Eothen, which means ‘news from the east’ started out as
a few notes scribbled on the back of a map, to amuse a friend who wanted some advice
for his own youthful ‘year off’ travels, but it became one of the most influential,
witty and idiosyncratic of travel books. It took Kinglake seven years before he
had finished crafting this ‘lively, brilliant and rather insolent’ tale. The physical
details of the journey, undertaken in 1834 across the Balkan frontiers of the Ottoman
Empire, through Constantinople, Smyrna, Cyprus into the Near eastern cities of Jerusalem,
Cairo and Damascus, are never as significant as the conversations, chance encounters
and attitudes of the author. Packed full of an infectious charm and a youthful
delight at the world, it is above all things funny as it lampoons the pomposity
of earnest, middle-aged
travellers seeking to establish themselves as professional authorities.
‘One of the most deliciously nasty books
in English literature.’ — Jonathan Raban
‘One of the most original, graceful and creative
of all travel books...sparkling, ironic and terrific fun.’ — Jan Morris
