Daren
The blurb: "In 1890, two American college graduates set out to travel around the world on a then-new invention, the modern bicycle. In 1893 they returned, have covered over 15,000 miles, at that time the "longest continuous land journey ever made around the world." This is their account their trip across Turkey, Persia, Turkestan and northern China. It described their adventures traveling along through regions few outsiders ever visited."
That is a reasonable summary. Although they travelled for three years, and this book covers only a portion of their journey. The preface says they took some 2500 photos - a selection of which are reproduced in this book. While the quality aligns with expectation from this era, they are interesting and help with the descriptions shared in the narrative.
The writing style is informative, but not excessively detailed. The two authors share a voice - it isn't clear how they contribute to the narrative, but I will use 'they' in my review for the authors. Interestingly, we learn almost nothing of the authors - they share very little of themselves in this book.
Initially they share details of how their bicycles are viewed - with trepidation often, panic sometimes, and crowded jostling occasionally. After a time these reactions become commonplace to them, and they skip over this - so by the midpoint the reader can take for granted that these men were travelling on practically unique machines in these parts of the world. They do seem to run out of descriptive energy as the book progresses. Every aspect and detail in Turkey is gifting line space, but by the halfway point it becomes far more muted on detail. China receives a significant amount less attention that did Turkey, although this is probably reflective of what they recorded in their diaries.
I read a digitised version of this, on my phone, over a period of a couple of months, as such the details came and went for me, but my overall view is that the authors did well to describe all they saw, those they met and their journey in sufficient detail, but without being too bogged down in the rigours of daily life, or in deep analysis of something they were experiencing in passing. Thankfully they avoided in depth political analysis (which seldom ages well in a travelogue) or details of individuals beyond common interest.
They share their hardships without playing martyr or pretending they were worse off than others. They extoled the virtues and shortcomings of their bicycles, the running repairs and the spares they arranged for delivery enroute. The roads of course were not set up for cyclists, so there is plenty of angst about the road conditions throughout. The side trip to climb Mt Ararat is also worthy of a mention.
Perhaps this suffers from my infrequent and fragmented reading, but it fell a little short of my expectations (or perhaps hopes) for such a promising title.
3 stars
The blurb: "In 1890, two American college graduates set out to travel around the world on a then-new invention, the modern bicycle. In 1893 they returned, have covered over 15,000 miles, at that time the "longest continuous land journey ever made around the world." This is their account their trip across Turkey, Persia, Turkestan and northern China. It described their adventures traveling along through regions few outsiders ever visited."
That is a reasonable summary. Although they travelled for three years, and this book covers only a portion of their journey. The preface says they took some 2500 photos - a selection of which are reproduced in this book. While the quality aligns with expectation from this era, they are interesting and help with the descriptions shared in the narrative.
The writing style is informative, but not excessively detailed. The two authors share a voice - it isn't clear how they contribute to the narrative, but I will use 'they' in my review for the authors. Interestingly, we learn almost nothing of the authors - they share very little of themselves in this book.
Initially they share details of how their bicycles are viewed - with trepidation often, panic sometimes, and crowded jostling occasionally. After a time these reactions become commonplace to them, and they skip over this - so by the midpoint the reader can take for granted that these men were travelling on practically unique machines in these parts of the world. They do seem to run out of descriptive energy as the book progresses. Every aspect and detail in Turkey is gifting line space, but by the halfway point it becomes far more muted on detail. China receives a significant amount less attention that did Turkey, although this is probably reflective of what they recorded in their diaries.
I read a digitised version of this, on my phone, over a period of a couple of months, as such the details came and went for me, but my overall view is that the authors did well to describe all they saw, those they met and their journey in sufficient detail, but without being too bogged down in the rigours of daily life, or in deep analysis of something they were experiencing in passing. Thankfully they avoided in depth political analysis (which seldom ages well in a travelogue) or details of individuals beyond common interest.
They share their hardships without playing martyr or pretending they were worse off than others. They extoled the virtues and shortcomings of their bicycles, the running repairs and the spares they arranged for delivery enroute. The roads of course were not set up for cyclists, so there is plenty of angst about the road conditions throughout. The side trip to climb Mt Ararat is also worthy of a mention.
Perhaps this suffers from my infrequent and fragmented reading, but it fell a little short of my expectations (or perhaps hopes) for such a promising title.
3 stars