Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

French travel writers

The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period, James Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1786) helped shape travel memoir as a genre. == History == Early examples of travel literature include the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (generally considered a 1st century CE work; authorship is debated), Pausanias' Description of Greece in the 2nd century CE, Safarnama (Book of Travels) by Nasir Khusraw (1003-1077), the Journey Through Wales (1191) and Description of Wales (1194) by Gerald of Wales, and the travel journals of Ibn Jubayr (1145–1214), Marco Polo (1254–1354), and Ibn Battuta (1304–1377), all of whom recorded their travels across the known world in detail.

2 episodes

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  1. Germaine de Staël

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, works and life of Germaine de Stael (1766-1817), a literary critic, author, opponent of Napoleon and developer of Romanticism.

    16 November 2017

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    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Alison Finch, Katherine Astbury

     
  2. Montaigne

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Michel de Montaigne. Best known for his influential Essays, Montaigne is regarded as the father of modern sceptical thought.

    25 April 2013

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    Featuring: David Wootton, Terence Cave, Felicity Green