Why a Booktrail?
Charting the Real-Life Settings of the World’s Favourite Fiction
Literary Landscapes
What you need to know before your trail
Some stories couldn’t happen just anywhere or any time – often the scenery , landscape or era is as central to the tale as any character – and just as easily recognised. Wh at adventures would Heidi have had without her mountain neighbours? Would Jim Hawkins have experienced such an adventure had he not lived in mid – 1700s England? Literary Landscapes brings together an eclectic collage of over 50 familiar literary worlds paired with original maps and archive material, as well as illustrations and photography.
Travel Guide
Literary landscapes across the world
The landscapes of enduring fictional characters and literary legends are vividly brought to life, evoking all the sights and sounds of the original works. For anyone who ever dreamt of escaping the everyday, Literary Landscapes will transport you to the greatest places in literature.
The book is divided into four sections.
The book is divided into four sections.
1817 to 1913 – Romantic Prospects – Explore Bath, England, as evoked in Jane Austen’s Persuasion. End up travelling all the way to Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! set in Nebraska, USA
1915 to 1945 : Mapping Modernism – From the Ireland of James Joyce’s Ulysses to the Switzerland of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.
1947 – 1973 – The Postwar Panorama section takes the reader to Amsterdam via Gerard Reve’s The Evenings: A Winter’s Tales and ends on the Solovetsky Islands and Russia via Alexander Solzhenitsyn’
1975 – present day – Contemporary Geographies. Let’s start at the bustling city of San Francisco, via Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City then head off to Elena Ferrante’s Naples via My Brilliant Friend. Then there’s the metropolis of New York of Francis Spufford’s Golden Hill.
Literary Landscapes
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
As soon as I saw this book, well, to say it sang to me is an understatement. Setting and place in a book and travelling to those locations for real is how The BookTrail first began. (even if I did tuck myself in wardrobes in search of Narnia or dig holes in search of the white rabbit before that, but that’s another story)
There’s a lot to like about this book. The cover for one is stunning and inside, it’s even better. Great colour pictures and illustrations showcase the location of each book, whilst nice long text explains why and how such a setting was used and brought to life.
It’s a coffee table and dip in and dip out kind of read. There’s so many places and books to travel with. Whether you want to revisit the Canada of Anne of Green Gables or delve into Charles Dickens’ London, it’s all there for exploring. And it’s great fun to pick where you want to go next. Canadian Countryside to London town…and the stories which put these places on the map.
Don’t think this is a literary step back in time either. There’s lots for fans of more recent fiction to pour over. Elena Ferrante. is of course there as an Italian stopover, and Kate Grenville’s The Secret River takes you all the way to New South Wales.
There’s a lot of information on each stopover as I’m calling them. I was particularly excited to see Carlos Ruiz Zafón there!It was like meeting old friends and travelling with them which was a joy.
Happily, there’s lots of information about the author, ( well theirs are the eyes you’re seeing this new destination through after all ) and plenty of useful background about the book itself such as publication date and the context in which it was written.
I could wax lyrical about this for ages to be honest. I’m like a child in a sweet shop. If there’s one negative about the book, I would have liked to know who was writing the essays in question. The book and locations are clear but the authors of the individual essays on the book are not. They lurk at the back of the book but I say, bring them on to the stage!
I’ve already got this in mind for a few fellow travellers of a literary persuasion!
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Literary Landscapes
Destination : Worldwide Author/Guide: John Sutherland Departure Time: Timeless
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
