BookChums Theme of the Week: Places in Literature

This week on BookChums, we celebrate Places in Literature as the theme of the week. From travelogues and history to memoirs, places and locations have always played a special role in characterizing plots, emotions and thoughts. Even the most ordinary of places emerges as the most extraordinary place when described by a bard or writer. From the pages of history or a novel, there emerge places that we have never heard of arousing our curiosity and all the more excitement to read as the book unfolds. Therefore, sit back and relax some of the best reads in literature based on places.

ATale of Two Cities (written in 1859) by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution sketches the difficulty of the French peasantry brutalized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding cruelty demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many other social parallels with life in London during the same time. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events including Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.  It is a timeless read.

AShort Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby is an autobiographical account of his adventures in the Hindu Kush, around Nuristan in Afghanistan, apparently to make the first mountaineering ascent of Mir Samir. It is a popular read among all travel aficionados.

Love and War in the Apennines is a 1971 Second World War memoir by Eric Newby. After the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces in 1943, he left the prison camp in which he had been held for a year, and escaped the Germans by going high up in the mountains and forests south of the Po River. In enforced isolation, he was sheltered by brave Italian peasants. This book is an account of the selfless people and their basic lifestyle. This is where he Wanda, a local girl who later became his wife. The 2001 film In Love and War starring Callum Blue and Barbora Bobulova was inspired by this memoir.

Read on and enjoy. We will feature more of these brilliant and fun books.