Continental Drifter: Taking the Low Road with the First Grand Tourist
1 journaler for this copy...
Quotes from all sorts of newspapers litter the back flap and first page claiming all sorts of things from Tim Moore being the best thing since sliced cheese to his book being more fun than two sore feet in an all-female sauna.
However, his humor, something of a mix between Monty Python and your run-of-the-mill teenage comedy is tiring after the first few chapters.
Moore's opening and closing chapters are good, but that's because of their subject. The author decided to do the Grand Tour of Europe, something British aristocrats did during the 17th and 18th centuries and mostly involved going down to Venice and back.
Moore's traveling in the footsteps of the first Grand Tourist, Thomas Coryate, who traveled in the first decade of the 17th century and ended up introducing the fork and the umbrella to the British isles.
The author's opening and closing chapter are the best in the book because there he uses his wit in describing Coryate's life up to and after his tour of Europe. And since Coryate's decision to travel Europe was groundbreaking, his decision after his return to set out again which eventually had him end up in India is even more so and Moore is an engaging writer in describing these phases of Coryate's life.
Besides those chapters, the first half of the book, roughly Moore's trip to Venice, is entertaining enough, where the second half, his trip back, is bearable, at best.
It simply isn't interesting enough to read about a solitary traveler, driving around in an old Rolls Royce and wearing a purple flannel suit who mostly talks to himself and sleeps in car parks.
One interesting find was that Moore's quotes of Coryate's book, describing the peoples of Holland, Germany or Switzerland are very different from what is today considered typically Dutch, German or Swiss.
However, his humor, something of a mix between Monty Python and your run-of-the-mill teenage comedy is tiring after the first few chapters.
Moore's opening and closing chapters are good, but that's because of their subject. The author decided to do the Grand Tour of Europe, something British aristocrats did during the 17th and 18th centuries and mostly involved going down to Venice and back.
Moore's traveling in the footsteps of the first Grand Tourist, Thomas Coryate, who traveled in the first decade of the 17th century and ended up introducing the fork and the umbrella to the British isles.
The author's opening and closing chapter are the best in the book because there he uses his wit in describing Coryate's life up to and after his tour of Europe. And since Coryate's decision to travel Europe was groundbreaking, his decision after his return to set out again which eventually had him end up in India is even more so and Moore is an engaging writer in describing these phases of Coryate's life.
Besides those chapters, the first half of the book, roughly Moore's trip to Venice, is entertaining enough, where the second half, his trip back, is bearable, at best.
It simply isn't interesting enough to read about a solitary traveler, driving around in an old Rolls Royce and wearing a purple flannel suit who mostly talks to himself and sleeps in car parks.
One interesting find was that Moore's quotes of Coryate's book, describing the peoples of Holland, Germany or Switzerland are very different from what is today considered typically Dutch, German or Swiss.
