What do you think?
Rate this book
October Vagabonds
A travelogue about two friends, a poet and a painter, who decide to walk their way back from upstate New York in the fall of 1908.
68 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1910
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Richard Le Gallienne
535 books21 followersRichard Le Gallienne was an English author and poet. The American actress Eva Le Gallienne was his daughter, by his second marriage.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 14, 2015
This charming book tells about the journey of two friends, an author and a painter, who met at a farm one summer while the author was on a retreat from the hustle and bustle of his life in New York City. At the end of the summer, they decided that in order to delay their inevitable return to civilization, they would walk the 430 miles back to New York City.
It is a beautifully written little book, with many observations that can only be made while on foot. They notice names on mailboxes and wonder about them, they see bits of Nature that even then (this was published in 1911) were easily passed over by others with less eye for romantic detail than our poet and his friend; they meet wonderful characters like Billy The Cobbler, who shared his business card:
King of Them All BILLY WILLIAMS THE KING OF ALL IMITATORS Producing in Rapid Succession A GRAND REPERTOIRE of Imitations and Impersonations Consisting of: Minstrel Bands, Circus Bands, Killing Pigs, Cat Greeting Her Kitten, Barn-Yard of Hens and Roosters, Opera Singers with Guitar, Whistling with Guitar, Old Lady Singing with False Teeth, Cow and Calf, Harmonica with the Guitar, Arab Song, Trombone Solo with the Guitar.
Our friends enjoyed their trip, as did I...reading about it was almost as good as walking with them would have been.
It is a beautifully written little book, with many observations that can only be made while on foot. They notice names on mailboxes and wonder about them, they see bits of Nature that even then (this was published in 1911) were easily passed over by others with less eye for romantic detail than our poet and his friend; they meet wonderful characters like Billy The Cobbler, who shared his business card:
King of Them All BILLY WILLIAMS THE KING OF ALL IMITATORS Producing in Rapid Succession A GRAND REPERTOIRE of Imitations and Impersonations Consisting of: Minstrel Bands, Circus Bands, Killing Pigs, Cat Greeting Her Kitten, Barn-Yard of Hens and Roosters, Opera Singers with Guitar, Whistling with Guitar, Old Lady Singing with False Teeth, Cow and Calf, Harmonica with the Guitar, Arab Song, Trombone Solo with the Guitar.
Our friends enjoyed their trip, as did I...reading about it was almost as good as walking with them would have been.
November 28, 2012
Sweet little travelogue by a romantic poet and his friend. Richard is staying at a hermitage over the summer when one day he meets Colin, a French artist. Summer is ending, and the two hatch up a bit of a mad plan; rather than take the train back to New York City, why not walk it? So begins their journey.
You're probably going to either enjoy it, or find it insufferably fey. Richard is very much a romantic in spirit, and is someone who can find delight in everything. He's a book lover who carries ten books in his pack as he travels, and he makes small poems and observations on everything. In a way, it's a little similar to The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Basho, but set in New England. Richard is greatly in love with nature and common things.
Sometimes his romantic nature has to deal with the realities of the road. He talks about being taken for tramps, and how he dislikes American country hotels. Not everyone trusts him, and even his romance is tempered with reality: he regrets he couldn't be a true vagabond and sleep under the open sky, because October nights are chill and bitter. But there's a lot of pretty little sketches and moments in the book. He wonders over a beautiful child in a lonely schoolroom, and finds she was the daughter of a French woman and English sailor, locked away in a forgotten rural town of New York. He describes a man who offered them a ride taking pleasure in Colin's sketches, or a lonely old man who cobbles shoes and also does amazing musical impressions.
The more I think of it, the more like Basho it seems. Richard seems to get the idea of mono-no-aware, the transience of things. Both are slim books filled with poetry and fine observations, though Richard's travels are slimmer in scope. He'a also a bit fairy-touched in his observations. Maybe part of his romantic, English spirit.
I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It's sad though, because this truly is a vanished world. The ugly suburbs he has described on his last leg of the trip have taken over completely, and I doubt he'd like the modern hotel any better than the country one. This makes the book more of a sweet remembrance than a thing to inspire others to do likewise.
You're probably going to either enjoy it, or find it insufferably fey. Richard is very much a romantic in spirit, and is someone who can find delight in everything. He's a book lover who carries ten books in his pack as he travels, and he makes small poems and observations on everything. In a way, it's a little similar to The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Basho, but set in New England. Richard is greatly in love with nature and common things.
Sometimes his romantic nature has to deal with the realities of the road. He talks about being taken for tramps, and how he dislikes American country hotels. Not everyone trusts him, and even his romance is tempered with reality: he regrets he couldn't be a true vagabond and sleep under the open sky, because October nights are chill and bitter. But there's a lot of pretty little sketches and moments in the book. He wonders over a beautiful child in a lonely schoolroom, and finds she was the daughter of a French woman and English sailor, locked away in a forgotten rural town of New York. He describes a man who offered them a ride taking pleasure in Colin's sketches, or a lonely old man who cobbles shoes and also does amazing musical impressions.
The more I think of it, the more like Basho it seems. Richard seems to get the idea of mono-no-aware, the transience of things. Both are slim books filled with poetry and fine observations, though Richard's travels are slimmer in scope. He'a also a bit fairy-touched in his observations. Maybe part of his romantic, English spirit.
I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It's sad though, because this truly is a vanished world. The ugly suburbs he has described on his last leg of the trip have taken over completely, and I doubt he'd like the modern hotel any better than the country one. This makes the book more of a sweet remembrance than a thing to inspire others to do likewise.
June 9, 2024
October Vagabonds by Richard Le Gallienne is a captivating exploration of autumn, filled with poetic prose and insightful observations. It takes readers on a journey through various locations, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the ambiance of the season. The book reflects on the transient nature of existence and the importance of embracing the present moment. Overall, it is a charming and delightful read for anyone who appreciates the magic of autumn.
March 30, 2023
This short travel story provides an excellent account of the early 20th-century New York state countryside, its inhabitants, moods, issues at hand, and the spirit of the time. With an existential message also incorporated into the narrative, I would recommend reading!
November 2, 2019
3.5 stars
October 31, 2024
🖊 This is a charming and pleasant travel memoir told in the first person that takes the reader along on a walk through The Empire State (New York) during October 1908, when the author and his friend, Colin, embarked upon a long walk. The chapters are rich with colorful and cheery scenery descriptions and interesting people the two friends meet on the road. I learned that autumn is a lovely season in New York State. The candid accounts and descriptive scenes are breathtaking. I enjoyed reading this book, particularly because of the intelligent writing style. 🔥 The dénouement is gentle, which is what we need in the current world.
📕 Published in 1911.
જ⁀➴🟢The e-book version can be found on the Project Gutenberg website.
🟣 Kindle.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
🔲 Excerpts of note:
The two friends met an Italian along the way and engaged in light conversation:
◼️ This scene left me breathless: “A huge endless hillside all dripping and sparkling, and alive with little rills, facing a broad plain, a sea of feathery grass almost unbearably beautiful with soft glittering dew and opal mists, out of which rose spectral elms, like the shadows of gigantic Shanghai roosters.”
📕 Published in 1911.
જ⁀➴🟢The e-book version can be found on the Project Gutenberg website.
🟣 Kindle.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
🔲 Excerpts of note:
🔸 As I started out from the farm with a basket of potatoes, for our supper in the shack half a mile up the hillside, where we had made our Summer camp, my eye fell on a notice affixed to a gate-post, and, as I read it, my heart sank—sank as the sun was sinking yonder with wistful glory behind the purple ridge. I tore the paper from the gate-post and put it in my pocket with a sigh. "It is true, then," I said to myself. "We have got to admit it. I must show this to Colin."
The two friends met an Italian along the way and engaged in light conversation:
🔸 "You're an Italian?" "Me come from Pal-aer-mo." The little chap was evidently in a talkative mood, and I nudged Colin to do the honours of the conversation. "Pal-aer-mo? Indeed!" said Colin. "Fine city, I guess." "Been-a Pal-aer-mo?" asked the Italian eagerly. Colin couldn't say that he had. "Great city, Pal-aer-mo," continued our friend, "great theatre—cost sixteen million dollars." Did he ever expect to return to Palermo? we asked him as we parted. " Ah! many a night me dream of Pal-aer-mo," he called back, as, striking into a by-path, he disappeared in the darkness.
🔸 I could see Colin innocently at work on a salad, and hear him humming to himself his eternal "Vive le Capitaine."
🔸 THE MAN AT DANSVILLE: "Out for a walk, boys?" he called. He was a handsome man of about forty-three, with a romantic scar slashed down his left cheek, a startling scar that must have meant hideous agony to him, and yet, here in the end, had made his face beautiful, by the presence in it of a spiritual conquest.
🔸 And once more I fell to thinking of fairy springs by the roadside, and apples falling innocently from the bough, and how the beautiful journey we call life might some day suddenly end like this, with half the beautiful road untravelled—the rest sleep and perchance dreams.
🔸 [T]he blackboards placed outside farmhouses, on which are written, that is, "annunciated," the various products the farmer has for sale, such as apples, potatoes, honey, and so forth. On one occasion we read: "Get your horses' teeth floated here." There was no one to ask about what this mysterious proclamation meant.
◼️ This scene left me breathless: “A huge endless hillside all dripping and sparkling, and alive with little rills, facing a broad plain, a sea of feathery grass almost unbearably beautiful with soft glittering dew and opal mists, out of which rose spectral elms, like the shadows of gigantic Shanghai roosters.”
October 11, 2015
I have read this book every October since I discovered it as a free ebook download years ago. Gallienne's since become one of my favorite authors: unheard of, yet hopelessly Romantic and idealistic. The whole book proves this guy's a cheeseball, but it's gorgeous and hilarious at the same time.
Essentially the book follows a bromance between the narrator (Le Gallienne as a written poet) and his painter friend Colin. These two guys just go around and muse upon random things like apple orchards and a salad they made together. In the beginning of the book, Summer's at an end -- so what's to do for two sappy Romantics? They decide to take a long walk through the US country side rather than taking the train, of course!
As these two guys explore various places and meet people along the way, they take the time to sit down and find poetic inspiration in whatever looks good at the time. It's part travelogue, part nature poetry, part adventure story.
You'll enjoy the book if you can either 1) take it extremely seriously and you get a lit-boner off of Wordsworth and Walt Whitman or something, or 2) find Romantic poetry simultaneously heartfelt and hilariously cheesy.
If you feel any sort of swoon and can't help smiling at alliterative phrases like "All the hum and the honey and breathless bosom-beat of things is over" then this book's absolutely for you. For interest, check out not only Gallienne's other cheesy books (like Lonely Dancer & Other Poems) but also the book "The Greenhouse" which has a similar, lonely poet adventure type feel.
Essentially the book follows a bromance between the narrator (Le Gallienne as a written poet) and his painter friend Colin. These two guys just go around and muse upon random things like apple orchards and a salad they made together. In the beginning of the book, Summer's at an end -- so what's to do for two sappy Romantics? They decide to take a long walk through the US country side rather than taking the train, of course!
As these two guys explore various places and meet people along the way, they take the time to sit down and find poetic inspiration in whatever looks good at the time. It's part travelogue, part nature poetry, part adventure story.
You'll enjoy the book if you can either 1) take it extremely seriously and you get a lit-boner off of Wordsworth and Walt Whitman or something, or 2) find Romantic poetry simultaneously heartfelt and hilariously cheesy.
If you feel any sort of swoon and can't help smiling at alliterative phrases like "All the hum and the honey and breathless bosom-beat of things is over" then this book's absolutely for you. For interest, check out not only Gallienne's other cheesy books (like Lonely Dancer & Other Poems) but also the book "The Greenhouse" which has a similar, lonely poet adventure type feel.
June 16, 2012
This was a short and sweet read. It takes you on a journey from Buffalo to NYC. The author describes the people he meets and the nature he observes. It is quite obvious from this book that the author is a poet at heart, and quite a few poems are mixed into his prose. It is not the best story I've ever read and there are no underlying plots: just a simple documentation of one authors journey as he travels part way across the country. It's short and it's free. Definately worth downloading to join the author on his adventure for a few hours.
September 13, 2015
Another early book for kindle that I forgot about until now. It's a short read, a very poetic little travelogue about a man and his friend who decide to walk back to New York City from upstate, where they have been spending the summer. The year is 1908. It's something that you'll either enjoy or find insufferable.
July 24, 2016
Free kindle book that I downloaded because the title sounded interesting. The author and his friend Colin must vacate their summer cottage and decide to walk back to New York instead of taking the train. Not much occurs, but there are some truly lovely descriptions of the landscapes they encounter on their walking tour.
January 18, 2011
Another free Kindle book that I read while in Tucson. I will write a review after I enter all the books I read while in Tucson.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews