At Home and Abroad - Hardcover

Pritchett is justly admired as a remarkable short story writer and critic, but few readers think of him as a travel writer. Yet during the decade of the mid-'50s to mid-'60s he wrote superlative travel essays for Holiday magazine, and they are reprinted here for the first time. Pritchett writes with a winning combination of pith, elan and exactitude, and can evoke a landscape or a national trait with great economy and vividness. He is also curious, open and uncensorious, in a way that lets the individuality of countries and customs shine through. His only drawback is one he shares with that other great travel writer, Jan Morris: taking the rather Olympian view, only occasionally does he allow a human interchange to interrupt the grand rumination. That said, the chief caveat about these essays is that so many of them have become museum pieces. A wide-eyed Latin American journey in 1956 now seems ludicrously outmoded, and even the brilliant, wide-ranging essay on the British character would require updating today. The quality of thought and image, however, shows no tarnish from the lapse of time.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The well-traveled author is an astute observer of the passing scene, and collected here are some of his travel essays, which first appeared in Holiday magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. Outdated as travel guides, their value now lies in Pritchett's keen insights into human nature and marvelous portrayals of national character. In the longest essay, "South America," he distinguishes, as he claims the outside world often fails to do, among the various Latin nationalities. Extended coverage is given to the British Isles (four essays). Germany, the European countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, the United States, and Canada complete the travelogue. The last article, on Appalachia, was written in 1925 and appears to have been included as an afterthought. Recommended for its literary style as well as social commentary.
- Sondra Brunhumer, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.