Saturday 23 February 2019

Book Review: Literary Places by Sarah Baxter (Non-Fiction/Travel)

Title: Literary Places
Author: Sarah Baxter
Publisher:
Quarto--White Lion Publishing

Publication Date: 5 March 2019
Pages:
144
Format:
eBook - EPUB
Genre:
Non-Fiction/Travel
Source:
ARC via NetGalley

 


Inspired Traveller’s Guides: Literary Places takes you on an enlightening journey through the key locations of literature’s best and brightest authors, movements, and moments—brought to life through comprehensively researched text and stunning hand-drawn artwork.

Travel journalist Sarah Baxter provides comprehensive and atmospheric outlines of the history and culture of 25 literary places around the globe, as well as how they intersect with the lives of the authors and the works that make them significant. Full-page color illustrations instantly transport you to each location. You’ll find that these places are not just backdrops to the tales told, but characters in their own right.

Travel to the sun-scorched plains of Don Quixote’s La Mancha, roam the wild Yorkshire moors with Cathy and Heathcliff, or view Central Park through the eyes of J.D. Salinger’s antihero. Explore the lush and languid backwaters of Arundhati Roy’s Kerala, the imposing precipice of Joan Lindsay’s Hanging Rock, and the labyrinthine streets and sewers of Victor Hugo’s Paris.

Delve into this book to discover some of the world’s most fascinating literary places and the novels that celebrate them.


Literary Places is a travel guide with a booklover's twist, highlighting some key literary destinations around the world. I enjoyed the different chapters, with their pretty illustrations and overview of each book's key locations. In some cases you can follow a precise tour through scenes from the novel. In others, there are suggestions based on scholarly belief as to which buildings and places were the author's source of inspiration. And this book is about inspiration rather than planning. If you want to know the logistics of getting to some of these locales, you'll need to do separate research, as there is nothing like that included. I might have enjoyed having some of that kind of information presented, perhaps as an appendix rather than in the main text, but as it is, this book is still a delightful read. I was familiar with a good three quarters of the novels mentioned, and of the remainder, I ended up adding a couple to my reading wishlist. I recommend this book for literary fans who also love to travel.

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