Scan barcode
tombennett72's review
3.0
Very entertaining; a wonderful gathering of views of quite an assortment of cities.
The varying styles, biases and priorities of the many contributors makes for entertaining reading.
The varying styles, biases and priorities of the many contributors makes for entertaining reading.
connablanca's review
5.0
I'm not finished, but I've done all the hopping around that I care to do at this time.
cupiscent's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.25
To be honest, I hoped for more from this, which is probably on me. This book does exactly what it says on the tin: it's a collection of excerpts from visitors to various great cities throughout history. There is no analysis, and quite minimal context given on the cities (about 2-3 paragraphs of overall history) and the visitor authors (dates, plus a few sentences of information). Cities are included in alphabetical order, and the excerpts in chronological order.
All of these things make sense, but give me no extra insight. I found myself yearning for greater analysis and discussion, or even cannier curation. (For instance, put the Grand Tour cities/excerpts together and give me a sense of the wild privilege but also discovery of these travellers.) Give me a little discussion on overall trends in travelling / publishing / thinking about the rest of the world. (There's a little bit of this in the introduction, but that's a long way away from most of the text.)
As a final gracenote of grumpy, while there are certainly non-Western excerpts included, the vast majority are Western Europe, especially British, or American authors. So there's a bit of exoticism-ick in the overall vibe of breathless wonders or unthinking colonial superiority. (The editor flags this, overall in the intro, and in the notes on the excerpts, but it's still... unfortunate.) I particularly found this wearying for the entries on Sydney - three Brits and an American, despite modern Australia being a country built on huge waves of immigration. No immigrant memoirs? None?
So in the end, while there were lots of interesting little bits and pieces here and there, I found myself asking often - and certainly asking at the end - what is the point of this book?
All of these things make sense, but give me no extra insight. I found myself yearning for greater analysis and discussion, or even cannier curation. (For instance, put the Grand Tour cities/excerpts together and give me a sense of the wild privilege but also discovery of these travellers.) Give me a little discussion on overall trends in travelling / publishing / thinking about the rest of the world. (There's a little bit of this in the introduction, but that's a long way away from most of the text.)
As a final gracenote of grumpy, while there are certainly non-Western excerpts included, the vast majority are Western Europe, especially British, or American authors. So there's a bit of exoticism-ick in the overall vibe of breathless wonders or unthinking colonial superiority. (The editor flags this, overall in the intro, and in the notes on the excerpts, but it's still... unfortunate.) I particularly found this wearying for the entries on Sydney - three Brits and an American, despite modern Australia being a country built on huge waves of immigration. No immigrant memoirs? None?
So in the end, while there were lots of interesting little bits and pieces here and there, I found myself asking often - and certainly asking at the end - what is the point of this book?
bookish1313's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
3.75
More...