By the Ionian Sea George Gissing 9781481008808 Books
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By the Ionian Sea
By the Ionian Sea George Gissing 9781481008808 Books
Here we have George Gissing as close to paradise as he had ever hoped to be, according to the introduction to this edition.Gissing was a fiction writer of some reputation during the late Victorian age. His fictional domain was mostly misery: underclasses, suffering of the poor, failing writers, failing marriages, failing dreams, hopelessness of single women, uphill struggles of independent women...
He also wrote non- fiction: a much praised Dickens study and this travel book after a trip to Calabria in 1897. It is an outstanding specimen of travel writing. It is also far more directly personal than we ever meet the man in his fiction. He is a different man here, with a classical education, tolerant, open minded, far sighted. His purpose is looking for traces of the antique history of Magna Graecia, but he had open eyes and ears for the people and the land.
An excellent text edition, better than usual for Gissing's work nowadays, sad to say. The illustrations are not quite on the same level, being mostly undistinguished black and white photos, but that can probably not be blamed on the Classic Travel Writing series, it seems to have been like that since the book was first published, to much acclaim. Some illustrations are copies of sketches that GG made. It is good that he was a writer, not a painter.
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By the Ionian Sea George Gissing 9781481008808 Books Reviews
The best thing abut this was that it was short.
This guy is the most self-absorbed, self-pitying author I've read in quite a while.
This travelogue involves riding around on trains and in carriages and staying in crummy hotels serving lousy food.
The author keeps yearning for silence, softness and warmth. Very sad.
What possessed George Gissing -- best known for his hardscrabble pictures of poverty in London, such as NEW GRUB STREET -- to travel to Southern Italy and write a classical travel book about his journey? Yet there he is, working his way along the underside of the boot of Italy as a traveller. Even then, the area was known primarily for its rural poverty and has not attracted tourism at any time in its existence since the Greeks settled there over 2,000 years ago.
And yet this is perhaps Gissing's most charming book. He becomes ill, is taken care of by strangers, does his best to escape the clutches of the local bands of outlaws, and succeeds in his quest to see a corner of Europe known to few outside of Italy.
I highly recommend this book as the best introduction to a writer who deserves a revaluation of his literary reputation.
As a person of southern italian ancestry, i really enjoyed reading 150 yr old descriptions of these villages. He had a unique style of writing that was entertaining for the most part. In one scene, he described watching a bronzed fisherman cleaning his nets like generations before him. And the way he conveyed a sense of history and tradition was really eloquent and memorable. I skipped over the parts where he talked about classical literature which was boring to me-- sorry!
By 1897, the English novelist George Gissing (1857 - 1903) had achieved a degree of financial and critical success after years of writing. He took a vacation to Calabria, the "toe" of the southernmost part of the "boot" of Italy. From his youth, Gissing had loved the ancient world. He was especially fond of Gibbon and had been awarded a set of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" for his early academic accomplishments. Calabria had been the home of the Greeks, Romans, and Goths. Although Gissing had earlier traveled to Italy he had never been to Calabria. He was eager to see the places he knew only from books for himself. Thus with guidebook in hand, Gissing set out for his "ramble" to southern Italy.
In 1901, Gissing wrote a short memoir of his journey titled "By the Ionian Sea". At the time of his visit, Calabria was difficult of access, little developed, known for an unhealthy environment, and rarely visited by tourists. Friends and people further north in Italy tried to discourage the visit. But in the first chapter of his book Gissing explained with enthusiasm the attraction Calabria held
"I shall look upon the Ionian Sea, not merely from a train or a steamboat as before, but at long leisure I shall see the shores where once were Tarentum and Sybaris, Croton and Locri. Every man has his intellectual desire; mine is to escape life as I know it and dream myself into that old world which was the imaginative delight of my boyhood. The names of Greece and Italy draw me as no others; they make me young again, and restore the keen impressions of that time when every new page of Greek or Latin was a new perception of things beautiful. The world of the Greeks and Romans is my land of romance; a quotation in either language thrills me strangely, and there are passages of Greek and Latin verse which I cannot read without a dimming of the eyes, which I cannot repeat aloud because my voice fails me. In Magna Græcia the waters of two fountains mingle and flow together; how exquisite will be the draught!"
Although almost all of Gissing, including "By the Ionian Sea" remains too little known to modern readers, this short work is among the best travel books ever written. It ranks with the best of Gissing's work and has rarely been out of print. The book is written in a lyrical, elegant prose with Gissing speaking throughout in his own voice about a place he knew and loved. The book has a sense of ease and happiness that is absent from most of Gissing's novels. The book is written with almost painterly detail, as Gissing describes the sea and the mountains, the orange groves, ruins, small dusty towns, hotels, and people that he observed on his journey. Much of the book describes Gissing's search for places of the ancient world. He discusses sites related to Horace, Alaric, Hannibal, Pythagoras, and Cassidorus, among others. Without pedantry, Gissing gives an relaxed sense of the ancient riches of Calabria. Throughout the book, he contrasts the ancient history of the region with the contemporary people he met and places he observed.
Gissing's journey began in Naples, just north of Calabria. The story begins with a short vivid portrait of Naples as well as of his steamship voyage to Paola at the northernmost part of the region. Although located on the sea, much of Calabria is mountainous. Gissing describes his journey from town to town by railroad, horse-drawn carriage, and steamer. The towns described include Taranto, Cotrone, Cantazaro, and Squillace. Gissing concluded his ramble at Reggio, at the southernmost tip of Italy just across from Sicily. He describes the mostly simple and unsophisticated people of the Calabria of his time and the sites. He tells of ancient churches and monasteries, hidden rivers, mountain villages, caves, farmers and their donkeys plowing the fields as they did 1000 years earlier, tiny book stores, street musicians, museums, and frequently bad food.
As had been predicted by his friends, Gissing fell ill with malaria during his visit to the town of Cotrone. He almost died. Gissing recovered his health under the care of a young doctor, Ricardo Sculco, who receives an affectionate portrayal in the story. Even with this serious illness, the overriding tone of the book is one of happiness as Gissing discovered for himself a place he had long only imagined. At the end of his journey, for all his experiences of the sights around him, Gissing's heart remains with antiquity. He concludes the story of his ramble
"Alone and quiet, I heard the washing of the waves; I saw the evening fall on cloud-wreathed Etna, the twinkling lights come forth on Scylla and Charybdis; and, as I looked my last towards the Ionian Sea, I wished it were mine to wander endlessly amid the silence of the ancient world, to-day and all its sounds forgotten."
In 2000, an American journalist, John Keahey, was inspired by Gissing's travel book. Keahey retraced Gissing's journey of over 100 years earlier and wrote his own sequel, "A Sweet and Glorious Land". (2000) I found it helpful in reading Gissing's book to examine a map of southern Italy. Because I have no independent knowledge of the area, I also found it useful to read the Willkipedia article on Calabria for brief background on the places Gissing so beautifully describes.
Robin Friedman
Great insight into 19th Italy
This book holds a Victorian era view of Italy that transports the reader to that earlier time. Gissing's "tour" provides a vivid account of southern Italy's glorious past coupled with an honest revelation of its poverty and hardships at the turn of the century.
Not sure of how I would enjoy this book...I look forward to reading Gissing's "ramble" again and again.
A good travel guide, to look for places that are not included in the normal tours
Here we have George Gissing as close to paradise as he had ever hoped to be, according to the introduction to this edition.
Gissing was a fiction writer of some reputation during the late Victorian age. His fictional domain was mostly misery underclasses, suffering of the poor, failing writers, failing marriages, failing dreams, hopelessness of single women, uphill struggles of independent women...
He also wrote non- fiction a much praised Dickens study and this travel book after a trip to Calabria in 1897. It is an outstanding specimen of travel writing. It is also far more directly personal than we ever meet the man in his fiction. He is a different man here, with a classical education, tolerant, open minded, far sighted. His purpose is looking for traces of the antique history of Magna Graecia, but he had open eyes and ears for the people and the land.
An excellent text edition, better than usual for Gissing's work nowadays, sad to say. The illustrations are not quite on the same level, being mostly undistinguished black and white photos, but that can probably not be blamed on the Classic Travel Writing series, it seems to have been like that since the book was first published, to much acclaim. Some illustrations are copies of sketches that GG made. It is good that he was a writer, not a painter.
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