Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Joseph Pennell, and Dave Buchanan (editor); A CANTERBURY PILGRIMAGE / AN ITALIAN PILGRIMAGE; The University of Alberta Press (Nonfiction: Travel) 29.95 ISBN: 9781772120424
Byline: Matt Sutherland
Erotica excepted, does any genre surpass travel writing in its ability to deliver reading pleasure, particularly when photos or illustrations accompany masterful prose? How better for a writer and reader to connect if not over their shared fondness for a distant locale?
In the airy, self-deprecating style of Robert Louis Stevenson, an American couple captured the imaginations of UK and US readers through the five illustrated cycle-travel books they created beginning in the 1880s. Yes, bikes existed back then -- they were all the rage, in fact -- and Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell succeeded in bringing the leisure-touring idea to the forefront through their jaunts aboard a tandem tricycle outfitted with luggage racks.
Long out of print, this new edition includes the Pennells's journey from London to Canterbury, A Canterbury Pilgrimage, and Florence to Rome, An Italian Pilgrimage. Cycling historian Dave Buchanan contributes an enlightening introduction...
