17 bài viết found
In this little volume, Isaac Taylor takes us on a tour of Europe, anno 1824. We travel once around the entire continent, starting in England, through Scandinavia, Russia, down to Turkey, over the Alps, France, Spain, and back to England. The tour is made with poems and prose, and should be of interest to all listeners. – Summary by Carolin [chương_files]
Englishman Valentine Blount is traveling in Australia, looking for his fortune. He meets up with John Carter, a bushman known locally as Little River Jack, who acts as his guide. They come across an abandoned camp – what is the story behind it? Whose camp was it? Why did they leave? – Summary by Lynne Thompson [chương_files]
Writer/entertainer Garrison Keillor (A Prairie Home Companion) on “The Innocents Abroad”: “…one of the best selling travel books of all time.” (The Writer’s Almanac, June 8, 2012) When you dive into Mark Twain’s (Samuel Clemens’) The Innocents Abroad, you have to be ready to learn more about the unadorned, ungilded reality of 19th century “touring” than you might think you want to learn. This is a tough, literary journey. It was tough for Twain and his fellow “pilgrims”, both religious and otherwise. They set out, on a June day in 1867, to visit major tourist sites in Europe and the near east, including Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, “the Holy Land”, and Egypt. What Twain records, in often humorous, sometimes grotesque but always fascinating detail, are the day-to-day ups and downs of discovering the truth about people and places. The truths they learn are often far different than their education and rumor have made them preconceive. This is a voyage of discovery. It’s long and, in places, tiresome. But it’s revelatory about so much. As with some of his other works, Twain includes popular prejudices of his time, which are today considered socially unacceptable. His references to “Indians”, “Negroes” and “infidels” come to mind. Beyond the lows, though, there are the highs of Twain’s cutting wit and insight as he guides us along the bumpy and often dangerous voyage. No need to buckle up. Just take it slow, and steady…like the journey itself. (Summary by John Greenman) [chương_files]
Three Englishmen and Three Russians travel across the width of South Africa to measure a meridian. The outbreak of the Crimean War makes the Russians enemy agents in an English colony. Summary by Kim. [chương_files]
Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father’s ship and is launched on a course of self-discovery in a kind of modern mythical voyage. The mismatched jumble of passengers provide Woolf with an opportunity to satirise Edwardian life. The novel introduces Clarissa Dalloway, the central character of Woolf’s later novel, Mrs Dalloway. Two of the other characters were modelled after important figures in Woolf’s life. St John Hirst is a fictional portrayal of Lytton Strachey and Helen Ambrose is to some extent inspired by Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell.[7] Rachel’s journey from a cloistered life in a London suburb to freedom, challenging intellectual discourse and discovery very likely reflects Woolf’s own journey from a repressive household to the intellectual stimulation of the Bloomsbury Group. [chương_files]
Martin Overshaw and Corinna Hastings are leading dull and unproductive lives in Paris, having fled humdrum England. They fall in with Fortinbras, who calls himself a Marchand de Bonheur. He predicts a bright future for them and suggests they set out on a journey through France together. The book follows their adventure which turns out to be far more complicated than it might at first seem. They meet a variety of characters on the way and the looming threat of the First World War overshadows the second half of the book, which nonetheless ends happily for all concerned. [chương_files]
Повесть основана на подлинном случае миссионерской деятельности архиепископа Нила (1799-1874), но написана с характерным для Лескова гротеском и тщательной шлифовкой персонажей. Затронута необычная для русской литературы 19-го века тема свободы вероисповедания. “Making up things is hard labour for me, so I’ve always felt the need for having before me real faces which could intrigue me with their spirituality; then they get hold of me and I infuse them with new life, using some real-life stories as a basis,” wrote Leskov about the characters of this book. Bigger than life characters meet at a missionary expedition to the Siberian North. The subject of freedom of faith is unusual for the 19-century Russian literature. – Summary by Mark Chulsky (& Wikipedia) [chương_files]
Historia dwojga ludzi, ojca i córki, i ich podróży przez Atlantyk w poszukiwaniu lepszego życia w Stanach Zjednoczonych – Summary by Piotr Nater [chương_files]
An engaging travelogue published in 1890, written conversationally among two youths and their guide and mentor. From the preface: “a book describing the land of the Aztecs, its history and resources, the manners and customs of its people, and the many curious things to be seen, and adventures passed through, in a journey from one end of that country to the other.” Subtitle: Adventures of Two youths in a Journey to Northern and Central Mexico, Campeachey, and Yucatan, with a Description of the Republics of Central America and of the Nicaragua Canal. This is from The Boy Travellers series by Thomas W. Knox. (Summary by S Caulkins) [chương_files]
One of the very first New Zealand novels, Over the Hills and Far Away is a heavily romanticised tale of a woman’s journey from England to Otago, New Zealand, and her subsequent experiences in the wild new colony. – Summary by Lewis Fletcher [chương_files]
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