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Nocturnal Expedition
around my Room
by
Xavier de Maistre
general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author
| Title: | Nocturnal Expedition around my Room |
| Author: | Xavier de Maistre |
| Genre: | Travel |
| Written: | 1825 |
| Length: | 70 pages |
| Original in: | French |
| Availability: | in Voyage around my Room - US |
| in A Journey Around My Room - UK | |
| in A Journey Around My Room - Canada | |
| Expédition nocturne autour de ma chambre - Canada | |
| Expédition nocturne autour de ma chambre - France |
- French title: Expédition nocturne autour de ma chambre
- Translated by Stephen Sartarelli
- Published in Voyage around my Room: Selected Works of Xavier de Maistre, which includes an Introduction by Richard Howard, Joseph de Maistre's 1811 Preface, as well as two other works by Xavier de Maistre:
- The new UK edition (Hesperus, 2004) was translated by Andrew Brown
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Our Assessment:
B+ : an enjoyable sequel to Voyage around my Room (see our review)
See our review for fuller assessment.
| Source | Rating | Date | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Washington Post | . | 17/4/2005 | Michael Dirda |
From the Reviews:
- "A Journey Around My Room and A Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room may seem mere sports, literary jeux d'esprit. (...) The English publisher Hesperus, which specializes in bringing out novella-length masterworks from around the world, deserves plaudits for adding these two little masterpieces to our reading lists." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.
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The complete review's Review:
Pleased by the success of his initial room-bound peregrinations (Voyage around my Room (see our review) was both a popular and, one must assume, personal success), Xavier de Maistre followed up with another such excursion, chronicled in Nocturnal Expedition around my Room.
This time, however, the voyage (or rather: the stay) in the room was not truly forced upon him, but of his own choosing.
De Maistre offers more of a preamble, sharing with readers what happened to his trusted servant and beloved dog in the meantime, as well as recounting some hilarious and horrible examples of misguided picture-cleaning.
The voyage is a briefer foray, though de Maistre still manages to cover considerable ground.
There is a mechanical dove, a bump on the head ("in exactly the same part of the head where Dr. Gall had situated the poetic protuberance"), and stellar contemplations.
He is carried away by numerous reveries (and he does get quite carried away), and he muses on all manner of matters.
His voyage is, indeed, more nocturnal -- and much shorter than his first, forty-two day odyssey.
Still, he does a fine job of spinning and presenting his various thoughts and experiences, and it is a nice complement to the earlier work.
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Reviews: Xavier de Maistre:
- Biography from the Catholic Encyclopedia
- Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel
- See Index of French literature at the complete review
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Count Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852) pursued a military career, and also wrote several popular works.
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