While browsing through literary works on archive.org and project gutenberg, I came across an intriguing book from 1853. It is a children's book illustrated by Thomas Crane and Ellen Elizabeth Houghton with the verses written by various writers as stated from the book. This book is wonderfully illustrated and even today, the art is quite timeless. While reading through them, it reminded me of modern day travel blogging where you can craft a travel story written in beautiful poetic verses. There’s not many accounts on Thomas Crane and Ellen Elizabeth but their illustration in this book is quite aesthetic and fairly detailed. I wish they mentioned the author's name because the work itself is pretty clever,fun and engaging for adults and children alike. Without further adieu, let me convince you more why you should read this illustrated book.
Here they see a pretty sight,
Sunny sky and landscape bright:
Fishing boats move up and down
With their sails all red and brown
The story narrates the journey of a family who recently mourned over the mother’s passing. The family consists of the father and 5 children with one of their teachers. They are traveling from England to France through Normandy. They crossed the channel, traveled to Rouen, even Notre Dame. The family visited museums, restaurants and even the zoo. After visiting Luxembourg and the last stop was Calais, they all went back to England.
Even Though they have a simplistic plot, the prose and the illustration in the book were part of the charm. It illustrated the places they went to and the sights they saw in beautiful prose. Sometimes it’s quite funny. For example, when the siblings visited the zoo and see the swans, the prose that follows it, reads like this;
Their figures, I am sure
are not worth a glance:
If you want to see style,
you must come to france
It was a part of prose that was talking about a comparison of swans in England and France. The French swan’s think that they’re better than the English ones. In the book, there was also a prose about a little girl telling the mother that,
if the White cow gives milk, Then chocolate surely must come from the Brown.
The artwork itself was quite exceptional. I would assume in modern day, they can be a picture from a travel with a digital art design. Somehow, this book was quite inspiring to me to look at travel writing and narration in a different light.
The book was such a delight to read and I think that if you’re looking for a light prose to read to your children or even to read yourself, Abroad by Thomas Crane and Ellen Elizabeth Houghton should be on your list.
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Complex, Turbulent, Yet A Gripping tale from 10th Century – The Evening and The Morning by Ken Follet The Evening and The Morning by Ken Follet is a story predominantly centered around a smart, visionary, and an upright young boy named Edgar from a seafront called Combe in 997 CE. He lived during the time when vikings raided towns mainly the ones along the coast and up rivers to steal anything they could carry including young men and women to be captured as slaves(p.13). His place was not an exception that he and his family faced adversity which eventually lead them to a place called “Dreng’s Ferry” where he met with many other characters that soon drives the narrative of The Evening and The Morning. This is a tale of love, of power, and the slices of life with its complexity.
Thumbnail created with canva book cover screenshot from archive.org
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