In Morocco

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 303K words
Chapters: 31

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.In Morocco by Edith WhartonAuthor: Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937,Language: English, Class: DT: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Africa, Release Date: Feb 1, 2004

Editor's review

Edith Wharton's In Morocco is a travel account of her visit to Morocco in the early twentieth century. In keeping with her identity as a novelist, her writing attends to the appearance of cities, architectural detail, the smells of markets, and people's gestures, often setting what she sees alongside history and the colonial context. The book is short but offers a literary perspective on North African cities: it combines a traveler's curiosity with the outlook of her time and class. Its value lies in the dual experience of style and perspective—it can be read both as elegant travel prose and as a sample for reflecting on Orientalist imagination in early travel writing. Note that its judgments and wording carry the limitations of the era, and readers should read it historically. It is suitable for readers interested in Morocco, travel literature, or Wharton's nonfiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Travel-literature readers interested in Moroccan cities and local life
Literary readers studying Edith Wharton's nonfiction
Readers interested in early twentieth-century travel writing and Orientalist imagination
Advanced learners who want to train close reading with short prose

Not a good fit for

Travelers needing modern practical guides and up-to-date information
Readers of fiction expecting plot-driven narrative
Those sensitive to colonial-era travelers' perspectives who are unwilling to analyze context

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to get a feel for the style, then choose chapters by city or theme rather than forcing yourself to finish in one go.
Mark judgments that carry period prejudice as you read, then look back and consider their historical context.
Use a map to look up the cities and places she describes, enhancing the sense of space and immersion.
Read alongside modern Moroccan travel writing to compare observational perspectives and narrative emphases.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a novel or a travel account?

It is a travel account recording Wharton's firsthand observations and impressions in Morocco, not a work of fiction. Its appeal comes mainly from observation, description, and narrative perspective rather than plot.

Can I read it without background knowledge of Morocco?

Yes, the book is mainly on-site description and has a low barrier to entry. But with basic geographical and historical background, it is easier to understand why she focuses on certain buildings, people, and scenes, and to see the period prejudices more clearly.

Is the content suitable for use as a travel guide?

No. It was written in the early twentieth century, and transportation, the appearance of cities, and travel conditions differ greatly from today; it also contains no practical information. It is better read as literary and historical material than as a travel reference.

How should I handle the period prejudices in the book?

Do not avoid them; treat prejudiced wording as an object of analysis: see where the author stands as an observer and which judgments come from imagination rather than observation. Reading with historical awareness allows you to appreciate the prose while understanding the limitations of early travel writing.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 Author

Edith Wharton (Wharton, Edith, 1862–1937) was an American novelist, with 44 works held in this collection. She depicts with fine brushwork the manners and moral dilemmas of New York high society from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Her representative novels The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth both focus on women's struggles among marriage, class, and selfhood; Ethan Frome, set in rural New England, presents tragic fates in a repressive environment. Her style is calm and restrained, revealing through everyday details the conflict between individual psychology and social convention, and her works combine irony with sympathy. Beyond novels, she also wrote nonfiction such as The Decoration of Houses and ghost-story collections such as Tales of Men and Ghosts, showing diverse subjects. Public information is limited, and biographical details fall outside this introduction; yet judging from the works held here alone, her sustained attention to social class and gender roles makes her a voice not to be overlooked in American literature.