Literary Trails: British Writers in Their Landscapes

Rating:
Summary: A fine, if limited, look at how geography affects literature
Review: This is a lovely book with fine photographs and text, and well-documented trails (some on foot, others by auto) to supplement your appreciation of a sound selection of Britain's finest authors.

Chapters document the geographic milieu of one or more authors and relate the relevance of sites that are found on the trails. For example, the Jane Austen chapter contains two trails, one in the area of Steventon, Hampshire, Jane's home her first 25 years, and another in Bath, a resort frequented by the Austen family and used to varying extent in all Austen's novels except "Pride and Prejudice".

Published by the National Trust, this book contains a gazetteer, bibliography, list of plates and a good index. Authors discussed include Austen, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hardy, Woolf, du Maurier, and Sayers. Sixteen trails are presented.

I have only two complaints about this book -- well, one complaint and one wish. The organization of the book is not intuitive and it is not apparent which literary figures are discussed. To some extent this is due to the constraint of having to organize by geography rather than, say, chronology, and one can always turn to the index; but while some chapters are obvious (Jane Austen in her Landscape, Thomas Hardy's Wessex) others leave one to guess (Muses and Mountains? The Scene of the Crime?) and because the index is generous one cannot tell if a person is really discussed or just mentioned. In addition, it would be nice to have a map of England that shows all of the trails so that one might see the geographic relation of these literary souls.

My wish reveals my enjoyment of this book, flaws and all -- I want MORE -- more maps, more photographs and pictures, more authors covered.

Well done, and certainly a fine addition to the collection of anyone who loves British literature.