Literary Trips: More Classic Travel Favorites
Deia in the bohemian 1960s, the glamorous Austrian Alps, the far-flung Middle East, Bright Young Things in the South of France, and a frigid hell in the Antarctic
What makes a good travel book? Explorer Freya Stark believed it was a wish on the part of the writer to grasp a little more fully the universe in which we live. I agree and will go further: a classic travel book is one in which the writer buttons up his courage, leaves his preconceived notions at home, and above all, exhibits a desire to explore distant places in the hope that they might suddenly reveal him to himself.
Below, five more favorite reads that will whisk you away on escapades far and wide, from a fearless woman’s collected musings on a life spent in remote regions, to a polar deep freeze in the Antarctic, to a bohemian glimpse into a wildly counterculture 1960s Mallorca, and concluding with two novels that aren’t memoirs per se, but which conjure up a sense of place so thrillingly that I couldn’t not include them.
Have a good journey.
THE MIDDLE EAST
The Zodiac Arch, Freya Stark (1969)
Of all the places she traveled, the exotic reaches of Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East kindled an unquenchable fire in Freya Stark’s soul. Whether she’s pilgrimaging to the holy domes of Iraq and Iran, zigzagging across a vast expanse of desert with a tribe of Bedouin Arabs, or riding a mule through the ancient bazaars of Damascus, Freya resolutely lives her best life, even when everything is going wrong. As she freely admits, “On nearly every journey, there is always a moment when you wonder with amazement why you set out at all. At these times, I find the best thing to do if one can is sleep.” Her essay A Note on Style is one of the clearest encapsulations of how to write well that I’ve ever read.