Synopses & Reviews
The World is a magnum opus by the finest travel writer in the world. Ranging from Manhattan to Venice, Oxford to the Middle East, and Paris to South Africa, the book provides Jan Morris's eyewitness accounts of such seminal moments as the first successful ascent of Everest, the historic Eichmann trial, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the handover of Hong Kong. Dividing the volume into five decades, Morris presents history with an unparalleled dramatic flair, creating a riveting portrait of the twentieth century, from the political idealism of the postwar years to its more recent tensions and excesses. As much a celebratory book as a swan song that puts Morris's extraordinary career in a unique historical perspective, The World promises to create an entirely new generation of Jan Morris readers.
Review
"[Morris is] surely one of our greatest living writers." The Times [London]
Review
"Travel writing by itself is not a legitimate calling. It is merely a mechanism for exploring history, politics, art, and other matters. Jan Morris's deft, shorthand descriptions work so magnificently because of the historical erudition she brings along with her on her travels. Few other voices communicate so quickly and easily the horrors, contradictions, anxieties, beauty, and hope that was the latter half of the twentieth Century." Robert D. Kaplan
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"I don't think there's a writer alive who has Jan Morris's serenity or strength." Paul Theroux
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"[A]s an introduction to the writer's luminous prose, there is no better place to start." Publishers Weekly
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"Her eye for the telling detail is stiletto-keen, and her sensitivity to calling things as they are but never doing so in a condescending fashion remains undiminished. An important book for all travel collections." Booklist
Table of Contents
The 1950s ; 1. Mount Everest, 1953 ; 2. A benign republic: USA ; 3. Kingdom of troubles: the Middle East ; 4. South African White and Black ; 5. Confusions in paradise: the Caribbean ; 6. Europe: after the war was over ; 7. Orientalisms: The Far East -- The 1960s ; 8. The Eichmann Trial ; 9. The Cold War ; 10. South American frissons ; 11. Oxford, 1965 ; 12. Australia ; 13. A New Africa ; 14. Manhattan, 1969 -- The 1970s ; 15. Pleasure places ; 16. Ex-Britannica ; 17. Casablanca: a change of sex ; 18. London, 1975 ; 19. Post-glory: the USA ; 20. South African Black on White -- The 1980s ; 21. On wistful whims: virtual places ; 22. Sydney, 1983 ; 23. O Canada! ; 24. There stood China ; 25. Vienna, 1983 ; 26. Y Wladfa: another Wales ; 27. Berlin, 1989 -- The 1990s ; 28. The flux of Europe ; 29. Light and shade in the USA ; Portland, Oregon ; 30. Sydney, 1995 ; 31. Hong Kong.