From Paris to Pekin over Siberian Snows

From Paris to Pekin over Siberian Snows - A Narrative of a Journey by Sledge over the Snows of European Russia and Siberia, by Caravan Through Mongolia, Across the Gobi Desert and the Great Wall, and by Mule Palanquin Through China to Pekin

Embarrassed readers, who delight in books of travel, whether for the recreation or the useful information they afford, are not relieved of their difficulty when the title of the work, instead of indicating the nature of the subject, only presents an enigma for them to solve. How, for instance, is the reader to gauge the nature of the contents of Voyage en Zigzag? It might mean the itinerary of some crooked course among the Alps, or, perhaps, the log-book of a yacht chopping about the Channel, or the record of anything but a straightforward journey. Again, By Land and Sea might simply be the diary of a holiday trip from London to Paris, or a rchauff of impressions of a globe-trotter, who went to see what everybody talked about that he also might talk about what he had seen. Then there are a host of others,vi such as Travels West, The Land of the North Windwhich one has to discover vaguely by ascertaining first where it does not blow,Loin de Paris, Dans les Nuages, On Blue Water; all of which might be strictly applicable to the metropolitan area if the water were only just a little bluer. But Voyage Autour de ma Femme is still less intelligible. Is it a book of travel at all, or only a romance, or a comdie-vaudeville? It may not be a fantaisie like Voyage Autour de ma Chambre, nor even the record of a journey necessarily performed within four walls, forthough I have not looked at the bookit may be the narrative of an unsentimental journey, in which the tourist had taken a holiday trip all around picturesque Europe and his wife, leaving her at home; or it may be a sentimental journey as touching as Sternesa kind of circular tour en petit, circumscribed by the ordinary length of the apron-string; in which event, a very subjective turn of the impressions de voyage would be evident; and consequently would not suit readers who decidedly prefer to regard what is presented from the objective side. vii The reader will naturally discover from the title of this book the travellers course, but he will at the same time, no doubt, desire to know something of the character of the book. It may gratify him to be told that essentially it is a personal narrative, that cannot fail to interest those who like in a book of travel a tale of life full of incident and adventure: it is one in which his sympathies will be awakened and sustained in following the traveller in his movements from day to day and from place to place, his imagination being vividly stirred by the illusion that the participator is, as it were, in the changing scenes and events passing before his eyes like the tableaux of a diorama. And yet it must not be supposed, because the writers chief object has been to give an interesting personal narrative, that it is deficient in useful information: far from it; but, instead of overcharging his book with minute details, he has seized the more salient features of men and things. These are presented from his own point of view as the result of intelligent observation or discriminating hearsay. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 48373
Author: Meignan, Victor
Release Date: Feb 27, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English