Classic travel writing Books

Book SynopsisAn anthology of writings and photographs celebrating the outstanding contribution of one of the country's most distinguished and enduring travel writers, and the century's greatest living explorer.At the age of twenty-three, three years after attending the coronation of Haile Selassie, Thesiger made his first expedition into the country of the murderous Danakil tribe. Since then he has traversed the Empty Quarter twice, spending five years among the Bedu, followed by several years living as no Westerner had in the strange world of the Marshmen of Iraq.Later he made many mountain journeys in the awesome ranges of the Karakorams, the Hindu Kush, Ladakh and Chitral. After these varied and often dangerous adventures among fast-disappearing cultures, Thesiger settled down to spend over twenty years living mostly among the pastoral Samburu in Northern Kenya, until 1994 when he finally returned to England permanently.These experiences have, over the years, provided rich material for writings Trade Review‘One of the very few people who in our time could be put on the pedestal of the great explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries.’ David Attenborough ‘He belongs to an endangered species; he is one of the last, great gentlemen explorer-adventurers of our time.’ Richard Holmes ‘He dwells in a Homeric age of exploration and travel writing, an age before sponsorship and television tie-ins. He stands as a monolith against trash consumerist and trash celebrity culture.’ Sara Wheeler

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Book Synopsis'London: A Pilgrimage' was conceived in 1868 by the journalist and playwright Blanchard Jerrold. Accompanied by the famous artist Gustave Doré, Jerrold prowled every corner of the heaving metropolis, sometimes with plain-clothes police for protection. 'London: A Pilgrimage' is a forgotten classic of social journalism, a frank and brutal look at the poverty striken, gin-swilling London of the nineteenth century, written in a perceptive, bold and gripping style.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations; Introduction by Peter Ackroyd; Preface; Introduction; I: London Bridge; II: The Busy River-Side; III. The Docks; IV. Above Bridge towards Westminster; V. All London at A Boat Race; VI. The Race; VII. The Derby; VIII. London on the Drowns; IX. The West End; X. In the Season; XI. By the Abbey; XII. London, Under Green Leaves; XIII. With the Beasts; XIV: Work-A-Day London; XV. Humble Industries; XVI. The Town of Malt; XVII. Under Lock and Key; XVIII. Whitechapel and Thereabouts; XIX. In the Market Place; XX. London at Play; XXI. London Charity

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Book SynopsisD.H. Lawrence's first travel book and an important insight into the roots of his literary genius. In 1912, a young D.H. Lawrence left England for the first time and travelled to northern Italy. He spent nearly a year on the shores of Lake Garda, lodged in elegantly decaying houses set amid lemon groves and surrounded by the fading life of traditional Italy. This is a travel book unlike any other, where landscapes and people are backdrops to Lawrence's deeper wanderings - into philosophy, opinion, life, nature, religion and the fate of man. With sensuous descriptions of late harvests, darkening days and fragile ancient traditions, Twilight in Italy is suffused with nostalgia and premonition. For, looming over the idyll of rural Italy hover dark spectres: the arrival of the industrial age and the brewing storm of World War I, upheavals that would change the face of Europe forever.Trade ReviewIf this is travel writing, it is travel writing in excelsis - beyond the spectacle, beyond the experience, beyond even the interpretation, into profound conclusions of the spirit, -- Jan MorrisIt cannot be read as an ordinary travel book, for his voyage is philosophic, as well as a symbolic and sensuous one. -- Anais NinThe sharpness of Lawrence's eye is incredible...brilliantly informative, educative, entertaining and moving. -- Anthony BurgessTable of ContentsIntroduction The Crucifix across the Mountains Part I On the Lago Di Garda 1.The Spinner and the Monks 2. The Lemon Gardens 3. The Theatre 4. San Gaudenzio 5. The Dance 6. Il Duro 7. John Part II Italians in Exile 8. Italians in Exile Part III The Return Journey 9. The Return Journey

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Book SynopsisMarco Polo set off on his travels from Venice as a young man in 1271, and returned home in 1295 after spending 24 years away, 17 of them in China. He isone of the few early adventurers whose name nearly everyone knows. His book was one of the best-loved works of the Middle Ages, and has remained popular ever since. At a time when China is again assuming global importance, his account of China under the Mongol emperor Khubilai Khan - the dazzlingly splendid capital in Beijing, the great southern metropolis of Hangzhou - is a classic reminder of the antiquity of Chinese power and civilization.Marco Polo also portrays countries and cities all along the trade route from the Mediterranean to Mongolia. He reminds us that Iraq's present suffering is not unique by relating the story of the attack on Baghdad by Mongol forces in 1258. He conveys the daunting prospect of the deserts of central Asia and the distant charms of Yunnan. And he reminds us of the huge merchant ships dominating China's trade with foreign countries, ships that far outstripped their European counterparts. He even writes about Japan, the first European to do so. His book was often thought of as a book of marvels, but one of its striking features to a contemporary reader is its clarity, realism and tolerance. As this new edition shows, he sometimes exaggerates, but his reputation for making things up is quite unfair, as Colin Thubron makes clear in his introduction. The original manuscript of Marco Polo's book is lost, and in the many later versions names and other details have become so garbled that it has been said that his itineraries are impossible to follow. This new Everyman edition shows this need not be so. It explains clearly all the references in the book, and shows in detail with new maps the routes described from Venice to Beijing, from Beijing to Burma, and from Beijing to south-east China. It also provides an up-to-date history of the book and the controversies surrounding it.

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Book SynopsisThis work examines the travel account of a German baroque author who journeyed in search of silk from Northern Germany, through Muscovy, to the court of Shah Safi in Isfahan. Olearius introduced Persian culture to the German-speaking public; his appraisal of Persian customs prepares the way for German Romanticism's infatuation with Persian poetry.

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Book SynopsisPre-1923 historical reproduction curated for quality, with quality assurance to remove digitization errors. Despite efforts, occasional errors may be present. Book brought back into print for cultural importance and preservation. Bibliobazaar edition.

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Book SynopsisThe ultimate travel companion for voracious voyagers.Do you yearn for a life off the beaten track? Brought to you by Wanderlust, the original travel magazine, this bite-sized guide is jam-packed with trivia, facts and quotes to help cure even the most serious cases of itchy feet. Find out which country has a museum dedicated exclusively to Pot Noodles, which country has more islands than any other nation and which holiday destination you're likely to prefer based on whether you're an extrovert or an introvert. With inspiring quotes from seasoned travellers, The Little Book of Wanderlust is the perfect gift for jetsetters and journeyers.Table of ContentsDepartures • Take Off • Culture Shock • Bucket List • Trailblazers • Homeward Bound.

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Book SynopsisThe great nineteenth-century British traveler Edward William Lane (1801–76) was the author of a number of highly influential works: An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), his translation of The Thousand and One Nights (1839–41), Selections from the Kur-an (1843), and the Arabic–English Lexicon (1863–93). Yet in 1831, publication of one of his greatest works, Description of Egypt, was delayed, and eventually dropped, mainly for financial reasons, by the publishing firm of John Murray. The manuscript was sold to the British Library by Lane’s widow in 1891, and was salvaged for publication as a hardcover book, in 2000, by Jason Thompson, nearly 170 years after its completion. Now available in paperback, this book, which takes the form of a journey through Egypt from north to south, with descriptions of all the ancient monuments and contemporary life that Lane explored along the way, will be of interest to both ancient and modern historians of Egypt, and is an essential companion to his Manners and Customs.Trade Review‘’Jason Thompson’s exact and dedicated edition deserves much praise.’’—ASTENE Bulletin“A major work’’—Daniel Pipes, Middle East Quarterly"A valuable snapshot of the ruins in the 1820s before clearance and in some cases, destruction."—Morris Bierbrier, Egyptian ArchaeologyTable of ContentsContentsMap of Egypt ixList of Figures xiList of Tables xvList of Abbreviations xviiNote on Transliteration, Translation, and Dates xix Acknowledgments xxiIntroduction 1Part One: Egyptology and Pharaonism to 19301. Egyptology and Pharaonism in Egypt before Tutankhamun 192. Nationalizing Tutankhamun 513. Western Egyptology in Egypt in the Wake of Tutankhamun, 1922–1930 814. Egyptian Egyptology and Pharaonism in the Wake of Tutankhamun, 1922–1930 109Part Two: Tourism and Islamic, Coptic, and Greco–Roman Archaeologies5. Consuming Antiquity: Western Tourism between Two Revolutions, 1919–1952 1376. In the Shadow of Egyptology: Islamic Art and Archaeology to 1952 1677. Copts and Archaeology: Sons of Saint Mark / Sons of the Pharaohs 1978. Alexandria, Egypt, and the Greco–Roman Heritage 229Part Three: Egyptology and Pharaonism to Nasser’s Revolution9. Contesting Egyptology in the 1930s 26310. Pharaonism and Its Challengers in the 1930s and 1940s 29511. Egyptology in the Twilight of Empire and Monarchy, 1939–1952 32912. Conclusion 355Notes 369Bibliography 449Index 481

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Book SynopsisA facsimile edition of Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales. In the Victorian era, the name Bradshaw became synonymous with reliable information on travelling the nation's blossoming network of railways. Published in 1904, Canals and Navigable Rivers was the first guide to planning journeys on the inland waterways of England and Wales. Noting bridges, locks, distances and commercial use, it explores the routes, operation and history of the network, and gives commentary on the areas through which it passed. Compiled at a time when the railways had largely supplanted the waterways, it paints a fascinating portrait of the Edwardian canal system as it began to fall into gentle decay. This facsimile edition of the original book now offers a different perspective for canal boaters and walkers, and gives invaluable information about waterways now lost.Trade Review'Congratulations to [Old House] on republishing this, which is the most important source book for all canal historians. And at such a low price too - only GBP15 - which is only a fraction of the amount I paid for my copy twenty years ago.' --Peter Brown, Railway & Canal Historical Society

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Book SynopsisIn June of 1922, Marguerite Harrison, and American journalist and spy embarked from North America on what was to be an epic journey to Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia and Siberia. It was in Siberia that she was arrested by the Bolsheviks, sent 4,000 kilometres to Moscow and imprisoned there, first in the notorious Lubyanka and later in Butrykra Prison. She was threatened with a charge of espionage which could carry the death sentence or at a minimum, ten years' exile in Siberia. Ultimately, the US Government interceded and she was released. Red Bear or Yellow Dragon is one of the finest sources on Japanese society and culture in the 1920s and also offers a rare glimpse into life in the Asian steppes. Harrison undertook a highly dangerous 1,400 km trip from Beijing to Mongolia's capital, Ulan Bator, through the Great Khingan Mountains and over the Gobi Desert to Chita in Siberia. She wrote: 'Most of the roads I followed were bloodstained road - some grim reminders of the World War and Revolution, others with fresh traces of blood shed since the peace.' Marguerite undertook this arduous journey to chronicle the peoples and politics of what she sensed as a stirring of new movements in Asia - the eternal sphinx - that were to severely challenge the West in the coming decades and which continue to do up to the present age.

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Book Synopsis'It tells of terrible journeys, of men masked against the sun (riding through ethereal regions with their feet frozen), of welcoming fog-girt monasteries lit by butter lamps at the journey's end' New Statesman The Way of the White Clouds is the remarkable narrative of a pilgrimage which could not be made today. Lama Anagarika Govinda was among the last to journey through Tibet before its invasion by the Chinese. His unique account is not only a spectacular and gloriously poetic story of exploration and discovery, it is also invaluable for its sensitive and clearly presented interpretation of the Tibetan tradition.'Why is it that the fate of Tibet has found such a deep echo in the world? There can only be one answer: Tibet has become the symbol of all that present-day humanity is longing for' Lama Anagarika GovindaTrade ReviewA hypnotic picture of the Tibet which has vanished * New Statesman *A vivid and moving portrait of a country that has bewitched travellers for centuries...a profound and compelling portrait * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisPaul Theroux has written many works of fiction and travel writing, including the modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast. He divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.

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Book SynopsisSmelling the Breezes is an inspiring adventure, that throws down a gauntlet about what can be achieved in a family holiday. Rather than give a leaving party, Ralph and Molly Izzard had their own plans about how to say goodbye to their home in the Middle East. They would walk the three-hundred mile spine of the Lebanese mountains, camping where ever they stopped with their four children, two donkeys and Elias (their gardener-nursemaid-friend) as their sole travelling companions.Trade ReviewThis is the way to travel four children and two donkeys and this is the way to write a travel book. Birmingham Evening Post

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Book SynopsisGeorge Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. A Hanging, the ninth in the Orwell’s Essays series, tells the story of the execution of an unnamed convict in Burma. With the veracity of the story unknown, but thought to be loosely based on Orwell’s own experiences in Burma, the haunting tale leaves the reader contemplating the heavy topic of colonialism, and the right of one to take the life of another.Trade Review'One of Orwell’s earliest essays, but already a demonstration of his superb and subtle craftsmanship.' (Los Angeles Times)

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Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY FIONA MOZLEY, Booker-shortlisted author of ElmetWITH EXCERPTS FROM ALL THE ROADS ARE OPEN BY ANNEMARIE SCHWARZENBACH'We were both travellers - she always running away from an emotional crisis (not seeing that she was already wishing for the next), I always seeking far afield the secret of harmonious living, or filling up time by courting risk, caught by the clean sharp "taste" it gives to life.'In 1939, adventurer and writer Ella Maillart set off on an epic drive from Geneva to Kabul, accompanied by journalist and photographer Annemarie Schwarzenbach, who later became an antifascist and lesbian icon. The two women travelled partly to escape the coming war in Europe, embarking on a daring, and often dangerous, journey through regions where European women were a rarity. But Schwarzenbach was also fighting a losing battle with morphine addiction, and the women's close but often troubled relationship takes centre stage in the narrative as the journey progresses through Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Encountering breathtaking landscapes, ancient ruins and nomadic peoples, The Cruel Way is a gripping, lyrical and deeply empathetic portrait of places, people and friendship. Brought together for the first time with excerpts from All the Roads are Open, Annemarie Schwarzenbach's parallel account of the journey.

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Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY JAN MORRIS'[This] gloriously ornate account of that epic journey is a classic' ROBERT MACFARLANE'The feeling of being lost in time and geography with months and years hazily sparkling ahead is a prospect of inconjecturable magic.' In 1933, aged eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on his 'great trudge', a year-long journey by foot from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Three decades later he wrote A Time of Gifts, the sparklingly original account of the first part of this youthful adventure, which took him through the Low Countries, up the Rhine, through Germany, down the Danube, through Austria and Czechoslovakia, and as far as Hungary.Alone, carrying only a rucksack and with a small allowance of only a pound a week, Fermor had planned to sleep rough - to live 'like a tramp, a pilgrim, or a wandering scholar' - but a chance introduction in Bavaria led to comfortable stays in castles, and provided a glimpse of the old Europe of princes and peasants.Hailed as a masterpiece, A Time of Gifts is in part a coming-of-age memoir, but it is also a rich and compelling portrait of a continent that - despite its resplendent domes and monasteries, its great rivers and grand cities - was soon to be swept away by war, modernisation and profound social change. 'Not only is this journey one of physical adventure but of cultural awakening. Architecture, art, genealogy, quirks of history and language are all devoured -- and here passed on -- with a gusto uniquely his' COLIN THUBRON, SUNDAY TIMES'One of the most romantic books of the twentieth century, Patrick Leigh Fermor's account of a long walk across Europe is also a literary treasure, a rich blend of action and observation' GUARDIANTrade Review[Fermor's] gloriously ornate account of that epic journey is a classic of what we might call the 'literature of the leg' * Robert Macfarlane, Waitrose Weekend *

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Book SynopsisMary Montagu was one of the most extraordinary characters in the world. She was a self-educated intellectual, a free spirit, a radical, a feminist but also an entitled aristocrat and a society wit with powerful friends at court. In 1716 she travelled across Europe to take up residence in Istanbul as the wife of the British ambassador. Her letters remain as fresh as the day they were penned: enchanted by her discoveries of the life of Turkish women behind the veil, by Arabic poetry and by contemporary medical practices - including inoculation. For two years she lovingly observed Ottoman society as a participant, with affection, intelligence and an astonishing lack of prejudice.Trade Reviewone of the best narrative travel books ever written by an Englishwoman. Dervla Murphy

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Book SynopsisFew writers have known Italy better than Stendhal: he was only seventeen when he first rode south across the Alps in the wake of Napoleon’s armies, and he continued to travel and to live in Italy until a few months before his death. Some of his visits lasted only a few weeks, others continued for years, and he spent the last decade of his life as French Consul in Civitavecchia – yet he was never a tourist in the ordinary sense of the word. Italy, for Stendhal, was never a mere treasure trove of ruins, museums and galleries: it was the life of the country which fascinated him, its spirit, the inner workings of its heart and mind. This picture – or rather this living dream – of Italy he created is as fresh and tantalizing today as it was almost two centuries ago.

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Book SynopsisA highly entertaining and moving journal chronicling J. R. Ackerley''s time in IndiaIn the 1920s, the young J. R. Ackerley spent several months in India as the Private Secretary to the Maharajah of Chhokrapur. Knowing almost nothing of India, he discovers Hindu culture, festivals and language, and reveals the fascinating attitudes of the Palace staff on women, marriage. the caste system and death. At the heart of Hindoo Holiday is the wonderfully unpredictable figure of his Highness the Maharajah Sahib who, ultimately, just wants ''someone to love him''.

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Book SynopsisOne of the non-fiction books of the year.' Andrew O' Hagan A powerful, evocative and deeply personal journey into the world of missing peopleWhen Francisco Garcia was just seven years old, his father, Christobal, left his family. Unemployed, addicted to drink and drugs, and adrift in life, Christobal decided he would rather disappear altogether than carry on dealing with the problems in front of him. So that's what he did, leaving his young wife and child in the dead of night. He has been missing ever since.Twenty years on, Francisco is ready to take up the search for answers. Why did this happen and how could it be possible? Where might his father have gone? And is there any reason to hope for a happy reunion? During his journey, which takes him all across Britain and back to his father's homeland of Spain, Francisco tells the stories of those he meets along the way: the police investigators; the charity employees and volunteers; the once missing and those perilously at risk around usTrade Review‘It had me rapt. A compassionate and dogged work of journalism and memoir that will stay with me.’ Maeve Higgins, author of Maeve in America ‘I was blown away by this book’s gentle wisdom and incredible research. You will love this amazing book.’ Megan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation ‘A pilgrimage through the many heartlands of missing, told with the empathy of someone knows all too well the eternal loss of missing. One of those books you can’t put down, gripped by the need to get to the end of the story, as is Garcia himself. A read-it-in-an-afternoon book with a surprising ending that stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.’ Jo Youle, CEO of Missing People 'This book is a fascinating insight into the complex layers of what it is to be missing and the deep reverberations felt by the families waiting for news. The author shines light on the myriad of issues that result in someone disappearing, with the compassion and empathy of someone with true lived experience.' Kirsty Hillman, Lost Contact supervisor at Missing People ‘This is a beautiful exploration of unresolved grief, and the power and tenacity of those the missing leave behind.’ New Statesman ‘The experience of reading If You Were There is like standing on a beach witnessing the tide pull in and out around you, the landscape forever oscillating between a close, intimate environment and a wide expanse, peopled, on this occasion, with swathes of the missing…’ Guardian, Book of the Day

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Book SynopsisA Waterstones Travel Book of the Year 2023 A funny, warm and timely meditation on identity and belonging, following the scenic route along the England–Wales border: Britain’s deepest faultline. Trade Review‘I loved this book. Mike Parker weaves together a great deal of wide reading, hard thinking and soulful tramping in his funny, thoughtful and evocative investigation of the Welsh–English border.’ Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession and Peep Show ‘Delightful and perceptive … Poses searching questions about identity, culture and political power.’ Waterstones Books of the Year ‘A joyful canter through the Marches. Delightfully engaging. Blending history, literature and personal anecdote, Mike Parker writes with energy and wit.’ TLS ‘No-one maps the secrets of the UK quite like Mike Parker.’ Ayesha Hazarika ‘A brilliant, fascinating book; Parker is funny and lyrical whilst always choosing brutal truth over sentimentality.’ Miles Jupp 'Classic Parker – a delicious, learned tour through a fascinating place.' Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen ‘Genuinely great.’ Adrian Chiles 'I gobbled this up.' Jude Rogers ‘A beautifully written journey through the history and landscape of the border country and a clear-eyed analysis of its physical and psychological dividing line – the best kind of travelogue.’ Richard King, author of Brittle with Relics: A History of Wales, 1962–97 ‘This enthralling journey beautifully celebrates our ancient frontier land and is a present-day reminder of its’ enduring duty.’ Tudur Owen, BAFTA winning comedian and presenter ‘I was often overcome by “fierce wonder”. Fine writing indeed.’ John Sam Jones, author of The Journey is Home ‘Engaging, entertaining and very readable.’ Nation.Cymru ‘A likeable, highly literate companion.’ New Welsh Review ‘A kind of mini-biography of the British psyche emerges from Parker's work, its learning lightly worn and its tales well told, full of interest and incident’ Horatio Clare

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Book SynopsisA Waterstones Travel Book of the Year 2023A funny, warm and timely meditation on identity and belonging, following the scenic route along the EnglandWales border: Britain's deepest faultline.There is a line on the map: to one side Wales, small, rugged and stubborn; on the other England, crucible of the most expansionist culture the world has ever seen. It is a line that has been dug, debated, defined and defended for twenty centuries.All the Wide Border is a personal journey through the places, amongst the people, and across the divides of the border between England and Wales. Taking in some of our loveliest landscapes, and our darkest secrets, this is a region of immeasurable wonder and interest. It is here that the deepest roots and thorniest paradoxes of Britishness lie. The border between the countries, even as a concept, is ragged, jagged and many-layered.Garlanded author Mike Parker has adored and explored these places his entire life. Born in England but settled in Wales, he finTrade Review‘I loved this book. Mike Parker weaves together a great deal of wide reading, hard thinking and soulful tramping in his funny, thoughtful and evocative investigation of the Welsh–English border.’ Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession and Peep Show ‘Delightful and perceptive … Poses searching questions about identity, culture and political power.’ Waterstones Books of the Year ‘A joyful canter through the Marches. Delightfully engaging. Blending history, literature and personal anecdote, Mike Parker writes with energy and wit.’ TLS ‘No-one maps the secrets of the UK quite like Mike Parker.’ Ayesha Hazarika ‘A brilliant, fascinating book; Parker is funny and lyrical whilst always choosing brutal truth over sentimentality.’ Miles Jupp 'Classic Parker – a delicious, learned tour through a fascinating place.' Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen ‘Genuinely great.’ Adrian Chiles 'I gobbled this up.' Jude Rogers ‘A beautifully written journey through the history and landscape of the border country and a clear-eyed analysis of its physical and psychological dividing line – the best kind of travelogue.’ Richard King, author of Brittle with Relics: A History of Wales, 1962–97 ‘This enthralling journey beautifully celebrates our ancient frontier land and is a present-day reminder of its’ enduring duty.’ Tudur Owen, BAFTA winning comedian and presenter ‘I was often overcome by “fierce wonder”. Fine writing indeed.’ John Sam Jones, author of The Journey is Home ‘Engaging, entertaining and very readable.’ Nation.Cymru ‘A likeable, highly literate companion.’ New Welsh Review ‘A kind of mini-biography of the British psyche emerges from Parker's work, its learning lightly worn and its tales well told, full of interest and incident’ Horatio Clare

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Book SynopsisFrom Voltaire to Verlaine and from Hugo to Hemingway, these are the Paris locations that have influenced modern literature.The book is an elegant photographic stroll around the bookshops, famous literary restaurants and storied streets of Europe's favourite tourist destination.Literary Landscapes: Paris takes this major European city and with picture perfect photography, compiles an album of memorable views linked to the words of Parisian authors, or writers who made Paris their home. It looks at places where books were written, discussed over dinner, and where ultimately the books are sold.There are the theatres of Molière, Dumas and Beaumarchais along with the incredible Palais Garnier opera house and the legend of Le Fantome by Gaston Leroux.There are the revered bookshops of the Latin Quarter including the idiosyncratic Shakespeare & Co.There are the classic grand structures referenced in Victor Hugo novels (and still there) or the mean streets of George Orwell's Down and Out in Pa

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Book SynopsisElizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin in 1899, the only child of an Irish lawyer and land-owner. She travelled a great deal, dividing most of her time between London and Bowen's Court, the family house in County Cork which she inherited. Her first book, a collection of shorts stories, Encounters, was published in 1923. The Hotel (1926) was her first novel. She was awarded the CBE in 1948, and received honorary degrees from Trinity College, Dublin in 1949, and from Oxford University in 1956. The Royal Society of Literature made her a Companion of Literature in 1965. Elizabeth Bowen died in 1973.Trade ReviewA still ludicrously underrated genius of 20th-century British-Irish writing -- Simon SchamaOne of the last century's greatest woman writers * Guardian *Her writings convey the flavour of literary London in the Thirties and Forties * Observer *A matchless writer * Independent *

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Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PAUL THEROUXSomerset Maugham's success as a writer enabled him to indulge his adventurous love of travel, and he recorded the sights and sounds of his wide-ranging journeys with an urbane, wry style all his own.Trade ReviewThere enough raw material to sate his imagination and the journey itself takes on the contours of a story worth recording. Among the coolly-observed descriptions of ruined pagodas there's the added treat of Maugham's catty thoughts on his craft * Sunday Herald (Glasgow) *Maugham's finest travel book...As the urbane novelist wends his way through tropic climes, he reads Proust under the mosquito netting, listens to stories of passion and madness from British colonials gone to seed, and bears up under the merciless sun, sipping at a gin and bitters and laying out a hand of solitaire * Washington Post *An elegant writer's notebook, imaginative, crammed with impressions and ideas received simply and directly, without the filtering screens of literariness or Englishness... he writes with majestic plainness * The Times *A delightful book - It contains vivid travel impressions, some autobiographical confidences, and the plots for a dozen novels * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisRobert Byron was born in England in 1905 into a family distantly related to Lord Byron. He attended Eton and Merton College, Oxford, and wrote several other travel books before his untimely death in 1941 when his ship to West Africa was torpedoed while serving as a correspondent for a London newspaper during World War II. Among his other books are The Station (1928), The Byzantine Achievement (1929), and First Russia, Then Tibet (1933).Trade ReviewA brilliantly-wrought expression of a thoroughly modern sensibility, a portrait of an accidental man adrift between frontiers * New York Review of Books *The Road to Oxiana is part travelogue, part aesthetic manifesto and part social observation; it remains the most thoroughly readable of all books. And Byron is the ideal companion, witty, charming, irascible, and content to leave and be left alone * The Times *The Road to Oxiana is an informed, somewhat high-flown account of the early Islamic architecture of Persia and Afghanistan wrapped in a comic narrative that ensured a far wider readership... Funny, didactic and biting, Byron's masterpiece transports us across the world and, better still, across the decades to splendidly alien lands * Independent *My favourite travel book is Robert Byron's The Road To Oxiana, which started a new wave of travel writing. I took it on my first trip to Iran. I always take books about the places I'm visiting: I sat in a ruined mosque now populated by sheep and read Byron's wonderful descriptions of it. I think that sowed a seed for the Travel Bookshop -- Sarah Anderson, founder of The Travel BookshopI love literary travel books and this is the best one in the English language. Scholarly, eccentric and wildly opinionated -- Tudor Parfitt * Geographical *

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Book SynopsisA modern classic on exploring and understanding the Antarctic, the most uncharted place on our planet. Terra Incognita is a meditation on the landscape, myths and history of one of the remotest parts of the globe, as well as an encounter with the international temporary residents of the region - living in close confinement despite the surrounding acres of white space - and the mechanics of day-to-day life in extraordinary conditions. Through Sara Wheeler, the Antarctic is revealed, in all its seductive mystery.''Antarctica could hope for no better chronicler: spirited, humorous and highly intelligent, she is also a writer of rare talent'' ObserverTrade ReviewAntarctica could hope for no better chronicler: spirited, humorous and highly intelligent, she is also a writer of rare talent * Observer *Penetrating, vivacious and often amusing, Wheeler's record has a sharp authenticity * The Times *She writes with a consistent wry wit... she never lacks empathy, compassion or generosity for people whose values, background and gender were the polar opposite of hers...What she has done could not be done better * Independent *Her book is an impressive achievement, one genuinely brushed by the ghosts of the past -- Beryl Bainbridge * Literary Review *Terra Incognita deserves to be a bestseller...a wonderful book and terrific corrective to the polar bulldust periodically emitted by Sir Ralph Wotsisname and others of his ilk * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisThe foremost account of Ireland's cultural and spiritual heritageIn 1907 J. M. Synge achieved both notoriety and lasting fame with The Playboy of the Western World. The Aran Islands, published in the same year, records his visits to the islands in 1898-1901, when he was gathering the folklore and anecdotes out of which he forged The Playboy and his other major dramas. Yet this book is much more than a stage in the evolution of Synge the dramatist. As Tim Robinson explains in his introduction, If Ireland is intriguing as being an island off the west of Europe, then Aran, as an island off the west of Ireland, is still more so; it is Ireland raised to the power of two. Towards the end of the last century Irish nationalists came to identify the area as the country's uncorrupted heart, the repository of its ancient language, culture and spiritual values. It was for these reasons that Yeats suggested Synge visit the islands to record their way of life. The resuTable of ContentsThe Aran IslandsPlace/Person/Book: Synge's The Aran IslandsAcknowledgmentsA Note on the TextThe Aran IslandsIntroductionPart IPart IIPart IIIPart IVNotes

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Book SynopsisA fascinating picture of the American frontier emerges from Twain''s fictionalized recollections of his experiences prospecting for gold, speculating in timber, and writing for a succession of small Western newspapers during the 1860s.

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Book SynopsisBritain in the early eighteenth century: an introduction that is both informative and imaginative, reliable and entertaining. To the tradition of travel writing Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime''s experience as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour (1724-6) is an invaluable source of social and economic history. But this book is far more than a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution, for Defoe possessed a wild, inventive streak that endows his work with astonishing energy and tension, and the Tour is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world. By employing his skills as a chronicler, a polemicist and a creative writer keenly sensitive to the depredations of time, Defoe more than achieves his aim of rendering ''the present state'' of Britain.

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Book SynopsisA delightful travelogue in the unique style of one of the greatest writers in the English language In 1844, Charles Dickens took a break from novel writing to travel through Italy for almost a year and Pictures from Italy is an illuminating account of his experiences there. He presents the country like a magic-lantern show, as vivid images ceaselessly appear before his - and his readers' - eyes. Italy's most famous sights are all to be found here - St Peter's in Rome, Naples with Vesuvius smouldering in the background, the fairytale buildings and canals of Venice - but Dickens's chronicle is not simply that of a tourist. Avoiding preconceptions and stereotypes, he portrays a nation of great contrasts: between grandiose buildings and squalid poverty, and between past and present, as he observes everyday life beside ancient monuments. Combining thrilling travelogue with piercing social commentary, Pictures from Italy is a revealing depiction of an exciting and disquieting

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Book SynopsisTravelling on horseback through southern England in the early 19th century, William Cobbett provides evocative and accurate descriptions of the countryside, colourful accounts of his encounters with labourers, and indignant outbursts at the encroaching cities and the sufferings of the exploited poor. Ian Dyck''s new edition places these lively accounts of rural life in the context of Cobbett''s political and social beliefs and reveals the volume as his platform for rural radical reform.

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Book SynopsisFlaubert's unforgettable memoirs of travels abroadAt once a classic of travel literature and a penetrating portrait of a “sensibility on tour,” Flaubert in Egypt wonderfully captures the young writer’s impressions during his 1849 voyages. Using diaries, letters, travel notes, and the evidence of Flaubert’s traveling companion, Maxime Du Camp, Francis Steegmuller reconstructs his journey through the bazaars and brothels of Cairo and down the Nile to the Red Sea.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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