My literary design encounters are joys to imagine and to craft, the array of historical figures available to me virtually endless.

“‘I’d like that sunny table near the windows under the beautiful mirror,’ he says to the hostess at Le Vrai, pointing to the niche set with two café tables, perfect for reading Dante all afternoon. Only a few decades earlier, the waistcoat and watch fob dangling from its pocket would have been out of place, but this is 21st-century Milan and eccentricity in fashion is a hallmark of the creative spirit these days.” So begins the literary design encounter Reading Dante in Milan.

The protagonist of this story is none other than Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was the honeycombed wall treatments in a luxuriant red that had caught his eye, and it’s no wonder. He’s carrying a leather-bound book of Dante Alighieri’s La Vita Nuova (The New Life), its cover scratched; it’s spine broken from constant openings. The narrative continues, “‘I see you’ve brought a book to read,’ the hostess remarks as she seats him on the roomy leather settee. ‘I’ll put you here so you’ll be comfortable for as long as you like.’

“‘That’s so kind of you,’ Shelley responds. ‘I’m fond of this place already, though it’s a bit of a surprise to find a French brasserie and boulangerie in the heart of Milan!’” This is but one of my literary design encounters on the blog so if you think you might enjoy the fictive realities I’ve created, simply click on the tag and they are all filed there.