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Part of the fabulous new hardback library of 24 Evelyn Waugh books, publishing in chronological order over the coming year. The books have an elegant new jacket and text design. 'Who in his sense will read, still less buy, a travel book of no scientific value about a place he has no intention of visiting?'. Waugh provides the answer to his own question in this entertaining chronicle of a South American journey. In it, he describes the isolated cattle country of Guiana, sparsely populated by a bizarre collection of visionaries, rogues and ranchers, and records his nightmarish experiences traveling on foot, by horse and by boat through the jungle into Brazil. He debunks the romantic notions attached to rough traveling - his trip is difficult, dangerous and extremely uncomfortable - and his acute and witty observations in this marvelous travelogue give his reader 'a share in the experience of travel'.… (more)
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He might well ask, as the overheard adventurous accounts that determined his trip and intrigued him into his planning were stories of New Guinea (Papua), not, as he had mistakenly convinced himself, of British Guiana (Guyana)! But it was to Guyana he went, with a little nip of an attempted side-trip to the fabled Amazonian city of Manaos, trapping him briefly in Brazil.
In his introduction that is almost a justification for himself of his trip, he asks; ”Who in his senses will read, let alone buy, a travel book … about a place he has no intention of visiting?” Luckily for Evelyn the answer is obvious, otherwise he would have difficulty in funding all his trips, but as he never originally had any intention himself of visiting Guyana, it is a cheeky question!
Evelyn’s sneaky wit sometimes peeps out of the truly grueling hazards of this trip, but one does struggle with him through the hard trekking, primitive and unreliable communications and grotesque food. Evelyn’s writing however our reward for our participation in his journey.
In further justifications of his book, Evelyn muses on the trend he discerns in his peers as they seek to convince their own readers that they are merely ”workers’ toiling at an arduous and disliked craft. “Englishmen dislike work and grumble about their jobs and nowadays writers make it so clear that they hate writing that their public may become excusably sympathetic and urge them to try something else.” Many of us who read everything written by the talented Waugh family are grateful that Evelyn however loved writing, even if he did dislike his own wonderful travelogues!