Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Description

What does it mean to be out walking in the world? From pilgrimages to protest marches, mountaineering to meandering, this modern classic weaves together numerous histories to trace a range of possibilities for this most basic act. Touching on the philosophers of Ancient Greece, the Romantic poets, Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennett, Andre Breton's Nadja, and more, Rebecca Solnit considers what forms of pleasure and freedom walkers have sought at different times. Profound and provocative, Wanderlust invites us to look afresh at the rich, varied, often radical interplay of the body, the imagination, and the world when walking.

Rebecca Solnit is author of, among other books, Call Them By Their True Names, The Mother of All Questions, Men Explain Things to Me, Wanderlust, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, the NBCC award-winning River of Shadows and A Paradise Built in Hell. A contributing editor to Harper's, she writes regularly for the London Review of Books and the Los Angeles Times. She lives in San Francisco.

Radical, humane, witty, sometimes wonderfully dandyish, at other times, impassioned and serious -- Alain de Botton [A] magisterial history of walking -- Will Self * Guardian * A history of walking that is about time and space and consciousness of the world as much as about putting one foot in front of the other * The Times * A writer of startling freshness and precision * New York Times Book Review * Solnit walks, but her prose soars. This is a stunningly original account of the simple, subversive activity that keeps us human. Pedestrians of the world, unite! -- Mike Davis, author * City of Quartz * One of those rare, quirky, rather lovable books that makes you look anew at something so familiar ... Solnit winningly traces the shifting cultural significance of putting one foot in front of another * Telegraph * Thoughtful and fascinating -- Stephanie Merritt * Observer *