'From Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales to Kerouac’s On the Road, Cervante’s Don Quixote to Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, the journey has long been an archetypal story. The genre’s inherent escapism is the perfect vehicle for fuelling dreams of being outlaws and romantics, for taking us outside of our own lives and across the world. From the comforts and confines of our homes, this book brings to life some of the most significant, exciting, dangerous, tragic and uplifting journeys ever written about. Tracing the chronological growth of the journey as a literary device, this volume showcases the breadth of different authors’ grapples with this narrative structure. Literary Journeys will take you on the most important journeys in literature, over eight centuries and across over 30 countries. ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS An team of fifty-five expert contributors includes literary critics, academics and authors such as John Sutherland, Maya Jaggi, Robert McCrum, Kimberly Fain and Alan Taylor.'(Publication summary)
'In the hiatus that was COVID lockdown, the novelty of “staying put” had a peculiar grace and delight. To limit one’s trajectory to five kilometres meant homing in on the small and the local: the seasonal repetitions of a plant blossoming in a neighbour’s garden, new pale green leaves on trees, a smell of liquorice in the air heralding summer. I looked closer at the local and saw new things, or perhaps I saw old things with new eyes.'
'In the hiatus that was COVID lockdown, the novelty of “staying put” had a peculiar grace and delight. To limit one’s trajectory to five kilometres meant homing in on the small and the local: the seasonal repetitions of a plant blossoming in a neighbour’s garden, new pale green leaves on trees, a smell of liquorice in the air heralding summer. I looked closer at the local and saw new things, or perhaps I saw old things with new eyes.'
