"Travel is an elixir, a talisman, a spell cast by what has long and greatly been, over what briefly and simply is," Shirley Hazard writes in The Sophisticated Traveler. Not all of us can give in to the lure of faraway places or the call of the open road. But we can, if we are book lovers, tag along with others as armchair travelers. And in the process, we can consider afresh the value of journeying, the significance of cross-cultural insights, and our views on the many mysteries of life.
Veteran travel writer Jan Morris has a poet's flair for the right phrase, a painter's eye for detail, a critic's wit, and a novelist's appreciation for idiosyncrasy in people and places. This extraordinary collection of her travels covers fifty years with chapters divided by four decades. There is no one alive who has a greater delight for cities around the world — check out her descriptions of Sydney, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Berlin. and Venice. Although she covers plenty of history, the enchantments are to be found in Morris's first-class accounts of urban living.
