Travel literature

Travel literature is travel writing considered to have value as literature. Travel literature typically records the people, events, sights and feelings of an author who is touring a foreign place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary.

To be called literature the work must have a coherent narrative, or insights and value, beyond a mere logging of dates and events, such as diary or ship's log. Literature that recounts adventure, exploration and conquest is often grouped under travel literature, but it also has its own genre outdoor literature; these genres will often overlap with no definite boundaries. This article focuses on literature that is more akin to tourism.

History

One of the earliest known records of taking pleasure in travel, of travelling for the sake of travel and writing about it, is Petrarch's (1304–1374) ascent of Mount Ventoux in 1336. He states that he went to the mountaintop for the pleasure of seeing the top of the famous height. His companions who stayed at the bottom he called frigida incuriositas ("a cold lack of curiosity"). He then wrote about his climb, making allegorical comparisons between climbing the mountain and his own moral progress in life.

Michault Taillement, a poet for the Duke of Burgundy, travelled through the Jura Mountains in 1430 and left us with his personal reflections, his horrified reaction to the sheer rock faces, and the terrifying thunderous cascades of mountain streams. Antoine de la Sale (c. 1388–c. 1462), author of Petit Jehan de Saintre, climbed to the crater of a volcano in the Lipari Islands in 1407, leaving us with his impressions. "Councils of mad youth" were his stated reasons for going. In the mid 15th century, Gilles le Bouvier, in his Livre de la description des pays, gave us the best reason to travel and write:

Because many people of diverse nations and countries delight and take pleasure, as I have done in times past, in seeing the world and things therein, and also because many wish to know without going there, and others wish to see, go, and travel, I have begun this little book.

In 1589, Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616) published Voyages, a foundational text of the travel literature genre.

Other later examples of travel literature include accounts of the Grand Tour. Aristocrats, clergy, and others with money and leisure time travelled Europe to learn about the art and architecture of its past. One tourism literature pioneer was Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894).

Travel literature also became popular during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) of medieval China.^[1] The genre was called 'travel record literature' (youji wenxue), and was often written in narrative, prose, essay, and diary style.^[2] Travel literature authors such as Fan Chengda (1126–1193) and Xu Xiake (1587–1641) incorporated a wealth of geographical and topographical information into their writing, while the 'daytrip essay' Record of Stone Bell Mountain by the noted poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101) presented a philosophical and moral argument as its central purpose.^[3]

In the 18th century, travel literature was commonly known as the book of travels, which mainly consisted of maritime diaries.^[4] In 18th century England, almost every famous writer worked in the travel literature form.^[5] Captain James Cook's diaries (1784) were the equivalent of today's best sellers.

Travel guides

Travel literature is not to be confused with travel guides, usually a series put out by a publisher, each dealing with a particular country, city or region. These are useful for travellers, as they provide a wealth of information on hotels, restaurants, major sights, travel tips etc. The writers are often specialists who travel and write these books for a living.

Types of travelogues

Some travel writers are people who travel and make their livings by writing about it. The Americans William Least Heat-Moon (b. 1940) and Paul Theroux (b. 1941), the Welsh author Jan Morris (b. 1926), and the Englishman Eric Newby (1919–2006), come to mind, although Morris is also known as an historian and Theroux as a novelist.

There is a point, too, in which travel literature intersects with essay writing, as in V. S. Naipaul's India: A Wounded Civilization (1977), where a trip becomes the occasion for extended observations on a nation and people. Rebecca West's (1892–1983) work on Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) is another example.

Travel and nature writing merge in many of the works of Sally Carrighar (1895–1985), Ivan T. Sanderson (1911–1973), and Gerald Durrell (1925–1995). These authors are naturalists who write to support their great passion. Both Durrell and Sanderson can be quite funny. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) wrote his famous account of the journey of HMS Beagle at the intersection of science, natural history and travel.

Literary travel writing also occurs when an author, famous in another field, travels and writes about his or her experiences. Examples of such writers are Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), Charles Dickens (1812–1870), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953), D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930), Rebecca West (1892–1983), John Steinbeck (1902–1968), and Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966).

Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or it may involve travel to different regions within the same country. Accounts of spaceflight may also be considered as travel literature.

Fictional travelogues make up a large proportion of travel literature. Although it may be desirable in some contexts to distinguish fictional from non-fictional works, such distinctions have proved notoriously difficult to make in practice, as in the famous instance of the travel writings of Marco Polo or John Mandeville. Many "fictional" works of travel literature are based on factual journeys – Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness), presumably Homer's Odyssey (c. 8th cent. BCE) – while other works, though based on imaginary and even highly fantastic journeys – Dante's Divine Comedy (1321), Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), or Voltaire's Candide (1759), Samuel Johnson's Rasselas (1759) – nevertheless contain factual elements.

Notable travel writers and travel literature

• Pausanias (Second century CE)

  Description of Greece

• Abu ad-Din al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Jubayr (1145–1214)
• Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Batutta (1304–c. 1377)
• Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616):

  The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) — A foundational text of the travel literature genre

• François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz (1623–1668):

  Les voyages et observations du sieur de La Boullaye Le gouz (1653 & 1657) — One of the very first true travel books.

• Matsuo Basho (1644–1694)

  The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

• Samuel Johnson (1709–1784):

  A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) — The lexicographer and his friend James Boswell (1740–1795) visit Scotland in 1773.

• Laurence Sterne (1713–1768):

  A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768).

• Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831)

  Hizakurige (The Shank's Mare) - one of the most famous of the Edo period michiyuki (journey) novels

• Heinrich Heine (1797–1856)
• Karl Baedeker (1801–1859)
• Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
• Charles Dickens (1812–1870):

  American Notes (1842).

  Pictures of Italy (1844–1845).

• Herman Melville (1819–1891):

  Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846).

  Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847) — Chronicles of Melville's experiences as a sailor in Polynesia.

• Fran Levstik (1831–1887):

  Popotovanje od Litije do Čateža (1858) — A journey from Litija to Čatež that includes a very influential Slovenian literary programme.

• Mark Twain (1835–1910)
• Octave Mirbeau (1848–1917)

  La 628-E8 (1908)

• Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894):

  Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879).

  The Silverado Squatters (1883).

• Norman Douglas (1868–1962):

  Old Calabria (1915).

• Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953):

  The Path To Rome (1902) — A ramble by foot from central France to Rome in 1901.

• Yone Noguchi (1875–1947)

  The American Diary of a Japanese Girl (1903)

• W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965):

  On a Chinese Screen (1922) — Vignettes of China in the '30s from the master of the short story.

• D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930):

  Sea and Sardinia (1921).

• Henry Vollam Morton (1892–1979)
• Rebecca West (1892–1983):

  Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) — A 1,181-page look at Yugoslavia in 1937 by the pro-Serb West and a fascinating, if less than objective, account of this land before the tragedies of World War II and the 1990s wars.

• Thomas Raucat (1894–1976)

  L'honorable partie de campagne ("The honorable picnic", 1924)

  De Shang-Haï à Canton ("From Shanghai to Canton", 1927)

• J. Slauerhoff (1898–1936)

  Alleen de havens zijn ons trouw ("Only the Ports Are Loyal to Us", 1992 [1927–1932])

• Gordon Sinclair (1900–1984):

  Khyber Caravan: Through Kashmir, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Northern India (1936) — A somewhat curmudgeonly account of 1934 travels in British India by a later famous Canadian journalist and television personality.

• John Steinbeck (1902–1968):

  Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962) — A classic American road book describing Steinbeck's journeys with his poodle, Charley.

• Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966):

  Waugh Abroad: Collected Travel Writing — A classic account of the English novelist's restless wanderings around the world in the 1930s and later.

• Robert Byron (1905–1941):

  The Road to Oxiana (1937) — travels in Persia and Afghanistan

• Laurens van der Post (1906–1996):

  The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958) — Auberon Waugh (1939–2001) described van der Post as the person in whose company he'd most like to spend an evening. This book by the South African soldier/explorer/writer suggests why.

• Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003)
• Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990):

  Prospero's Cell: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corcyra (1945) — This text describes Durrell's time in Corfu. It should be read in tandem with his brother Gerald's My Family and Other Animals.

  Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953) — Durrell's experiences in Rhodes.

  Bitter Lemons (1957) — Durrell in Cyprus.

• Heinrich Harrer (1912–2006)
• Gavin Maxwell (1914–1969)
• Patrick Leigh Fermor (b. 1915):

  A Time Of Gifts (1977) — A journey by an 18 year old in 1933/4 overland from the Hook of Holland to Hungary, rewritten in old age from long lost notes.

• Eric Newby (1919–2006):

  A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958) — Popular English travel writer.

• Lucjan Wolanowski (1920–2006):

  Post to Never-Never Land (Poland, 1968); reports from Australia;

  Heat and fever (Poland, 1970); reports from the work in World Health Organization Information department in Geneva, travels in New Delhi, Bangkok and Manila 1967-1968.

• Richard Halliburton, one of the most famous explorers and adventure writers of his generation

The Royal Road to Romance, The Flying Carpet, New Worlds to Conquer, The Glorious Adventure, Seven League Boots

• Jack Kerouac (1922–1969):

  On the Road (1957).

• Gerald Durrell (1925–1995):

  My Family and Other Animals (1956) — A description of an idyllic childhood on Corfu in the 1930s by the brother of Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990). This text combines natural observations, humour, storytelling, and travel.

  Fillets of Plaice (1971).

• Tahir Shah (b. 1966):

  "Sorcerer's Apprentice"

  "In Search of King Solomon's Mines"

  "Trail of Feathers"

  "The Caliph's House"

  "In Arabian Nights"

  "House of the Tiger King"

  "Beyond the Devil's Teeth"

• Jan Morris (b. 1926):

  Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere (2001) — Author of many works, especially about cities.

• Juan Goytisolo (b. 1931)
• Ryszard Kapuściński (1932–2007)

  Another Day of Life (1976)

  The Soccer War (1978)

  The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (1978)

  Shah of Shahs (1982)

  Imperium (1993)

  The Shadow of the Sun (2001)

• Cees Nooteboom (b. 1933)

  Berlijnse Notities (1990)

  Roads to Santiago (1992)

  Nootebooms Hotel (2002) — Dutch travel writer.

• Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002)
• Venedikt Erofeev (1938–1990):

  Moskva–Pеtushki (1973) — A Russian tale of alcohol, love, and a train ride; translated into English as Moscow to the End of the Line.

• Peter Mayle (b. 1939)
• Colin Thubron (b. 1939)
• Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989):

  In Patagonia (1977).

  The Songlines (1987) — An English stylist of the 20th century.

• William Least Heat-Moon (b. 1940):

  Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1982) — An American Classic by an author well known for travel writing.

• Frances Mayes (b. 1940):

  Under the Tuscan Sun (1996) — A memoir of buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in rural Tuscany in Italy.

• Paul Theroux (b. 1941):

  The Great Railway Bazaar (1975) — Perhaps Theroux's most popular travel work.

• Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
• Michael Palin (b. 1943)
• Julian Barnes (b. 1946)
• Chris Stewart (b. 1950)

  Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia (1999)

  A Parrot in the Pepper Tree (2002)

  The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (2007)

• Bill Bryson (b. 1951):

  The Palace Under the Alps (1985) — An early work that is more of a travel guide than a narrative.

  Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe (1992)

  Notes from a Small Island (1995) — Travels in the United Kingdom.

  A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1999)

  I'm A Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away (2000)

  In a Sunburned Country (2001)

• Vikram Seth (b. 1952

  From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983)

• Quim Monzó (b. 1952)
• Paul Ruffino (b. 1956)
• Pico Iyer (b. 1957):

  Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-so-Far East (1988),

  Tropical Classical: Essays from Several Directions (1997),

  Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home (2000) — Three excellent collections of essays on the postmodern experience of travel.

• Jorge Queirolo B. (b. 1963)
• Karl Taro Greenfeld (b. 1964):

  Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation (1995),

  Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia — An exploration of the traveler/backpacker subcultures in the Far East during the 1990s by a writer who was there.

• Alain de Botton (b. 1969):

  The Art of Travel (2002).

• J. Maarten Troost (b. 1969):

  The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific (2004),

  Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu (2006)

• Cleo Paskal
• Rantanen Päivi and Kannisto Santeri
• Tom Bissell

• William Dalrymple – Of the younger generation of British travel writers.

  In Xanadu (1989)

  City of Djinns (1992)

  From the Holy Mountain (1997)

  The Age of Kali (1998)