Newsgroup: it.hobby.viaggi
Titolo: Letteratura di viaggio

Interessante questo articolo 
http://tinyurl.com/kmcfqx
 e ancor più
interessante - almeno lo spero per chi vi parteciperà - dovrebbe
essere il Festival della letteratura di viaggio che si terrà a Roma.
Interessante l'argomento, ma molto meno, secondo me, gli autori noti e
meno noti perchè mi hanno francamente sempre annoiato: mi piace
leggere, ma i soldi spesi per Chatwin sono stati (parlo per me,
ripeto) buttati via perchè in entrambi i "tentativi di lettura" (due!)
dopo poche pagine mi sono mortalmente annoiato.
Se qualcuno ci andrà (al festival di Roma) potrebbe poi resocontarci.
Ciao ciao.

 altri che ti annoiano?
Generalizzare, come ho fatto io, è sempre sbagliato e può essere che
altri autori che non conosco siano diversi, però oltre a Chatwin ne
lessi (o meglio, provai a leggere) un altro di cui ora non ricordo il
nome (ma a casa posso controllare) e la doppia, negativa esperienza mi
ha portato a quanto scrivevo prima. Il che, però, non esclude quello
che dici tu.
Ciao ciao.

 ripeto) buttati via perchè in entrambi i "tentativi di lettura" (due!)
dunque, tu liquidi "la letteratura di viaggio" e "gli autori noti e
meno noti", prendendo ad esempio Chatwin (btw, per me un genio) che
non era certamente un "tipico" scrittore di letteratura da viaggio,
tranne il suo primo sulla Patagonia.
Ti elenco quelli che per me sono esempi stupendi e avvincenti :
- tutti i meravigliosi libri di Fosco Maraini, da Ore Giapponesi,
l'Isola delle Pescatrici, Segreto Tibet, Pellegrino in Asia, etc.
- tutti i libri di Tucci
- Heinrich Harrer : 7 anni in Tibet, Nel Cuore della nuova Guinea
- i diari di Cristoforo Colombo
- Ermest Shackleton, i suoi 2 libri sulla pazzesca spedizione
antartica
- Alexandra David-Neel, sulla sua permanenza (e nomina a prima donna
lama) in Tibet/Nepal
- Andrè Gide: Viaggio in Congo e Ritorno dal Ciad
- Sasha Siemel, El Tigrero ( sulla zona dell'Orinoco)
- Ermesto Guevara, Latinoamericana. Un diario per un viaggio in
motocicletta
- Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro e i racconti africani
- Getrude Bell, Persian Pictures
- tutti i libri di  Kapuscinski
- tutti i libri di Terzani
- Senofonte, Anabasi (non propriamente di viaggio, ma.... :-) )
- Shandrick Tenderini, Vita di un esploratore gentiluomo. Il Duca
degli Abruzzi
ne avrei altre decine, per ora posson bastare  :-D

 libri del genere mi sembra una sparata molto grossa.
Ora, è chiaro che a voi piace attaccare la persona in quanto tale e
non quello che essa dice in quanto questa tua replica è assolutamente
pretestuosa visto che arriva dopo che io ho scritto che è sempre
sbagliato generalizzare.
Aggiungo una domanda, però: è così strano se dopo due esperienze
ritenute negative (in qualunque ambito) uno decida di  non
interessarsi più all'argomento?
Concludo dicendo che "sparata molto grossa" è, invece, quella secondo
la quale decidiamo noi per altri quali siano i libri che annoiano.
Mah...
Ciao ciao.

 Ti elenco quelli che per me sono esempi stupendi e avvincenti :
Questione di gusti, niente da ridire.
Io, però, ritengo avvincenti altre "cose": la Recherche di Proust,
oppure L'uomo senza qualità di Musil, oppure Le affinità elettive di
Goethe, oppure Madame Bovary di Flaubert, oppure... bè, insomma cose
un po' diverse dalle tue.
Ciao ciao.

 ha portato a quanto scrivevo prima. 
Chatwin � un po' pesante in effetti, anche se a me piace lo stesso.
Puoi provare con Bryson, Terzani, Kapuscinski, Naipaul (non i romanzi), 
Jerome; tutta roba pi� "leggera"

 Ciao ciao.
Scusa ma hai aperto un 3d con oggetto Letteratura di viaggio e ti sono
state date risposte appropriate.
Ora cambi rotta e porti esempi che con i viaggi hanno poco da
spartire ...
E non mi sembra che chi ti ha risposto abbia affermato di non fare le
letture "elette" che fai tu .....
Prima di dire che vieni attaccato pensaci!
Ovviamente tutto questo imho.
Ciao :-)
Ful

 un po' diverse dalle tue.
ci sei o ci fai?
Non stavamo parlando di Letteratura di Viaggio ? E tu mi citi Proust,
LOL

 Prima di dire che vieni attaccato pensaci!
è un simpatico trolletto :-D

 amazzonica.
guarda, sfondi una porta aperta: anche H. era un cacciatore e di
quelli brutalotti; non amo nemmeno io i cacciatori, ma cerco di capire
se questi scrittori mi comunicano qualcosa di veramente diverso e
profondo sulle società, sul rapporto con gli animali, con la
spiritualità e con il progresso, e la risposta è si - anche se
diversissima - sia nel caso di H. che di Sasha Siemel.
Su Sasha Siemel, mi preme dirti che parliamo di un cacciatore
completamente diverso.
Non che lo ammiri, ma cerco di inserirlo nel contesto temporale e
ambientale dell'epoca; e al fatto che Siemel ha sempre cacciato e
affrontato il giaguaro con una lancia, non con fucili di precisione.
Non ha compiuto stragi indiscriminate per commerciare pelli, spesso la
sua  caccia era "commissionata" perchè la diffusione di giaguari era
molto elevata e creava problemi serissimi di sussistenza alle
comunità.
Ti invito a leggerlo vincendo (come me) la ripugnanza per la caccia di
per sé.

 ...........
Mi attizzano i due titoli di Gide, ma non li trovo nï¿œ su IBS, nï¿œ sulla 
Feltrinelli nï¿œ su Einaudi (che dovrebbe esserne l'editore).
Sai mica che edizione sono i tuoi e/o hai qualche suggerimento per 
reperirli (nel giro di pochi giorni) ?
Grazie
-- 
federicoP
www.federicop.eu
---------------------------------
per scrivermi elimina la china

 ne avrei altre decine, per ora posson bastare  :-D
Mi permetto di aggiungere un piccolo libro imho adorabile: "Travels with 
Charley" di Steinbeck.:-)
Ciao,
Carla

 Feltrinelli né su Einaudi (che dovrebbe esserne l'editore).
è un libro particolare, perchè lì Gide era inviato "ufficiale" delle
Colonie, ma IMHO ha alcune parti illuminanti..
io ho l'edizione Einaudi (in realtà è un titolo solo) ma vedo che è
fuori commercio quasi ovunque...tranne, mi pare, da Feltrinelli:
http://www.lafeltrinelli.it/fcom/it/home/pages/catalogo/searchresults.html?aut=174430&cat1=1&page=3
Devi sapere che io ho la fortuna di aver a disposizione la libreria di
mio nonno in una magnifica casetta appenninica...lui,
scrittore,alpinista e sociologo, è(o era) amico personale di Maraini,
Mauri, Bonatti, Diemberger ...ho a disposizione delle edizioni
pazzesche, tant'è che perdo la testa (e giornate intere) quando mi
reco dalle mie parti (Marzabotto)...


wrote:

come al solito, impeccabile suggerimento. Il gigante Steinbeck e il
mitico Charley, come non metterlo ?
Ma il mio elenco è impreciso e confuso, se ci penso un attimo manca
"solo" qualche bel reportage di Von Humboldt, cose più "leggere" come
Kiki Gallman per l'Africa, il libretto di Canetti su Marrakech, Giulio
Cesare, bla bla bla bla ... :-)

  il libretto di Canetti su Marrakech
"Sono [i richiami dei mendicanti ciechi]
arabeschi sonori intorno a Dio,
ma sono ben pi� impressionanti di quelli
che si presentano davanti ai nostri occhi."
Non � da pelle d'oca?:-)
Ciao,
Carla

 :-))
No, in realtï¿œ sono due testi separati, uno pubblicato nel 27 e l'altro 
nel 28.
Einaudi, per sue esigenze e/o convenienze, li ha pubblicati in un solo 
volume.
Ciao
-- 
federicoP
" Viaggiare e' un desiderio che provano in tanti, e tutti se ne 
pentono, perche' non si ritorna mai. "
Da: La Misura del Mondo, di D. Kehlmann


 :-))
No, in realtï¿œ sono due testi separati, uno pubblicato nel 27 e l'altro 
nel 28.
Einaudi, per sue esigenze e/o convenienze, li ha pubblicati in un solo 
volume.
Ciao
-- 
federicoP
" Viaggiare e' un desiderio che provano in tanti, e tutti se ne 
pentono, perche' non si ritorna mai. "
Da: La Misura del Mondo, di D. Kehlmann
www.federicop.eu


 reco dalle mie parti (Marzabotto)...
Bel colpo, evviva i nonni :-))))
-- 
federicoP
" Viaggiare e' un desiderio che provano in tanti, e tutti se ne 
pentono, perche' non si ritorna mai. "
Da: La Misura del Mondo, di D. Kehlmann
www.federicop.eu


 Non è da pelle d'oca?:-)
"è" Canetti. Praticamente ogni sua frase, per me, è da pelle d'oca :-D

 interessarsi più all'argomento?
no, guarda puoi decidere anche a priori, per esempio al sottoscritto
difficilmente interesserà mai leggere un libro fantasy perchè non amo
il genere, peròne accetto le conseguenze: non mi metto certo a
discettare sulla validità della letteratura di genere dopo averne
letto 2 volumetti pescati a casaccio.
Perchè un campione di 2 libri sulla "letteratura di viaggio" è
risibile.
E' come se tu scrivessi che i tortellini in brodo fanno schifo tout
court, perchè le 2 volte in vita tua che ne hai mangiati ti hanno dato
questa impressione.

 non mi metto certo a discettare sulla validit� della 
 > letteratura di genere dopo averne  letto
 > 2 volumetti pescati a casaccio.
... Ma tu non sai leggere l'italiano o, come penso io, sei prevenuto 
verso quello che scrivo? Te lo ripeto per l'ultima volta dopo di cui te 
ne puoi andare al diavolo: ho provato due volte a leggere un certo tipo 
di letteratura per la quale, contrariamente alle tue invenzioni, non mi 
sono permesso di "discettare", ma mi sono limitato a non occuparmente 
pi� perch� quello che avevo letto di quei due libri non mi era piaciuto 
e mi aveva annoitato. Punto.
Ora, visto che preferisco altro tipo di letture, visto che la giornata � 
di 24 ore, visto che ho altre cose da fare per dovere e per diletto, 
vorrei capire per quale cazzo di motivo dovrei mettermi a leggere altri 
libri del genere trascurando quelli che m'interessano maggiormente.
Ti rendi conto delle stronzate che dici o che insinui?
Tu avrai una tua priorit�, immagino, nelle cose che decidi di fare. Io 
pure. Punto.

 Ovviamente tutto questo imho.
Quanto scritto, invece, non � "secondo me", ma sono fatti, sono l� i 
post, eh... scripta manent.
Ciao ciao

 calma pi� avanti, grazie.
Li puoi trovare nell'originale francese:
http://tinyurl.com/l6tp2c
Ciao Fede,
Carla

 � un simpatico trolletto :-D
Dov'� che si mandano nb e Albertuan?
Ecco... puoi andarci pure tu!

 
http://tinyurl.com/l6tp2c
Grazie Carla, infatti avevo pensato anch'io a quella soluzione ma, come 
sai, nei prossimi giorni non posso varcare il confine, o almeno "quel" 
confine ;-))))
Se ne riparla tra un paio di mesi ;-))))
-- 
federicoP


 Malatesta, Jason Elliot... ecc.ecc.
da un articolo del timesonline:
From Times Online
September 17, 2009
The 20 best travel books of the past century
These are the books that have inspired generations to travel, and to
write: the best of their genre in the past 100 years
Steve Keenan
The books featured below are the recommendations of several authors,
including Rob Ryan, Victoria Hislop, Colin Thubron, Alexander McCall
Smith and Douglas Kennedy. I also have recommendations from Angus
Clarke, Ginny Light and Kate Quill, colleagues at The Times and
timesonline.
The other choices are mine and purely subjective, aided by straw polls
of other writers, perceived wisdom, Twitter and 40 years of reading
travel literature. And the real pleasure in putting the list together
has been in using the Times Archive to find original dispatches, reviews
and features about the books.
It's a list and and I am very conscious of no room for Gavin Young,
William Dalrymple or Kerouac. You may also think some to be simply
historical novels: but then Orwell, Hemingway or Steinbeck would be in.
To me, these are pure travel books: ones that have inspired later
generations to follow, or to find their own way.
Please tell me your favourites - or indeed, your Top 10 - on the comment
form below (or email us). The best will receive their favourite book to
devour all over again.
20. FULL TILT: IRELAND TO INDIA WITH A BICYCLE by Dervla Murphy (1965)
When aged 10, Murphy was given a bike and atlas and she planned her
trip. And, having finally ridden to India in 1963 on her bike, she then
decided to stay and work with Tibetan refugee children. She was, said
The Times, an inveterate traveller "looking at everything and putting it
down with naivety and charm." She had a daughter, Rachel, and stopped
travelling for five years - but then set to again, with Rachel, covering
India, South America and Madagascar (having previously covered Ethiopa
by mule). She has written 24 travel books, the last - from Cuba was
travelling with Rachel and her granddaughters in 2008. But it's her solo
trip by bike, aged, 31, after the death of her mother, that enthralls.
She fought off thieves and a would-be rapist in Iran, fell in love with
Afghanistan and recovered from broken bones and heatstroke. Inspiring.
Times interview, November 1983: "I'm never frightened or lonely" -
Dervla Murphy 
Read a 2009 interview with Dervla Murphy on the Studies in Travel
Writing site 
More on Dervla on the Literature and Travel Exploration website
19. THE ART OF TRAVEL by Alain de Botton (2002)
For me this is the definitive travel book, as it addresses the
fundamental question of why we travel at all. With his usual mixture of
wit and amazing intellectual insight, de Botton examines why travel is
sometimes disappointing and suggests how we can make our experiences
happier ones, and also identifies what it is that makes some journeys so
pleasurable. He calls on other artists to provide insight into the
subject too – Flaubert, Wordsworth, Hopper, all have something to tell
us. De Botton reminds us that our own impressions, rather than the
things that guidebooks tell us to look out for, are what really matter.
He made me understand why I sometimes find a renaissance church dull and
why an airport cafe can seem the most exciting place in the world. It is
a masterpiece of travel writing - Victoria Hislop
18. A DRAGON APPARENT - TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA by Norman Lewis (1951)
Caroline Moorhead wrote in The Times in 1983 that Lewis was "as much at
home in fiction as in travelling, with precise detail and a gentle,
self-mocking humour." His trip to Indo-China was the book that was to
kick-start his travel writing career - he went on to write another 10
travel books even after 1983. The Guardian obituary in 2002 recalls that
he once stated that he preferred to produce 'revealing little
descriptions; I think of myself as the semi-invisible man'. Graham
Greene called him one of the best writers of the century. He was also a
passionate campaigner. An article he wrote for The Sunday Times in 1968
about the massacre of Brazilian Indians is credited with creating
Survival International.
Read the original 1952 Times review of Lewis's next book, Travel in
Burma - "That Mr Lewis is a very good traveller was obvious to readers
of his book about Indo-China. Its successor is even better" -
V.S.Pritchett, The Bookman. 
Read the Norman Lewis obituary in the New York Times in 2003
17. THE GRANITE ISLAND by Dorothy Carrington (1971)
She was so captivated by Corsica on her first visit to the island, in
1948, that she never left. She wrote the book in 1971 and died in 2002.
There is a memorial in Ajaccio's Marin cemetery, with a quotation from
the book on its base - "...that Corsica would be my lot." I don't think
I have ever read a better book devoted to one destination over such a
period of years. The traveller is a beneficiary of her accrued knowledge
of the island, her immersion in a life of bandits and hunters.
Unsurprisingly, her marriage didn't last but her love of Corsica did:
two other books and several articles followed this, the definitive book
on the island. 
Read The 2002 Guardian obituary of Dorothy Carrington
16. CUT STONES AND CROSSROADS - A JOURNEY IN PERU by Ronald Wright
(1984)
Good travel writing is many things, most of them involving adjectives.
The best travel writing teaches you to see – to see the things which, as
a newcomer in a foreign place, you might not understand or even notice.
Inca stonework is a good example. Go to Cuzco in Peru and you see it,
everywhere – walls, buildings, doorways. Even the dimmest package
tourist will notice it – but you need help to start seeing it, really
seeing. That, for me, was the main revelation in Cut Stones and
Crossroads. Sure he does the history, the archaeology, the food (such as
it is), the dangers, the mysterious juxtapositions of ancient traditions
clashing with the modern world, and he does it all with humour, honesty
and a certain poetic clarity, but what he does best is Inca stonework.
He dwells on the variety of textures, the astonishing sculptural skill,
the complete absence of straight lines. He explains how the bizarre
beauty of the stonework is intimately related to its resistance to
earthquakes. So, instead of complicated black rocks in the rain 3,750m
up the Andes you see a subtle, consciously articulated aesthetic
tradition. You see the stone equivalent of Abu Simbel, Bach's chorales,
take your pick. Revelatory - Angus Clarke
15. NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND by Bill Bryson (1995)
Bill Bryson's farewell tour of Britain, after 20 years living in his
adopted home, is an affectionate and amusing read. His tales of meeting
eccentric people and visiting the extremities of the country are
catalogued in typical Bryson style – observant, witty and engaging. One
of the most memorable sections is his bewilderment at some of Britain's
bizarre place names - Titsey and Shellow Bowells among them. There are
rants too – his derision for the destruction of historic buildings, town
planning and traffic lights is sincere, but not wearisome, thanks to his
droll prose. It is Britons who will enjoy this book most – a reminder to
feel affection, rather than irritation, for the foibles and oddities of
this small island - Ginny Light
14. THE SILK ROAD: BEYOND THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM by Colin Thubron (1989)
"Modern travel writing has always been created with a certain amount of
gimmickry," Thubron told The Times, "which surprises me because I don't
really understand why you have to do that. The world abroad seems
sufficiently extraordinary and peculiar without my having to resort to
all that." Forty years of travel writing has resulted in an epic
library: a romantic, who travelled alone, whether driving through Russia
in a Morris Minor or walking the Great Wall of China two years before
his Silk Road masterpiece. He was to return to the Silk Road for a 2006
book, walking the 7,000 miles
Read The Times' review of his 1968 book The Hills of Adonis 
Listen to Thubron on Radio 3 talking about his 2006 book Shadow of the
Silk Road 
Best of Times, Worst of Times 2008
13. LOVE AND WAR IN THE APENNINES by Eric Newby (1971)
"The Italian government had collapsed, and the Germans were in disarray,
when Newby walked out of his prison camp and into the arms of the
Italian resistance fighters in the nearby mountains -- the mountains of
Parmesan cheese, prosciutto, pasta and red wine," reads the website of
cycle tour company Experience Plus. Newby returned to italy in 1956 with
his wife Wanda - who he met while on the run. And he finally wrote the
book of his life among the Italian resistance (read the full background
to the book on Wikipedia) after he became Travel Editor at The Observer.
Many pure travel books were to follow but it was this book which fired
his imagination - and that of other writers to come, including Alexander
McCall Smith. 
Read Miles Kington's review of Eric Newby's 1978 book The Big Red Train
in The Times
Read the 1982 review of Eric Newby's autobiography A Traveller's Life
12. BRAZILIAN ADVENTURE by Peter Fleming (1934)
It began with a classified ad in the 'Agony column' of The Times:
"Exploring and sporting expedition, under experienced guidance, leaving
England June, to explore rivers Central Brazil, if possible ascertain
fate Colonel Fawcett; abundance game, big and small; exceptional
fishing; ROOM TWO MORE GUNS; highest references expected and given.
Write Box X.'Peter Fleming was working on The Spectator. He had just met
his future bride Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter), yet the pull of
finding the lost Colonel Percy Fawcett was too much. He signed up, with
a commission from The Times to send dispatches from the Matto Grosso. It
ended with two rival teams racing back down the Amazon to put their side
of the story of fiasco and incompetence first. He described it as "an
venture for which Rider Haggard might have written the plot and Conrad
designed the scenery". Evelyn Waugh, though, supplied the characters and
dialogue: "Sao Paulo is like Reading, only much farther away". Taut,
gripping and sardonic, the book made Peter as famous as his brother Ian
would later become. It is dated only in the sheer number of animals
Fleming manages to shoot - Rob Ryan
From the archive: The Times' news report in January, 1933, on
developments seven years after Fawcett's disappearance
From the archive: read The Times' review of Brazilian Adventure, August
1934
11. IN PATAGONIA by Bruce Chatwin (1977)
In Patagonia, published in 1978, is an "autobiografictional" travelog,
says The Literary Encyclopedia, which both records and imagines the
fulfilment of one of Chatwin's childhood fascinations, namely to retrace
the travel adventures of his grandmother's uncle, Charley Milward,
seadog, entrepreneur, and globetrotting family legend, who had died in
Punta Arenas, Chile. In his review in The Times in 1977, Paul Theroux
wrote that Chatwin saw practically all of Patagonia, travelling by foot,
boat, bus and train, adding: "He has fulfilled the desire of all real
travellers, of having found a place that is far and strange and seldom
visited, like The Land Where The Jumblies Live."
Read the full Paul Theroux review of 1977 
Reader reviews on Amazon
.
10. INTO THE HEART OF BORNEO by Redmond O'Hanlon and James Fenton (1984)
One of the most oft-repeated stories heard on my travels in the 80s was
when somebody was taking a leak in a convenient stream. "Remember that
story about the creepie crawlie that climbed up O'Hanlon's urine while
peeing in a river," was the refrain. And it was true, well - it came
from this book. Not so much Victorian explorers, more a precursor of Ray
Mears, O'Hanlon and Fenton's foray into Borneo for The Sunday Times,
accompanied by a bunch of SAS soldiers, was a riot of humour and
self-deprecation - the template for much of the travel writing that was
to follow. As a natural historian, O'Hanlon also managed to add an
Attenborough-esque edge to the book. But not at the expense of the
laughs
From the archive: the original 1984 review in The Sunday Times - "at
first, I thought I had come upon a rather coarse version of Billy Bunter
in Borneo....," wrote reviewer Gontran Goulden.
Read an excellent 2003 profile of O'Hanlon in The Guardian
9. TRIESTE AND THE MEANING OF NOWHERE by Jan Morris (2001)
What I love about this is the way she tussles with the intangible
qualities of a place, those things you can never quite put your finger
on. So much travel writing is concerned with the factual, the real -
which often makes it dull to read, because it doesn't ask any questions,
it just records. This book is different. It's a study of a faded,
unexceptional city, but one that gets under your skin. Morris first
visited as a soldier in WWII and she writes: "Trieste makes one ask sad
questions of oneself. What am I here for? Where am I going?" And a
brilliant, brilliant title, too - Kate Quill
In 1975, Jan Morris wrote an article for The Times on the Death of
Venice
8. ROAD TO OXIANA by Robert Byron (1933)
A collage of ... little playlets, and what going on is another book that
gave me to realise what was possible to the whole genre of travel
writing" - Colin Thubron, who also nominated Freya Stark ("Her books
gave me a wonderful sense of the beauty possible in travel writing") and
Patrick Leigh Fermor (Mani - Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, 1958).
Read the 1937 review of Oxiana in The Times - plus read the 1981 review
of Oxiana, when it was reprinted by Picador - "Byron is the Mozart of
travel writers: only Byron chose his librettos better," wrote reviewer
Stewart Perowne
7. MANI - TRAVEL IN THE SOUTHERN PELOPONNESE by Patrick Leigh Fermor
(1958)
I believe the very greatest travel writer of the 20th century was
Fermor. This book is beautifully written, so vivid, but he uses a
Latinate prose. You learn this is a man who has had a classical
education - if he didn't, I don't know how he would do it. It is an
absolutely marvellous and wonderful book - Alexander McCall Smith, who
also nominated From The Holy Mountain (William Dalrymple) and Tours of
the Trabazond (Rose Macaulay). 
Read the original Times book review December 4, 1958
6. AS I WALKED OUT ONE MIDSUMMER MORNING - Laurie Lee (1969)
Part memoir, part travel book. Unforgettable portrait of Spain before
and during the Civil War, full of colour, romance, adventure and
unforgettable imagery. I fell in love with Spain as a teenager long
before I visited the country, thanks to this book - Kate Quill
Read the original Times book review by David Cheshire, September 27,
1969
5. ARABIA THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Jonathan Raban (1979)
Arabia had a profound effect on this writer when he stumbled across it
at the start of the l980s. Travelling through the Gulf States, through
the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Yemen, Raban produced a book that
was so prescient in its understanding of the vast seismic gulf that
separates the West from the Arab world, while also capturing the region
at a moment when the struggle between Islamic and Occidental values was
beginning to percolate. Arabia also announced the arrival of one of the
great prose stylists in travel literature - and it showed me that the
'travel book' could be constructed as a fiction that happened - an one
which has with all the narrative force and complexity of great fiction -
Douglas Kennedy, author of Beyond the Pyramids, In God's Country and
Chasing Mammon.
Read the original book review from The Times on August 2, 1980
4. THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR by Paul Theroux (1975)
"Ever since childhood, when I lived within earshot of the Boston and
Maine, I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it,"
begins Paul Theroux on his adventures in The Great Railway Bazaar. His
four-month passage across Asia's legendary train routes included the
Direct-Orient Express (a service launched in 1962 and withdrawn
completely in 1977, ending all direct service from Paris to Istanbul or
Athens). He also covered the Khyber Pass Local and the Trans-Siberian
Express and describes the many places, cultures and sounds he encounters
as well as the people he met along his journey. 
View an extract of Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar published in The
Times. October 1975 
From the archive: the original Times review, October 1975 
Interview with Paul Theroux on Salon website, September 1996
3. ANTARCTICA 
THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1922)
Travel writing at its most extreme. Apsley Cherry-Garrard was one of the
paying members of Scott's second Antarctic expedition. The other was
Captain Lawrence Oates. Cherry, as he was known, was well-liked but
ill-suited to polar travel. He couldn't navigate and his glasses steamed
or iced up frequently. Nevertheless he and two companions made the Worst
Journey, a quest to bag Emperor penguin eggs in the middle of Antarctic
winter. He, Edward Wilson and Birdie Bowers (both later to die with
Scott in a tent eleven miles from safety) set out from Cape Evans to the
rookery at Cape Crozier ('the windiest place on earth'). Cherry had
blistered his hands by day two. They hit blizzards and whiteouts and
temperatures of minus seventy. At one point Cherry turned his head to
speak to Wilson and his hood froze solid. He couldn't turn back. They
used up their oil and food. They lost their tent. They should have died,
but made it back in pitiful condition. Their clothes had to be chipped
off. Scott wrote: "They look more weatherworn that anyone I have yet
seen. Their faces were scared and wrinkled, their eyes dull, their hands
whitened with constant exposure to damp and cold." Cherry's description
of the events is horrific and moving. But this isn't just a book about
that foolhardy expedition. It is also about Scott and his doomed party.
Cherry was the man who took the dogs to One Ton Camp to await the doomed
polar party. If he had taken the dogs further on, he might have found
the dying men. This haunted him for the rest of his life and that sense
of regret oozes from the book. This brings added poignancy to what is
the greatest account ever written about men on the ice - Rob Ryan
From the archive: read the original 1922 Times' review of The Worst
Journey in the World 
Read our archive special: Scott of the Antarctic
2. A WINTER IN ARABIA by Freya Stark (1940)
Stark wrote more than 20 books on her travels, but her soul belonged to
Arabia. As well as travel writing, Stark was also an archaeologist,
geographer and historian. The book covers her trip with two companions -
a journey chronicled at the time in The Times. Between July 18-20, 1938,
Stark wrote about their expedition to the Hadhramaut, in Southern Arabia
- now Yemen. The trio headed to the Frankincense road at Hureidha, as
part of their brief to begin "the systematic and hitherto almost
unattempted excavation of the pre-Islamic sites in this vast region."
Read the three original 1938 articles in The Times Archive: 
July 18: Exploring the Hadhramaut July 19: Brigandage and the RAF July
20: A journey with a caravan 
And read an excellent interview with Freya Stark from 1977 in Saudi
Aramco World
1. THE DANAKIL DIARY: Journeys through Abyssinia, 1930-4 by Wilfred
Thesiger (1996)
Thesiger travelled for three decades from 1930 as an explorer, military
career and historian in Arabia and Africa - but it was not until the
1960s that he started to set down his stories in print. Perhaps the best
known is his first, Arabian Sands, which dealt with the Bedouin life in
what is now Oman's Empty Quarter. But in 1996, seven years before his
death, he published The Danakil Diary, which covered his trip more than
six decades earlier to Abyssinia (now Ethiopa), in search of the source
of the Hawash River. As was reported in The Times in November, 1934, not
only was the expedition successful, but Thesiger collected "much
valuable information" about the country - bringing back 880 specimens of
birds. The report of his presentation to The Royal Geographical Society
continued: "The exploration of the Dankali country has always been
handicapped by. the savage disposition of the inhabitants, and only in
Aussa, where the Sultan rules with an iron hand, are peace and security
to be found. Mr.Thesiger was well received by this ruler, and in his
lecture he dealt with the Sultanate of Aussa in some detail...."From the
archive: read four contemporaneous articles by Thesiger that ran in The
Times in summer 1934
Nb: I've labelled these the best 20 travel books of the past 100 years.
But if you went to go back further, read the original 1872 blog written
by Thomas Cook for The Times - compelling reading
 
-- 
riproduzione riservata ® Consulente esterno Naci Naci Tours
A vida não é brincadeira, amigo, a vida é arte do encontro 
embora haja tanto desencontro pela vida (VdM)
www.kiva.org
 
www.vincio.org
 

 che si presentano davanti ai nostri occhi."
Bellissimo libro e ottimo approccio per iniziare a capire Marrakech,
se non lo avevo giï¿œ fatto ringrazio te e un'altra amica che perï¿œ non 
frequenta il NG per avermelo indicato!
Diego (che a Marrakech tornerebbe di corsa)
:-)

Vincio ha scritto:
| The 20 best travel books of the past century
| These are the books that have inspired generations to travel, and to
| write: the best of their genre in the past 100 years
Interessante segnalazione, grazie Vincio!
-- 
_-�-_ Chiara _-�-_
===========================
I Viaggi di Seshepankhatum
www.seshepankhatum.net
Un vero viaggio non � cercare
nuove terre, ma avere nuovi occhi
===========================