In the Heart of the Vosges and Other Sketches

Betham-Edwards, Matilda, 1836-1919Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
363K words
Chapters
37

Tags

English Originals Essays and Miscellany Human GeographyTravel WritingNature ObservationSlow ReadingDaily ReflectionsPersonal EssaysExotic CultureEuropean ImpressionsFolk CustomsCross-Cultural View

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 the Heart of the Vosges and Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller"Author: Betham-Edwards, Matilda, 1836-1919,Language: English, Class: DC: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: France, Andorra, Monaco, Release Date: Dec 1, 2005

Editor's review

This book, In the Heart of the Vosges and Other Sketches, is a collection of travel essays written from the perspective of a "devious traveller" by the English author Matilda Betham-Edwards, with its core chapters centered on the Vosges mountains of France. Its value lies not in checklist-style lists of sights but in the unhurried tone peculiar to nineteenth-century travel writing: the author interweaves mountain terrain, villages and local scenery, encounters along the way, and personal impressions, so that reading it feels more like a slow stroll. For readers familiar with, or curious about, the history and culture of the Alsace-Lorraine region, its capture of local life is particularly evocative; for those studying Victorian women's travel writing, it is also a usable textual sample. One caveat: this is a public-domain English-language ebook in the original, with nineteenth-century prose style, long sentences, and many place names and allusions, so it is not suited to light reading or use as a modern travel guide. It is best read as short essays before bed or on a journey, one at a time, with a map at hand to look up place names, which makes it easier to enter the author's geographical and emotional thread.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the main Vosges chapters first, then pick other sketches according to interest; there is no need to read straight through in order.
  2. Keep a map of eastern France at hand and locate place names and terrain as you read, to reduce unfamiliarity.
  3. After each piece, note in two or three sentences the scenery and attitudes the author observed, for easy review.
  4. When allusions are dense, skip them first to preserve the overall rhythm, and look them up in detail on a second reading.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37

FAQ

Is this book a complete travel guide? No. It is a nineteenth-century collection of travel essays, focused on the author's personal observations and literary interest; it contains no practical information such as routes, accommodation, or fares, and cannot replace a modern travel guide.
How difficult is the English? It is nineteenth-century English prose, with rather long sentences and many place names and historical-cultural allusions; the vocabulary is not obscure, but the pace is slow. Readers with university-level English reading ability and a habit of reading long-form prose will find it smoother.
Do I need to know the background of the Vosges first? No special preparation is necessary. The author writes as a wanderer and explains what she sees and feels as she goes; if you first learn a little about the geography of eastern France and the history of Alsace-Lorraine, certain local details and the author's attitudes will be easier to understand.
Is it suitable for reading in one sitting? Not really. The pieces are relatively independent and leisurely in pace, better read in installments of one or two at a time, leaving room to digest the landscape descriptions and personal reflections.

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About the author

Betham-Edwards, Matilda, 1836-1919 Author

Matilda Betham-Edwards (1836–1919) was a British travel writer active from the nineteenth century into the early twentieth. Public information about her life is limited, and only five of her works are held in this collection. Judging from these works, she was known for travel accounts of European regions, covering Spain and the Sahara, the Causses of the Lozère in central France, the Gâtinais, Bourbonnais and Champagne east of Paris, and the Vosges mountains of eastern France. She recorded local customs, towns and rural life in essays and sketches, combining geographical observation with human detail in plain, careful prose. Her travel books opened these landscapes of southern Europe and provincial France to English-speaking readers and remain useful sources for the study of nineteenth-century travel writing and regional life.