered is an important contribution to our understanding of modern culture and will captivate anyone who has ever visited—or dreamed of visiting—Venice itself." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly concluded: "Though dense and scholarly, [Pemble's] work is nevertheless accessible and exciting, with rich rewards for sophisticated readers."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, March, 1978, review of The Raj, the Indian Mutiny, and the Kingdom of Oudh, 1801-1859, p. 127; March, 1988, review of The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South, p. 1156; April 1991, review of The Mediterranean Passion, p. 1281.

Italian Voice, May 25, 1995, review of Venice Rediscovered, p. 8.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 1995, review of Venice Rediscovered, p. 146.

Library Journal, February 15, 1995, Harold M. Otness, review of Venice Rediscovered, p. 169.

Observer (London, England), August 2, 1987, review of The Mediterranean Passion, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, January 30, 1995, review of Venice Rediscovered, p. 93.

Times Literary Supplement, July 9, 1971, review of The Invasion of Nepal: John Company at War, p. 804; October 23, 1987, review of The Mediterranean Passion, p. 1161.

Washington Post Book World, March 12, 1995, Daniel Pinchbeck, review of Venice Rediscovered, p. 2.

ONLINE

Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol Web site, http://www.bris.ac.uk/ (February 2, 2005), "Dr. John Pemble."

Hambledon & London Web site, http://www.hambledon.co.uk/ (February 9, 2005), "John Pemble."