More G R E A T T R AV E L R E A D S
V I K I N G ¡ m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S
There are many ways a book can transport you, but one of the most powerful is to carry your imagination to faraway places. Here are a few of our favorite reads that may just inspire your next voyage of discovery.
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · E N G L A N D
PR IDE A ND PR EJ UDICE 1813 By Jane Austen In this beloved classic, the complicated courtship of heroine Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy unfolds in provincial southern England, where Austen was born and where her heroine says she “had never seen a place where nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.” This loving sense of place informs the narrative as Elizabeth contemplates the potential marriage matches available to herself and her sisters. Austen delivers a witty skewering of Regency-era British morals, whose constrictions stand in sharp contrast to the wide-open landscapes and seascapes of Sussex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Derbyshire, where this timeless romance blossoms. Explore our related itinerary: British Isles Explorer
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · C H I L E
THE HOUSE OF THE SPIR ITS 1982 By Isabel Allende In 1981, Allende, who left Chile in 1973, began writing a letter to her 100-year-old grandfather. It turned into this highly entertaining allegory, Allende’s attempt to “recreate the country I had lost.” Through the shifting fortunes of four generations of Truebas, readers see a vivid cross section of Chilean society. They are rural landowners, urban intellectuals, politicians, peasants and revolutionaries. Some are lustily alive, others are lively spirits. Some have magical powers, and others are powerful (albeit disguised) famous figures. (Isabel’s cousin was Chile’s late president Salvador Allende.) The story is deeply rooted in 20th-century Chilean history, but its theme of enduring family connections is universal. “Roots are not in a landscape or a country,” said Allende, “they are inside you.” Explore our related itinerary: The Americas & Chilean Fjords
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · C H I N A
THE G OOD E A RTH 1931 By Pearl S. Buck This moving depiction of early 20th-century Chinese village life won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932, and led to Buck’s Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. It is the story of poor farmer Wang Lung and his wife, O-lan, who endure droughts, floods and near-starvation until they are driven to seek sustenance in the city. But as their fortunes rise, Wang’s decency begins to erode under the influence of wealth. Nearly 90 years after its publication, The Good Earth is still one of the most accurate portraits of China at a historic crossroad. Readers understand the difficult choices many Chinese families faced when their very survival meant abandoning their ties to the land and their traditional values. It is a choice that continues to shape the land—and the lives—of China today. Explore our related itinerary: Imperial Jewels of China
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · I TA LY
UNDER THE T USC A N SUN: AT HOM E IN ITA LY 1996 By Frances Mayes “I had the urge to examine my life in another culture and move beyond what I knew.” With that, Frances Mayes, a 40-something travel writer, poet and gourmet cook, leaves her San Francisco life and travels to Italy after her divorce. Near the town of Cortona she comes upon a dilapidated villa for sale, and buys it. This humorous, lyrical and lively memoir describes her adventures restoring the villa, and her heart, with the help of some quirky local characters, fantastic food, luminous landscapes and newfound love. The book also includes a full chapter of authentic regional Italian recipes. If you have ever considered taking a journey to Tuscany, this is the book for you. Explore our related itinerary: Iconic Western Mediterranean
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · PA R I S , F R A N C E
SH A K ESPE A R E A ND COM PA N Y 1959 By Sylvia Beach Paris of the 1920s—with all its creative, larger-than-life personalities—comes alive in this memoir. In 1919, Sylvia Beach, a minister’s daughter from New Jersey, opened a bookshop on Paris’s Left Bank. It was called Shakespeare and Company, and oh, what company it kept. It was a home away from home for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, André Gide, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and, especially, James Joyce, whose novel Ulysses was first published by Beach. Shakespeare and Company was closed in 1939 when Beach refused to sell her last copy of Finnegan’s Wake to a Nazi officer. A beautiful portrait of prewar Paris, painted by a cosmopolitan woman who called herself “a citizen of the world.” Explore our related itinerary: Cities of Light
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · C O L O M B I A
ONE HUNDR ED Y E A R S OF SOLIT UDE 1967 By Gabriel García Márquez Is family history inescapable? What is reality? Márquez asks these questions in this tale of love and magic set in the fictional Colombian town of Macondo. It chronicles seven generations of the Buendía family, who founded Macondo as a utopian community. Built of mirrors, it reflects the world around it, but remains hidden until gypsies bring technology from the outside, setting off events that draw from Colombian history and indigenous Tairona folklore. Macondo was based on Marquez’s childhood home, Aracataca, near Santa Marta on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. He was also a reporter in Cartagena, and claimed that even his most fantastical stories were based in fact. “The problem,” he said, “is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination.” Explore our related itinerary: Cuba, Panama & the Pacific Holiday
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · F R A N C E
M A DA M E BOVA RY 1857 By Gustave Flaubert The setting for this classic of French literature— Normandy’s pastoral landscapes, provincial villages and historic towns—will surely charm you. But it inspired only ennui in heroine Emma Bovary, a bored housewife whose fantasies about love and luxury drive her to disastrous affairs. Emma’s story is more than a romance. In Flaubert’s masterful hands, readers take in vivid psychological portraits and incisive social commentary about 19th-century France. The bourgeois morality and economic imperatives of provincial Normandy were well known to Flaubert, a Rouen native. A pioneer of literary realism, his keen powers of observation were honed by extensive travel. “I know nothing more noble,” he said, “than the contemplation of the world.” Explore our related itinerary: Paris & the Heart of Normandy
V I K I N G · m o r e G R E AT T R AV E L R E A D S · RU S S I A
A NN A K A R ENIN A 1878 By Leo Tolstoy The countryside dachas of Russia’s elite. The ballrooms of Moscow. The salons of St. Petersburg. And the great train stations that link them all. It is against this backdrop that the doomed love affair of Anna Karenina and the dashing Count Vronsky plays out. So, too, do the lives of some ten supporting characters, each grappling with existential, political, religious, social and moral issues. Everything is set in motion by Anna’s “boredom: the desire for desires.” But this is no mere love story. With its musings on family, love, faith, passion, class and more, Anna Karenina is a guidebook to the Russian soul, with a scope as broad as the country it depicts. Explore our related itinerary: Waterways of the Tsars
Did you
KNOW?
For each Viking itinerary, we select books that our guests can peruse while preparing for their upcoming journey. If you have some time before you depart, browse our Recommended Reading lists here.
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