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"A book to be plundered and raided." -
New York Times Book Review"A portal into a world of timeless travel literature curated by one of the greatest travel writers of our day." -
USA TodayPaul Theroux celebrates fifty years of wandering the globe in this collection of the best writing from the books that have shaped him as a reader and a traveler. Part philosophical guide, part miscellany, part reminiscence,
The Tao of Travel contains excerpts from the best of Theroux's own work interspersed with selections from travelers both familiar and unexpected:
Vladimir Nabokov Eudora Welty
Evelyn Waugh James Baldwin
Charles Dickens Pico Iyer
Henry David Thoreau Anton Chekhov
Mark Twain John McPhee
Freya Stark Ernest Hemingway
Graham Greene and many others"Dazzling . . . Like someone panning for gold, Theroux reread hundreds of travel classics and modern works, shaking out the nuggets." -
San Francisco Chronicle
Sommario
Contents
Preface: The Importance of Elsewhere ix
1. Travel in Brief 1
2. The Navel of the World 23
3. The Pleasures of Railways 26
Travel Wisdom of Henry Fielding 39
4. Murphy’s Rules of Travel 41
5. Travelers on Their Own Books 47
6. How Long Did the Traveler Spend Traveling? 55
Travel Wisdom of Samuel Johnson 75
7. The Things That They Carried 78
8. Fears, Neuroses, and Other Conditions 85
9. Travelers Who Never Went Alone 93
Travel Wisdom of Sir Francis Galton 105
10. Travel as an Ordeal 108
11. English Travelers on Escaping England 117
12. When You’re Strange 121
Travel Wisdom of Robert Louis Stevenson 127
13. It Is Solved by Walking 130
14. Travel Feats 147
15. Staying Home 158
Travel Wisdom of Freya Stark 167
16. Imaginary Journeys 171
17. Everything Is Edible Somewhere 181
18. Rosenblum’s Rules of Reporting 198
Travel Wisdom of Claude Lévi-Strauss 201
19. Perverse Pleasures of the Inhospitable 203
20. Imaginary People 210
21. Writers and the Places They Never Visited 215
Travel Wisdom of Evelyn Waugh 231
22. Travelers’ Bliss 234
23. Classics of a Sense of Place 238
24. Evocative Name, Disappointing Place 256
Travel Wisdom of Paul Bowles 259
25. Dangerous, Happy, Alluring 262
26. Five Travel Epiphanies 271
27. The Essential Tao of Travel 275
Acknowledgments 277
Index of People and Places 279
Info autore
Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include Burma Sahib, The Bad Angel Brothers, The Lower River, Jungle Lovers, and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, On the Plain of Snakes, and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.
Riassunto
“A book to be plundered and raided.” — New York Times Book Review
“A portal into a world of timeless travel literature curated by one of the greatest travel writers of our day.” — USA Today
Paul Theroux celebrates fifty years of wandering the globe in this collection of the best writing from the books that have shaped him as a reader and a traveler. Part philosophical guide, part miscellany, part reminiscence, The Tao of Travel contains excerpts from the best of Theroux’s own work interspersed with selections from travelers both familiar and unexpected:
Vladimir Nabokov Eudora Welty
Evelyn Waugh James Baldwin
Charles Dickens Pico Iyer
Henry David Thoreau Anton Chekhov
Mark Twain John McPhee
Freya Stark Ernest Hemingway
Graham Greene and many others
“Dazzling . . . Like someone panning for gold, Theroux reread hundreds of travel classics and modern works, shaking out the nuggets.” — San Francisco Chronicle
Testo aggiuntivo
A "determinedly personal collection of travel appreciation."
-Kirkus Reviews
A "diverting meditation on passages from his own and other writers' works. [T]he strongest pieces descry a tangible place through a discerning eye and pungent sensibility..."
-Publishers Weekly
