A Journey Around My Room (Hesperus Classics) |
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Xavier De Maistre
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Pages: 144 (Paperback)
ISBN: 1843910993
Pub: Hesperus Press Ltd
Pub date: 2004-08-27
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 185999
Reader Reviews:
Meditative and Unique (3/3 people found this helpful)
Xavier shares his reveries, his stream of consciousness, while as a young man, under house arrest for duelling. An optimist and healthy young man is revealed in his charming and flippant way. An aristocrat and soldier. The concept and pace is necessarily meditative and relaxing.
The second part, the Nocturnal Expedition around My Room, is written later, and is just as quirky, but sees our hero now without his faithful servant and so somewhat more alone.
It is grounding. His name is linked to Proust and Montaigne, even though his contribution is somewhat light. A pleasant quirky read.
Small journey, big idea (5/5 people found this helpful)
I was introduced to this book through reading de Botton's Art of travel, de Botton has also written the forewood so it links well. This is such a random book I was astonished to find it in a normal bookshop, but I did, and the rest is history. The reason why this book is so good is due to the importance of the central idea, this idea is self evident from the title.
To stretch out a narrative journey from his bed to the window and the view outside is quite an achievement, especially as this journey is entertaining and interesting in equal measure. This proves the most important aspect of travel literature, it doesn't matter where you go, it's what you do, how you do it and what you learn from it. If you apply the spirit of adventure to a trip to the supermarket it can be more important than a round the world trip. My only problem with the book were elements of context, it was written quite some time ago so I found some of the references unfamiliar. If you enjoy this book try to get hold of some of the other Hesperus Classics they specialize in publishing overlooked gems.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> World -> French
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Short Stories -> World -> French
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> The Classics
Books -> Subjects -> Travel & Holiday -> Travel Writing -> Classic
Books -> Subjects -> Travel & Holiday -> General
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback
uk-shops -> Travel -> Travel Guides & Books -> Travel Writing -> Classic
uk-shops -> Travel -> Travel Guides & Books -> General