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GRAND TOURS AND COOK'S TOURS

Name: GRAND TOURS AND COOK'S TOURS
Author: Lynne Withey
ISBN: 0-688-08800-7

A HISTORY OF LEISURE TRAVEL, 1750 TO 1915

by Lynne Withey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1997

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From the picturesque to the package tour, Withey (Voyages of Discovery: Captain Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific, 1987) chronicles the birth and growth of modern world tourism. In its arduous beginnings as an educational experience for the intrepid but affluent Englishman, the Grand Tour, typically comprising Paris, perhaps a hasty stopover in Geneva, and then the major cities of Italy, was the archetype of later travel, but one requiring a vast outlay of resources. Interrupted by the Napoleonic wars, during which English travelers turned to such regional fare as the Scottish Highlands, the Grand Tour was reinvigorated in the early 19th century with the building of new roads on the Continent, the rise of steamships and trains, and the increasing wealth of the English middle classes. In this farflung account, however, no one innovation or individual stands out more than Thomas Cook, an idealistic temperance leader whose vision of providing reliable, affordable travel to the middle class led to the rise of the package tour in the 1840s. Beyond their obvious appeal, the tours also served as safe and respectable methods for unescorted women to see foreign countries, and their success enabled Cook to expand westward to America and eastward to Japan. Withey also focuses on one other significant innovation, the modern guidebook, the first of which was published by John Murray in 1836. Like Cook's tours, the genre has had a lasting effect, teaching us what to look for when we are abroad. Withey spices her account with lively observations from literary travelers (including Samuel Johnson dismissing Highlanders as barbarians and James Fenimore Cooper arguing for travel by horse and carriage over railroads). She ends her narrative on the eve of WW I, when travel by automobile was becoming possible, and when air travel loomed distantly on the horizon. This is a consistently informative and surprisingly entertaining history, delivering far more than its modest title promises. (36 b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-688-08800-7

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.