Sketches of Etruscan Places contains seven essays D. H. Lawrence wrote in 1927 after visiting several Etruscan cities in central Italy. Six were published posthumously in 1932 as Etruscan Places; 'The Florence Museum' is published for the first time here. Some appeared in magazines in Lawrence's lifetime, but he expressed his deep concern that they be published in a volume with the photographs he had collected; in fact, only twenty of the forty-five illustrations here reproduced with Lawrence's own captions were included in 1932. Eight essays about Florence and the Tuscan countryside, written between 1919 and 1927, form the second part of the volume. They contain assessments of Lawrence's views on life, nature and humanity. 'Looking Down on the City' is hitherto unpublished. The texts have been established by checking manuscripts, typescripts, proofs and periodical and book publications. Alterations made by typists, printers and previous editors have been eliminated, and recorded in the apparatus. The introduction gives the genesis, publication, textual history and reception of the essays, while notes help with historical, geographical, literary and linguistic identifications.
The Historical outline sketches the relevant events in Etruscan history, and maps of Italy, Etruria and Florence are provided.