"The Bay of Noon" is one of those rare novels that tries to address itself to the reader's intelligence rather than his nightmares. Its assumptions are firm and modest: that the reader will enjoy a sense of place if that place is drawn for him so perfectly that it seems to breathe, that the reader will understand a story based on the interactions of personality rather than mere violence, that the reader will take pleasure in a style that is consciously elegant and literary. (p. 4)

[Style] is the added element that makes the book a good deal more than [a] plain and honest novel…. Ancient Naples, well-worn by all the travel writers, has a sudden freshness in every view; it becomes its name, which means "new city." (p. 5)