The Experience of Idling in Victorian Travel Texts, 1850–1901 PDF
Preview The Experience of Idling in Victorian Travel Texts, 1850–1901
HEIDI LIEDKE The Experience of Idling in Victorian Travel Texts, 1850-1901 The Experience of Idling in Victorian Travel Texts, 1850–1901 Heidi Liedke The Experience of Idling in Victorian Travel Texts, 1850–1901 Heidi Liedke University of Koblenz-Landau Landau, Germany and Queen Mary University of London London, UK ISBN 978-3-319-95860-6 ISBN 978-3-319-95861-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95861-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947628 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover image: © Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo Cover design: Tom Howey This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Moim rodzicom A cknowledgements Working on the pleasures of idleness is not always an idle pleasure; it is, therefore, of great importance to be surrounded by people and places that accompany and support one along the way. This book began as a dissertation supervised by Barbara Korte, who provided me with excel- lent guidance throughout the years and sparked my interest in “the Victorians” and travel writing in the first place. I am very grateful for her encouragement and advice, also beyond the Ph.D. The discussions in the chair’s colloquium were also very helpful for the project in its initial stages. Thanks are due to Sabina Becker, who solved several structural problems I was struggling with at key points in the writing process, and Stefanie Lethbridge, whose sharp observations made me take a step back and clarify my standpoint when turning the project into a book. I am very grateful to the Collaborative Research Centre (Sonderforschungsbereich) 1015 “Muße” for providing a fruitful envi- ronment to think about idleness and leisure and, linked to that, the German Research Foundation (DFG) for their funding from 2013 to 2016, which enabled me to do research at the British Library and the Natural History Museum in London, and the International Office/ Global Exchange Programme at the University of Freiburg for grant- ing me a research stay at the Bodleian Library/Jesus College at the University of Oxford in 2014. Particular thanks go to our project’s research assistant Maria Helmling for her diligent work. I would also like to thank the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS des deutschen Volkes) for their non-material support: the discussions with the other Ph.D. scholars I met during the programme reminded me of why I am doing what I am doing. The conferences that I participated in over the past few years, for instance at the Universities of Kent, Bangor, Zürich, and Tampere, not only took me to unknown places but made it possible to present chapters from this book and get feedback from fellow humanities scholars from all around the world, which was extremely motivating: I am sending you my thanks. Chapter 4 in Part I was developed from material published as “‘The Sheepish Fear of Deserting the Common Track Is Upon Us’— The Emotional Assessment of Space and Time in Victorian Guidebooks” in Crossing Borders in Victorian Travel: Spaces, Nations and Empires, edited by Barbara Franchi and Elvan Mutlu (Cambridge Scholars, 2018), and it is here published with the permission of Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Chapter 8 in Part II was published in an earlier version in French translation as “Oisveté et écriture dans Un flâneur en Patagonie de W. H. Hudson (1893),” translated by Anna Pevoski and Clara Schwarze, in Otium et écriture dans la littérature du xixe et xxe siècles. Recherches et Travaux 88, edited by Thomas Klinkert, 107–27, Grenoble: Ellug. It is here published in an extended version with the permission of Ellug/Recherches et Travaux. At Palgrave Macmillan, I would like to thank the anonymous read- ers for the excellent suggestions that have taken this book into its final direction. I shall also like to thank Ben Doyle, Ryan Jenkins and Allie Bochicchio, who have supported the project at its respective stages, Tom Howey for the wonderful cover design, and especially Camille Davies for her kind and constant support, for patiently answering all my questions and for managing everything so expertly. Thanks to my former colleagues at the English Department at the University of Freiburg and the SFB, especially the “Muße. Ein Magazin” group for exchanging ideas and starting new projects. The revision of the manuscript for publication took place while I was newly employed at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Landau. I would like to thank Stella Butter for supporting my project, granting me the necessary freedom to turn it into a book and, along with my new office mates, making sure I had a great start at Landau. To come full circle, my work on this project ended where it had begun, in London and at the British Library. I am grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation for awarding me the Feodor ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix Lynen Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2018 to 2020 which allowed me to come to Queen Mary University of London and have a smooth tran- sition from one project to the next—and go on a journey from the nine- teenth century to the twenty-first century. On a more personal note, I shall like to thank my friends for the good times. Greatest thanks go to Jeanne-Marie Ebenezer (even though Louis Wain didn’t make it on the cover). My parents, Joanna and Karl Liedke—quite familiar with the concept of travel themselves—are always there for me, no matter where I am, and have supported and encouraged me in my academic pursuits from the beginning. I am very happy that I can share the product of this particular journey with them and I dedicate this book to them, with love and grat- itude. c ontents 1 Introduction 1 Part I Idleness and Travel in the Victorian Context 2 A Brief Intellectual and Semantic History of “Idleness” 19 3 Sensibilities of Seeing 39 4 The Dangers of Idle Time 65 5 Genre and Gender 79 Part II Case Studies 6 The Victorian Idler’s Late-Romantic Mentality 99 7 Idleness and Idling in Anna Mary Howitt’s An Art-Student in Munich (1853) 109 8 W. H. Hudson, His Thinking Machine and Idle Days in Patagonia (1893) 145 xi xii CONTENTS 9 Jerome K. Jerome’s Humoristic Idleness in Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!) (1889): Lightness and Longing 173 10 Margaret Fountaine’s Diary Accounts of Her Restless Idling and Butterflying 201 11 George Gissing’s By the Ionian Sea (1901) as a Paradise of Idleness 229 12 Coda 263 Index 273
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