The Age of the Grand Tour

This incredible tome contains sketches of the manners, society and customs of France, Flanders, The United Provinces, Germany, Switzerland and Italy in the letters, journals and writings of the most celebrated voyagers between the years 1720 and 1820.

This magnificent book of the history of the Grand Tour, that journey to Italy to which the 18th-century English aristocracy, gentry and otherwise well-to-do of the English sent their young men, features a wonderful essay by Anthony Burgess of A Clockwork Orange fame.  Burgess recreates the experience of the Grand Tour by providing historical context and then delving deep into the actual experience through a second person narrative.  Pages later, a magnificent essay by Francis Haskell details the artistic grandeur of the Grand Tour.  The bulk of the book is made up of journal entries by some of 18th century England's greatest writers, including William Hazlitt, Laurence Sterne and Francis Burney.  These expeditions spilled over into 19th century culture, and various other famous persons from England and from the continent found themselves embarking on this grand tour, including Stendhal, Goethe, James Fenimore Cooper and Lord Byron. 

This book contains 16 full color plates, four full-page reproductions of engravings, 236 monochrome illustrations, along with the incredible entries by the men and women who embarked on this rite of passage.

Crown Publishers, 1967.