Part of a remarkably talented family, Henry James is regarded as one of the most important American writers of the nineteenth century. Although he is best known for novels such as The Wings of the Dove and The Portrait of a Lady, James was also a renowned essayist. This volume collects a series of essays about James' extensive travels in Italy, which were written and revised by the author over a period of 40 years.

Near Mount Etna in Sicily, on a hillside rising precipitously above the small terracotta-roofed town below, sits a perfectly proportioned house built in golden stone, the most beautiful in Taormina, A House in Sicily is a homage to Casa Cuseni, written by the Englishwoman who has loved and cared for it for over fifty years.