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The Way To Xanadu
Caroline Alexander first read Coleridge's majestic, irresolvable masterpiece Kubla Khan as a child and, like scores of scholars ever since its first publication, became obsessed with the poem's sources. Was there really a place called Xanadu with its "walls and towers"; what inspired the "caves of ice", the "mighty fountain momently forced" and the "Abyssinian maid singing of Mount Abora"? In this extraordinary book Caroline Alexander recounts her quest across three continentsto discover "the miracle of rare device", the sources of Coleridge's inspiration.
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First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 14, 2020
I picked up this book based on the evocative Xanadu of the title, and an interest in the Mongol / Chinese history. I hadn't researched the basis of the book at the time.
It is actually about the famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan, the first line at least, many of us probably know as a rhyme.
The author examines Coleridge, the circumstances of him writing this poem, and the books he had read prior to writing from where he apparently drew his inspiration.
The sort version is that Coleridge, in 1797, miss-abusing opium by this time woke in a chair where he had been reading 'Purchas's pilgrimage' somewhat of a daze and quickly scribbled down the lines before they faded from memory. After 55 lines he was interrupted, and when he returned the remainder was beyond his memory. He didn't seek to publish his poem until 1815.
And so from there the author divides her book into sections. In the first, subtitled The Walls and Towers, the author travels to China to visit the site of Xanadu (Shangdu) in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, northwest of Beijing, near the border with Mongolia.
Intermingled with her own travel, Alexander gives a potted history of travellers who visited Xanadu, and briefly it's rise and fall. The book of feature in this chapter is Samuel Purchas's Purchas his Pilgrimage, or at least the small part related to Xanadu.
Next in Coleridge's reading list is John Bartram's Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws - snappy title, right? Here the author talks of her childhood in Florida and of Tarzan films shot here. This section was titled The Mighty Fountain.
The next chapter, titled The Cave of Ice features Kashmir. There were a number of quotations in Coleridge's notes / reading list related to Kashmmir - The History of Hindostan by Reverend Thomas Maurice; Memoir of a Map of Hindostan by Major James Rennell; Journey to Kachemire by Francois Bernier. Again the author heads off to travel to the areas mentioned, taking part in a pilgrimage, and intermingling more history of the area.
The next chapter takes in Ethiopia, the book from Coleridge's reading is by James Bruce, titled Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile. The chapter is titled Mount Abora (and the Abyssinian Maid). It is noted that the book related to the Blue Nile, the source of which is Lake Tana. We also return in part to Purcas's Pilgrimage, as he also writes about Ethiopia. Again the author travels on a route assessed as being relevant to the writings above.
In each of these chapters the author picks up key points where description or phrasing is taken from or influenced by the books Coleridge had written in the months prior to his laudanum induced nap. She then wraps up in a chapter based in Exmoor, where Coleridge lived and wrote.
It was perhaps not the fastest moving book. I enjoyed it in parts - the travel in China, Kashmir and Ethiopia was interesting, and the narrative around where the inspiration came from kept me interested enough. Perhaps not a book to read for the travel alone, as that can be found in more detail and probably in better form elsewhere, but for those interested in the history and inspiration of the writing of Coleridge, sure.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...
3.5 stars rounded down.
It is actually about the famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan, the first line at least, many of us probably know as a rhyme.
In Xanadu did Khubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
The author examines Coleridge, the circumstances of him writing this poem, and the books he had read prior to writing from where he apparently drew his inspiration.
The sort version is that Coleridge, in 1797, miss-abusing opium by this time woke in a chair where he had been reading 'Purchas's pilgrimage' somewhat of a daze and quickly scribbled down the lines before they faded from memory. After 55 lines he was interrupted, and when he returned the remainder was beyond his memory. He didn't seek to publish his poem until 1815.
And so from there the author divides her book into sections. In the first, subtitled The Walls and Towers, the author travels to China to visit the site of Xanadu (Shangdu) in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, northwest of Beijing, near the border with Mongolia.
Intermingled with her own travel, Alexander gives a potted history of travellers who visited Xanadu, and briefly it's rise and fall. The book of feature in this chapter is Samuel Purchas's Purchas his Pilgrimage, or at least the small part related to Xanadu.
Next in Coleridge's reading list is John Bartram's Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws - snappy title, right? Here the author talks of her childhood in Florida and of Tarzan films shot here. This section was titled The Mighty Fountain.
The next chapter, titled The Cave of Ice features Kashmir. There were a number of quotations in Coleridge's notes / reading list related to Kashmmir - The History of Hindostan by Reverend Thomas Maurice; Memoir of a Map of Hindostan by Major James Rennell; Journey to Kachemire by Francois Bernier. Again the author heads off to travel to the areas mentioned, taking part in a pilgrimage, and intermingling more history of the area.
The next chapter takes in Ethiopia, the book from Coleridge's reading is by James Bruce, titled Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile. The chapter is titled Mount Abora (and the Abyssinian Maid). It is noted that the book related to the Blue Nile, the source of which is Lake Tana. We also return in part to Purcas's Pilgrimage, as he also writes about Ethiopia. Again the author travels on a route assessed as being relevant to the writings above.
In each of these chapters the author picks up key points where description or phrasing is taken from or influenced by the books Coleridge had written in the months prior to his laudanum induced nap. She then wraps up in a chapter based in Exmoor, where Coleridge lived and wrote.
It was perhaps not the fastest moving book. I enjoyed it in parts - the travel in China, Kashmir and Ethiopia was interesting, and the narrative around where the inspiration came from kept me interested enough. Perhaps not a book to read for the travel alone, as that can be found in more detail and probably in better form elsewhere, but for those interested in the history and inspiration of the writing of Coleridge, sure.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...
3.5 stars rounded down.
October 31, 2008
Alexander travels first to the "lost city" of Shengdu, China - the original "Xanadu" on which the famous poem is based. She then takes the reader to Florida, Kashmir, and Abyssinia (Ethiopia), other far-flung places about which Coleridge had written; a brief piece on Exmoor, where "Xanadu" was actually written, rounds out this well-written group of essays.
January 10, 2025
Towards the end of the 1980s, it became possible, though not easy, to visit Xanadu, aka Shangdu, in Inner Mongolia, China, the site of Kublai Khan's summer palace, known to lovers of poetry through Coleridge's poem. Through two old friends, Caroline Alexander was able to obtain visas and an itinerary for herself and a friend to visit the site by jeep and see the ruined walls. That could have bee the end of the story; but some of the details did not match up with Coleridge's poem, and it took four more expeditions to trace three landscapes which Coleridge knew only from travel books he had read and the Devon countryside where the poem had come to him in a dream. Florida where she had grown up for a "mighty fountain"; Kashmir for a five-day foot pilgrimage to the "cave of ice" - the only way foreigners were able to get there; Ethiopia for Mount Abora of which the Abyssinian made had sung; and finally Exmoor. It was only in the last few pages and the bibliography that I realized that the landscapes had been suggested sixty years earlier, in The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination "much quoted in, and essential to [my] book."
May 17, 2025
An innovative approach to a travel journal: (Re)tracing the steps that Mr Coleridge made only in his opiate-fueled imagination as the author seeks across three continents the places that inspired a magical and haunting poem.
March 15, 2011
Caroline Alexander, in the thrall of Coleridge's poem, "Kubla Kahn", seeks to visit the sites that inspired Coleridge's opium-induced dream and romantically exotic poem.
She, of course, visits Mongolia, but also Ethiopia, Kashmir, and, surprisingly, Florida.
I enjoyed this book very much. I've loved the poem since I first read it in my early teens, and it made me realize how much this poem has contributed to my own love of the romatic and exotic.
I loved her travels just for the sheer adventure and exoticism alone, but I was also fascinated by the connections she made to Coleridge and what inspired him to write the poem. I believe that most of her conjectures about what inspired Coleridge are accurate. After all she does have a PHD, and has been fascinated with this poem for most of her life, so she would have extensive knowledge of the subject. It seemed that she almost entered Coleridge's head at times.
I found this book to be a wonderfully readable hybrid of flights of fancy to the most exotic of realms and down-to earth historical and biographical details, etc.. This was a unique little book that was a pleasure to read
She, of course, visits Mongolia, but also Ethiopia, Kashmir, and, surprisingly, Florida.
I enjoyed this book very much. I've loved the poem since I first read it in my early teens, and it made me realize how much this poem has contributed to my own love of the romatic and exotic.
I loved her travels just for the sheer adventure and exoticism alone, but I was also fascinated by the connections she made to Coleridge and what inspired him to write the poem. I believe that most of her conjectures about what inspired Coleridge are accurate. After all she does have a PHD, and has been fascinated with this poem for most of her life, so she would have extensive knowledge of the subject. It seemed that she almost entered Coleridge's head at times.
I found this book to be a wonderfully readable hybrid of flights of fancy to the most exotic of realms and down-to earth historical and biographical details, etc.. This was a unique little book that was a pleasure to read
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews