Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France

Piozzi, Hester Lynch, 1741-1821Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
489K words
Chapters
49

Tags

English Originals Travel Human GeographySocial ObservationDaily ReflectionsLife EssaysEclectic ReadingExotic CultureItalian ScenesFrench FlavorCross-Cultural ViewLeisurely Stay

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.Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France,Author: Piozzi, Hester Lynch, 1741-1821,Language: English, Class: D: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere, Release Date: Aug 5, 2005

Editor's review

This book is a collection of observations and reflections written by Hester Lynch Piozzi during her travels through France and elsewhere, belonging to late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century travel literature. Piozzi was a widely connected and distinctly individual woman writer in eighteenth-century British cultural circles; her travel writing is less a systematic geographical account than a triumph of keen observation, forthright judgment, and vivid social anecdote, written in a witty and even sharp-edged style. Readers can glimpse the customs, towns, social life, and the author's personal likes and dislikes of France and elsewhere at the time, and can also sense how a woman traveler expressed herself in the public eye. As a Project Gutenberg electronic text, this book preserves the original language, making it suitable for readers interested in eighteenth-century English prose, travel literature, or women's writing. There is no need to read it straight through; it can be sampled by place and theme, and historical background material will deepen one's sense of the period.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Learn about Piozzi's life and social circle first; the text's judgments become easier to grasp
  2. Sample by place or theme rather than reading straight through
  3. Mark the author's evaluations of customs and people as you read to trace her attitudes
  4. Read alongside historical material on late eighteenth-century Europe to fill in the background

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
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49

FAQ

Is this book a travel guide? No. It belongs to the observational and reflective essay side of travel literature, focusing on the author's personal experiences, social encounters, and subjective judgments rather than routes, lodging, or sightseeing information. It is better read as travel prose.
Can I understand it without knowing the author's background? You can read it, but understanding will suffer. Piozzi's writing often involves figures and events from the cultural circles of her day; learning about her life and connections beforehand makes it easier to catch the wit and the praise or blame, which otherwise may be missed.
How difficult is the language, and is it suitable as English reading material? This is late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century English prose, with long sentences and period features in punctuation and vocabulary, more difficult than modern nonfiction. It suits readers with a solid English reading foundation and an interest in classical prose.

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About the author

Piozzi, Hester Lynch, 1741-1821 Author

Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821), commonly known as Mrs. Piozzi, was an eighteenth-century English literary figure best known for her association with Samuel Johnson and for her records of him. Her representative work, Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D., presents Johnson's conversation and character from firsthand experience and remains an important primary source for Johnson studies. The collection also includes her autobiography, letters and literary remains, travel observations from a journey through France, and humorous pieces such as Anecdotes of the Learned Pig, spanning memoir, correspondence, travel writing and essays. Her writing is notable for its sense of scene and personal perspective, lively in tone and marked by keen observation and humour, offering vivid material for understanding eighteenth-century English literary and social life. Public information is limited, and details of her life and the influence of her works await further study.