The way to Xanadu - Hardcover

ALEXANDER, Caroline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297813137 ISBN 13: 9780297813132

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993

Synopsis

As a child in Florida, Caroline Alexander learnt Coleridge's masterpiece of a poem, 'Kubla Khan'. Coleridge recalled that it was composed in an opium sleep as he was reading about Kubla Khan. He awoke and wrote fifty-five lines of the poem before being interrupted. Scholars have ever since discussed the contemporary works that had influenced Coleridge. In The Way to Xanadu, a literary travel book, Caroline Alexander recounts her quest across three continents to discover the sources of Coleridge's inspiration.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

In this enchanting book, Alexander (One Dry Season, 1989) chronicles her journeys to the exotic places that inspired Coleridge's masterpiece ``Kubla Khan.'' In 1797 or 1798, in an opium-induced reverie, the poet wrote of Xanadu, with its ``walls and towers...girdled round,'' its ``caves of ice,'' its ``mighty fountain,'' and ``Mount Abora.'' Yet the poem's most arresting images are based not on actual visits made by Coleridge, but on written accounts of them penned by others--from Marco Polo to 18th-century American botanists. Thus, Alexander offers as much an exploration of actual geographical terrain as a wide-ranging account of the textual sources that inspired the poet (whom she artfully dubs an ``armchair Odysseus''). Using the poem as her map, she ventures through Inner Mongolia to the ruins of Shangdu (the proper name for Xanadu), Kashmir, Ethiopia, northern Florida, and finally to the poem's literal place of origin on the southwest coast of England. However, she often finds disappointment at the end of her journeys; the legendary Xanadu is little more than ``the bare bones of [a] ruined vanished city.'' But, she muses consolingly, ``I am not convinced that the map of...our tracks...adequately and completely describes the terrain we trod. The truest manifestation...may be that which none of us will ever see.'' Written in robust prose, her book is full of delightful and surprising details about the places today, and she poses thoughtful questions about the nature of experience: Does the real world ever live up to our imaginings, the fantastic visions of our minds and the accounts wrought from them? Though Alexander's journeys sometimes fall below her expectations, the same could scarcely be said of her fine book. The Way to Xanadu is a testament to one woman's dauntless intellectual curiosity and an exquisitely crafted paean to a great poem and to the timeless march of human inquiry and imagination. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal

Is epic poetry based on fact or fantasy? Are those "faraway places" dreams or reality? To appreciate this guide fully, one must understand 19th-century English Romanticism, particularly Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Using the poem "Kubla Kahn" as her starting point, Alexander (One Dry Season, LJ 11/15/89) describes her extensive search for the reality behind the mystical. Moving across three continents, we encounter the people and cultures of Xanadu in Inner Mongolia, southeastern America and Florida's fountain of youth, Asia's Kashmir, Amarnath Cave, and Ethiopia's Mount Abora; detailed histories of each locale and earlier literary references are explored and explained. This rugged and unique travel guide is designed for scholars and students of 19th-century English literature and would be best used in conjunction with academic course work. It's not for the popular adventurer or pleasure-seeking vacationer/ tourist.
Ann E. Cohen, Rochester P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297813137
• ISBN 13: 9780297813132
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288