Stephanie Jane reviewed A nocturnal expedition round my room by Xavier de Maistre (Bibliotheca curiosa)
Better than its predecessor
3 stars
The sequel to de Maistre's A Journey Round My Room is another parody set in the tradition of the grand travel narrative, but this time is set over a period of only four hours. De Maistre is again in Turin, this time in an attic room with a view of the sky. Having read the first book, I was better prepared for his style of musing and meditation. You might wonder why I bothered, having only given the first book two stars? Well, I bought the two in one volume and hate discarding books unread!
A Nocturnal Expedition is, for me, a more entertaining read. De Maistre is frequently humorous at his own expense and I thought this book far less self conscious and pompous than A Journey. He discusses gazing up into starry nights, the best methods to gain poetic inspiration, and how to ride a windowsill as though …
The sequel to de Maistre's A Journey Round My Room is another parody set in the tradition of the grand travel narrative, but this time is set over a period of only four hours. De Maistre is again in Turin, this time in an attic room with a view of the sky. Having read the first book, I was better prepared for his style of musing and meditation. You might wonder why I bothered, having only given the first book two stars? Well, I bought the two in one volume and hate discarding books unread!
A Nocturnal Expedition is, for me, a more entertaining read. De Maistre is frequently humorous at his own expense and I thought this book far less self conscious and pompous than A Journey. He discusses gazing up into starry nights, the best methods to gain poetic inspiration, and how to ride a windowsill as though it were a horse. All quite mad, but fun to read and I appreciated the brevity of this book which prevented de Maistre going on at too great a length on any particular topic. Sadly though, several chapters require the reader to have ploughed through A Journey in order to understand A Nocturnal Expedition.