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In Xanadu, by William Dalrymple
Free PDF In Xanadu, by William Dalrymple
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One of the most successful, influential and acclaimed travel books of recent years from the author of 'Return of a King', which has been shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. At the age of twenty-two, William Dalrymple left his college in Cambridge to travel to the ruins of Kublai Khan's stately pleasure dome in Xanadu. This is an account of a quest which took him and his companions across the width of Asia, along dusty, forgotten roads, through villages and cities full of unexpected hospitality and wildly improbable escapades, to Coleridge's Xanadu itself. At once funny and knowledgeable, In Xanadu is in the finest tradition of British travel writing. Told with an exhilarating blend of eloquence, wit, poetry and delight, it is already established as a classic of its kind.
- Sales Rank: #509990 in Books
- Published on: 1999
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.76" h x .87" w x 5.12" l, .53 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 320 pages
Review
'Brilliant' Spectator 'Glorious' Patrick Leigh Fermor 'Dalrymple is probably the best travel writer of his generation' Daily Mail 'The future of travel writing lies in the hands of gifted authors like Dalrymple' Sara Wheeler, Independent
From the Publisher
'William Dalrymple has written a delightful book of travels ... a brilliant debut.' - PHILIP GLAZEBROOK, Spectator
'A splendid piece of British eccentricity with all manner of echoes: Freya Stark, Peter Fleming, Robert Byron ... Dalrymple is plainly either brilliant, or bonkers, or both.' - ALAN FRANKS, The Times
'In Xanadu is so uncommonly satisfying because of the rare skill with which William Dalrymple blends his ingredients: history, danger, humour, architecture, people, hardship, politics.' - DERVLA MURPHY, Literary Review
'Superb ... The vivid, engaging, and often hilarious account of an amazing 12,000-mile quest, His marvellous book - rich with the sights, smells, history and feel of Asia - will become a classic.' - Sunday Express
'This is travel writing in the grand tradition, with a true whiff of high adventure. Dalrymple recounts his saga with a fine mixture of humour and erudition, and with the exuberance of youth.' - Evening Standard
'Bright, sharp, laconic and outrageous, his is an adventurous account of hippies and mad mullahs, mosques and sacred tombs, dangers and celebrations, Dionysian rituals and rich discoveries. It is full of life and very funny.' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year
'Outstanding ... William Dalrymple is a natural writer. His models are, perhaps, Peter Fleming and Evelyn Waugh rather than more serious travellers, but he's a better scholar than either. Best of all, he has the gift of comedy ... In Xanadu marks the arrival of a new star.' - Sydney Morning Herald
'In Xanadu leavens adventure story and scholarly history with farcical dialogue and high-spirited buffoonery. It's a fast, furious, funny read ... clearly the stuff bestsellers are made of.' - SUNIL SETHI, Times of India
'Rarely does one review a book which so obviously marks the start of a splendid career. Brave and exultant, rich in esoteric knowledge and a sense of the ridiculous ... it is my guess that William Dalrymple will become one of the great English travel writers.' - Eastern Daily Press
About the Author
In Xanadu won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and the Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award, and was shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize. Dalrymple's second book, City of Djinns, won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. His third, From the Holy Mountain, was published in April 1997, and won the Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award and was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Award and the Thomas Cook Award. His latest book, The Age of Kali, was published in 1998.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Great read
By Paul Goodrich
A great combination of history, adventure and humor. Well written, entertaining and informative. I recommend the Kindle version because I needed to look up about one word every two pages.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Jerusalem to Xanadu on $1100
By ealovitt
William Dalrymple travelled 12,000 miles overland from Jerusalem to Xanadu in order to retrace the journey of Marco Polo, and I think the Venetian probably had the easier trip--- in 1271 Marco Polo didn't have to smuggle himself along the Silk Route by burrowing into the back of a coal truck.
The author calls his journey a `quest' rather than a `vacation,' since it involved not only a goal, but also a great deal of hardship and suffering. However "In Xanadu" is an excellent book to take on vacation. It is a lucid and sometimes hilarious account of a very low-budget journey through Asia ($1100 financed the entire trip through Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and the breadth of China.) And best of all, no matter how badly your own vacation turns out, you can always pick this book up and find Dalrymple in a more miserable spot than you are.
There is also beauty and moments of scholarly excitement when the author identifies some feature of the landscape with a passage from Marco Polo's journal. I particularly liked his description of a nocturnal train trip through Turkey. He sees dry flatlands transformed into lush pasturage and wonders at the source of water. Then the train comes upon a river, and Dalrymple unfolds his map:
"Its Turkish name, the Firat Nehri, meant nothing to me. Only when I followed the thin blue line down through Syria and out towards Baghdad, did I see the river's more familiar name --- the Euphrates....Is there another river which carries with it so many associations?...The river which ran through the Garden of Eden, one of the five rivers of the Apocalypse! Following its course on the map, its banks are littered with the names of the ancient cities it once gave life to: Mari, Nippur, Uruk, Larsa, Erdu, Kish."
The above paragraph is a rare flight of fancy for Dalrymple. His normal style is less flamboyant, laced with dry British humor where he tends to be the butt of his own jokes. Sometimes the reader is left to discover the humor of the situation through one of his dialogues. Here Dalrymple is in Kashgar, a Chinese city populated by the Muslim Uigurs. He is trying to explain through an interpreter, the lifestyle of the British `Chairman' Elizabeth II to an old mullah:
"Salindi [the interpreter] frowned. `He wants to know how many sheep, donkeys and camels your chairman owns.'
"'Tell him she owns no camels, but has very many horses and a great number of corgi dogs.'
"The information was passed on. The old man nodded his head as he listened.
"'Sir, this man is now asking about the dog which is called `khor-qi. He asks whether these `khor-qi' are good to eat.'
"'Tell the old man that they are delicious.'"
"In Xanadu" is travel writing in the grandly eccentric British tradition: a horrid climate and high adventure, laced throughout with dry wit. Be sure to get a copy for your next vacation. I'm going to loan mine to a friend who thinks she wants to visit Iran and Afghanistan (last year she trekked through Outer Mongolia). Either "In Xanadu" will dissuade her from her planned adventure, or else she is as bonkers as Dalrymple.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A Thousand and One Tales from the Silk Road
By Chris Ziesler
This is quite simply an enchanting book and for two interconnected reasons. The first and most striking reason is that Dalrymple manages to capture and convey the shear sense of wonder and excitement that comes from traveling across the world when young. So young, in fact, that I kept having to remind myself that he was only 22 when he wrote it.
If that were its only noteworthy aspect the book would be just one of many other worthy works of travel and exploration. What makes Dalrymple's book so compelling is his extensive grasp of the history and culture of the lands through which he traveled. I like to think that I have read a little of the literature relevant to the countries he passed through but time and again I was brought up short by some tale of a character, event or place of which I had never heard but that had caught Dalrymple's imagination and whose story he wished to share. He proved to be a teller of tales every bit as adept and entrancing as Scheherazade.
The premise of the book is that after graduating Dalrymple wanted to re-trace the footsteps of Marco Polo from Jerusalem across Asia Minor and deep into the heart of Asia in search of the legendary Xanadu. To do this he had to pass through Israel, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China, visiting some of the most important and memorable sites of antiquity on the way. He made his journey in the late 80s meaning that his journey, although maybe not as perilous or difficult, was a worthy successor to Marco Polo's epic voyage.
Since reading In Xanadu I have gone on to read several other books by Dalrymple and while his mature style is a little more settled and refined I look back on this first journey I shared with him with a special fondness for its marvelous exuberance and sense of the infinite possibility of youth.
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