Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels across the World of Literature

by John McMurtrie (Editor)

A beautifully illustrated guide to over seventy-five important journeys in world literature, spanning more than thirty countries and twenty-five hundred years

From Homer’s Odyssey, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and Cervantes’s Don Quixote to Melville’s Moby-Dick, Kerouac’s On the Road, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, some of the most powerful works of fiction center on a journey. Extending to the ends of the earth and spanning from ancient Greece to today, Literary Journeys is an enthralling book that takes you on a voyage of discovery through some of the most important journeys in literature. In original essays, an international team of literary critics, scholars, and other writers explore exciting, dangerous, tragic, and uplifting journeys in more than seventy-five classic and popular works of fiction from around the world. Chronologically arranged and gorgeously illustrated throughout with paintings, engravings, photographs, and maps in full color, this captivating book will appeal to readers who have travelled widely, who are planning a trip, or who love armchair travel.

Contributors include Robert McCrum, Susan Shillinglaw, Maya Jaggi, Robert Holden, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Alan Taylor, Michael Bourne, Sarah Mesle—and dozens more

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Travel, Literary Criticism, History, Adventure, Writing

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2024

Reviews

[Abe Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a cool concept, what's written here is fantastic and to the point and while some of the visuals are great I cannot comprehend the decision to not include actual maps in this book. Why? It's literally called mapping fictional journeys. I get that some of the locations aren't real, but come on.

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume is a curated selection of 'literary journeys" subtitled "Mapping Fictional Travels Across The World of Literature." and that's what it's about.

From Homer's "Odyssey" to Amor Towles' "Lincoln Highway", readers can read about books that highlight places and travels. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales" includes several images of the pilgrimage throughout the ages. Others include maps, paintings, drawings, and photographs. There's a short blub about the book, author, and the journey.

It's the kind of book you leaf through rather than study. You might even find a book to read.

The selections are literary, many books found unread on shelves. I found one or two I'd like to read out of the list.

This is a book you might give a book lover or armchair explorer, although I'd rather read other adventure tales like The Hobbit or even "Travels with Charlie." Ah well, as I said, a curated list of literary books.

[Anne Herbison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book with orange end papers, accessible format, and many illustrations including, as you would expect, maps. The reach of the book is global and across time from Homer to now. Each author has a short bio at the beginning of each entry from which I learnt significant things. For example, I learnt that H.G. Wells' human rights work was instrumental in establishing the United Nations. He is also credited with coining the terms 'atom bomb', 'time machine', 'the war to end war', and 'the league of nations'. His featured work is about bicycling, a popular activity at the time (1890s) which provided freedom for women in their 'rational' dress. It was interesting to learn that many of the writers hadn't been to the places they write about. Katherine Mansfield is featured with her story The Voyage which, like many of the featured works is as much - or more - about a psychological voyage or transition in life as it is about a literal journey.

[Sunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review/introduction of a collection of fictions themed in journey- in most of works, geographical and inner journeys are intertwined. When I saw the cover of the book, I imagined it's a book of map- showing literary journeys on actual map. A few reviews are in fact accompanied with real or imagined maps. The reviews are organized in an chronological order divided into four parts.

There are lots of familiar stories (so famous, you never actually read it-kind-of books) introduced.
What I most enjoyed was the introductions of not well know authors (at least not to me) from different parts of the world (Australia, Sweden, Africa). I though a book selected from South Korea was a bit unexpected. My 'want-to-read' list has grown substantially.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories about travel have always taken us places, explored difference and commonalities, taught us much, and shown us the world. Once we are grown, they are no less magical. Often, there is TOO much choice—and not enough in-depth guidance to truly explore the best of literary travels.

Enter Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels Across the World of Literature, edited by John McMurtrie and published by Princeton University Press.

This book is an UTTER joy, complete page turner, and a lifelong reading guide to journeys that will enrich our lives.

Highly, highly recommended!

Click through to read our fascinating interview with editor John McMurtrie about the collection of journeys in the book, favorite books, backstories, and global literature.

https://www.wanderingeducators.com/bo...

[Russel Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some things about this book I really enjoyed. It was beautifully illustrated and otherwise expertly organized. The lack of actual maps though seems a pretty obvious omission. The book selections through roughly 2000, and a handful thereafter, were largely obvious, noncontroversial, and enduring. The contemporary ones though tended to be far more political, and usually imbued with the acceptable politics. If that’s a representative sample of 21st C fiction that’s unfortunate, but if it simply reflects the priorities of the editors it’s a shortcoming. Still, a lot of the 20th C titles were works I didn’t know or didn’t know well, so it added to my list of books to read and for that I’m grateful.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting soooo much more than this. First, it is heavily male-dominated in the choice of stories the author chose to feature. And I wasn't getting a lot of 'travel' from the reviews; mostly a summary of each book. Super disappointed. I'll pick a female (because there weren't that many) as an example. Let's say Wuthering Heights. The travel part would be a sentence or two of Catherine traveling the moors while the rest of the two pages is a synopsis of her and Heathcliff. Two stars for the artwork.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a beautiful book - maps, paintings and other illustrations, author photos, all really helped to bring to life the work under discussion, as well as the time and place it was set in. Each entry gave a bit of information on the author, the time and place in which the story was set, and a brief overview and review of the work. It was fun to get a sense of each title, even if it didn't always awaken a desire to read it for myself. The premise and the presentation of this book worked delightfully together to create something fun, and I enjoyed learning about the books encompassed therein.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that may have been born out of an idea that was overly ambitious. Considering how travel as a concept figures into so much of literature, the choice of books to include is very personal to the author, especially when covering time periods from Ancient Greece to the present. While I found a few titles that I would read again, or would read for the first time, it was a slog to get through many of the essays. The illustrations are captivating, but I agree with other reviewers that there aren't enough maps considering that travel is the point of the book.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful to look at, but the text is dry and not very focused on the journey aspect of the books, so ultimately it reads more like any somewhat stiffly described list of great books. As other reviewers note, maps of the travels made in each book would seem obligatory given the title, but they aren't here. The art that takes there place is probably the high point, and the book choices aren't bad, so it's not all bad, it could just be better.

[Meagan | The Chapter House · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting book, but misrepresented in its title/subtitle--few maps were actually included. The book is much more an overview of the author, book, and historical context of its writing and/or subject matter, along with paintings and (some) maps incorporated. Great for what it is, but wildly different than suggested in the title.

[Ellie Turton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sadly also believed it to be a travel guide that would allow you to physically follow the famous trips in literature and potentually travel the same path. However I have added a few more books to my wish list that I probably never would have heard of without this book, so it wasn't all disappointing.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a nice adventure. I added a few books to my tbr list, some that I had not been interested in before. Illustrations were a great addition