Loneliness and Time: The Story of British Travel Writing

by Mark Cocker

A study of travel writing as a literary art examines the lives and works of a dozen major travel writers, including Wilfred Thesiger, Gavin Maxwell, Laurens van der Post, and Lawrence Durrell.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[False · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've saved the bibliography of this book. Always a good sign. While focusing on about five noted travel writers in Britain, since the Victorian age, the author manages to take us on a journey of miles and mind. What compels us to travel? In the past, one needed money to indulge in such a desire. You still do. "Invariably, the more deeply travelers commit themselves to this joyous and dangerous enterprise, the richer their subsequent account of the experience. In fact, it is the level of this commitment and the degree of interior change allowed that are the most important measures of how "travel" differs from other forms of physical movement. Mere mileage alone is nothing. Those who come home almost exactly as they departed have perhaps not really travelled at all and usually produce the least satisfying travel books."

"Travel books, in fact, frequently dramatize a return to the innocence and paradise of childhood. By loosening the mental restraints that secure our adult relationship to the world and, in parallel, by liberating the libido, travel often initiates a state of consciousness that is extremely similar to childhood. In journeys we discover all over again the newness of the world. It is also the license for fun and juvenile adventure associated with a return to innocence which so often gives travel books their great popular appeal. However, it is a process of regression that can have its more sinister side. "

I know this, after spending days reading this, with a depth of appreciation I haven't felt in a while, I've planned a little day trip for my immediate future.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another one cleared off my TBR pile. Unfortunately, much skimming involved as I don't find Arabia or Tibet interesting destinations, nor was I engaged by the writers discussed. I believe the target audience is at a more ... intellectual level than works for me. I get that it was written as a look back at the past 50 - 100 years, even so the material came across as horribly dated.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t Paul Fussell cover this topic in his classic study Abroad? Well yes, but Cocker concentrates on mostly different authors, and from an entirely different perspective. The subject is huge and can stand any number of intelligent treatments. This is an invaluable one.