A Work in Progress

Heidi's Alp by Christina Hardyment

I've forgotten how much I like reading travel narratives.  I have two very full shelves full of them and probably could fill another with more books of travel adventures that I've got spread out in other places.  Written in 1987 and one of a series of travel books published by Atlantic Monthly, Christina Hardyment's Heidi's Alp: One Family's Search for Storybook Europe combined a  number of really interesting elements.  It's not just a straightforward narrative about the family's travel adventures (and sometimes misadventures), but the focus is on literary Europe, in particular children's literature--a few classics as well as folk and fairy tales.  There's also a fair bit of history and social history and even pop culture included, as it wasn't meant to be all study and no play. 

Inspired by Toad's adventures in The Wind in the Willows, which she had been reading to her younger daughters, Hardyment decided that her own life had become one of routine and monotony and a little family adventure was called for. 

"Four daughters aged between five and twelve: eighteen years of lunchboxes and swimming money, lost textbooks and missed music lessons.  What had happened to my old dreams, of exploring Trebizond like Rose Macaulay, excavating in Anatolia like Freya Stark, daring the desert in memory of Lady Hester Stanhope?  Was a family a ball and chain for life?"

Once arrangements had been made with the childrens' schools, since they would be leaving before the end of the academic year, they found a suitable means of transportation.  In this case a motorhome was borrowed from friends, which the family dubbed "Bertha".  In the first leg of their journey they were joined by a friend and her baby, and the latter half Hardyment's husband shared driving and navigating responsibilities.  I was reminded of Patrick Leigh Fermor's earlier adventures, which he wrote about in A Time of Gifts, as the Hardyments also set off, too, from the Hook of Holland.

"We had one other travelling companion.  By April I had done enough research to be reasonably well-informed on the obscurer aspects of the books and authors we were to pursue.  One writer above all the rest had emerged as vivid, urgent, and demanding.  At first I didn't even particularly like him, but like a doppelgänger he kept turning up at my shoulder in the most unlikely places, always with a question.  Ugly, unsettled, an embarrassment to many of his friends and yet the most obsessively read and reread of all European storytellers, Hand Christian Andersen haunted me as effectively as 'The Travelling Companion' of his own macabre story."

Much of their journey loosely follows Andersen's own life, writings and his own travels through Europe.  If you've ever wondered what inspires an author to write the stories they do, the Hardyments visit the places and see first hand the cities or villages, the landscapes and even the homes and always with book in hand.  Did you know that Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates was actually written by American Mary Mapes Dodge, who hadn't even been to Holland before writing the book?  She checked facts with Dutch friends living in New York. 

There's lots about Hans Christian Andersen, poor unattractive man that he was, whose mother was barely literate and highly superstitious.  She, however, instilled in him the idea that whatever he wanted to be in life was entirely acceptable.  This was probably pretty progressive thinking for the early 19th century.  The family followed him from Denmark (with sidetrips to Legoland and the Tivoli Gardens) to Germany exploring his many fairy tales along the way.

An entire chapter is devoted to the historical basis of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which reminded me, too, of Jeremias Gotthelf's The Black Spider.  It's best to pay off your debts lest something awful befalls you if you don't.  Were those children really spirited away and just what was the real reason why?  The Hardyments follow the Fairy Tale Road in Germany (and even in the 80s much of it, including a sidetrip to Neuschwanstein Castle, was something of a tourist trap), learn about Pinocchio in Italy, Heidi's Alp in Switzerland and Babar in France. 

This is such a charming read and Hardyment manages to thread everything together seamlessly.  It's obvious that she did her homework either along the way or after as she writes not just about what she sees but what the literature and tales mean.  It's those bits that I really appreciated as they reinforced or shed light on my own fairy tale reading last fall.  Hardyment shared a wonderful quote from Italo Calvino, which makes me want to find and read his Italian Folktales.

"These folk tales are a catalogue of the potential destinies of men and women, especially for the stage in life when destiny is formed, that is, yought, beginning with birth, which itself often foreshadows the future; then the departure from home, and finally, through the trials of growing up, the attainment of maturity and the proof of one's humanity."

I don't know when I'll get back to reading fairy tales, but I know how important they are in the scheme of things since so much hinges on those stories.  It's quite nice to think how it's all interconnected and this was such a pleasurable way to think about it.  I'd be curious to know where the family is now, since their travels are a quarter century past.  Their journey even took them behind the Iron Curtain and into East Germany.  So much has changed but the stories remain a part of our culture.

This is the second book from my list of books to read this year (the other being Alice McDermott's At Weddings and Wakes).  I had to mention that as I'm so pleased with myself for staying on track for once.  I have tentatively picked Chaim Potok's Davita's Harp for my next read, but I've not yet started it and have to decide if that's really what I'm in the mood for at the moment.

**Christina Hardyment is still writing books, and you can check out her website here!  Heidi's Alp is published under the title The Canary-Coloured Cart in the UK.

January 10: Reading and Listening Notes

This post isn't about the Penguin Great Food series (though I have finally started reading The Well-Kept Kitchen in earnest), but I always like some sort of visual in my posts and this was the handiest 'book photo' that I could slip in.  I also like the bright and colorful spines of the books--they look so cheery.  It feels like a nice antidote the grey days that we've been having here.  I don't know about you, but January is a hard month.  The holidays (and more--my break) are over.  The days are short (though they are slowly beginning to get longer) and it's been just cold enough to make my daily walks to the bus stop brisk in a shivery sort of way.  However maybe I shouldn't complain too much as the snow that fell just before Christmas is beginning to melt (then run into the sidewalks and refreeze again at night).  January is just such a back to business sort of month with nothing much to look forward to and I think I am not the only one experiencing the winter blahs.  Things have gone a little quiet again in my corner of the blogosphere, too.  

There's nothing for it but to get lost in a good book.  Maybe I need to find a sunny sort of story to send to the front of the reading queue?  Or maybe a nice travel narrative.  The next best thing to traveling myself is reading about someone else having a good adventure.  To that end, I've started reading Christina Hardyment's Heidi's Alp, which is on my list of thirteen books to read this year (and which I am determined not to forget about like I usually do the moment January turns to February).  A few chapters in and I think it is just the thing I need. 

The book came out in the mid-1980s and I bet it has been on my shelves since the paperback was issued.  Hardyment, fed up with the bustle uninspired repetitiveness of ordinary modern life, decided a little adventure was what she and her family needed.  

"What had happened to my old dreams, of exploring Trebizond like Rose Macaulay did, excavating in Anatolia like Freya Stark, daring the desert in memory of Lady Hester Stanhope?  Was a family a ball and chain for life?"

She had been reading Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows to her younger daughters, and inspired by Toad's adventures decided they needed a few of their own.  No better time than the present as the four children were all under twelve and not yet "under the grip of examination syllabuses".  So an extended vacation was planned for May and June.  It wouldn't be just any vacation, but one in search of the real world of children's literature.  One of the daughters had been reading Heidi and was curious if the places she was reading about actually existed. 

"We could hunt trolls in the Norwegian mountains, look for witches and wolves in the German forests.  In Switzerland we'd rout out Heidi and William Tell, in Italy track down Pinocchio and Punch and Judy.  What sort of man could write a book like Struwwelpeter?  What was the true significance of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty?  Where did Don Quixote tilt at windmills? Was there a jackdaw at Reims, a hunchback at Notre Dame?"

Although the family has to pare down their list of places to visit, literature is mostly going to be their guide on their journey.  It's a journey I'm looking forward to taking with them.  Good timing, too, since my fairy tale reading is still in the back of my mind.  I'll report back what I (rather the Hardyments) find.

I've settled nicely into my New Year's reading.  I just finished Diana Tutton's Guard Your Daughters, which I very much enjoyed and will be writing about soon.  I'm finding Charles Todd's second Bess Crawford mystery, An Impartial Witness, hard to put down.  It's set in 1917 in London by the way, and Bess is a nurse.  The books are reminiscent of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs books, but only superficially.  And Susan Howatch's Cashelmara is getting really good.  It may be a chunkster, but it is one that is easy to get into and easy to get caught up in the family drama.  I find myself shaking my head at some of the characters, getting mad at others and reassessing my first impressions of yet others.  Everything you expect from a good, dramatic story.  And I think I am ready to begin Julia Strachey's Cheerful Weather for the Wedding.  I'm all for cheerfulness.

I'm also back to listening to audio books.  At the moment I am listening to Judith Kinghorn's The Last Summer, which is very much à la Downton Abbey in terms of plot.  I think it is more romance than historical fiction.  It's about a young woman, who at the start of the story is only sixteen, falls for the son of her family's housekeeper.  He happens to be studying at Oxford, however.  So while not of her social class, he's smart and educated and just when the two have fallen for each other WWI breaks out.  I was afraid Clarissa would be a simpering miss, shallow and naive, but the story is getting better the longer I listen.  I don't usually read romance novels and am really picky about what books I listen to, but I wanted a story that would be engaging but not too challenging if you know what I mean.  This seems to fit the bill.  I set aside audio books even quicker than paper books if something about it doesn't click with me.

For something with a little more substantial I've also got Charles Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby read by Simon Vance.  I sampled it and liked the narration so am looking forward to listening.  I have never thought of reading this particular Dickens novel, but now I'm quite excited about it.  Audible has a special three for two sale going on--you can get three audio books for the price of two tokens so I am trying to decide which will tempt me most.  So far I've got on my list of possibilities Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (I've read this before, but I'm not averse to listening to the story again), Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (I've read it a few times but it would be fun to listen in honor of the book's anniversary), Deborah Blum's The Poisoner's Handbook (nonfiction about the birth of forensic science in the 1920s) and Michael Pollen's The Botany of Desire (I love the narrator--have listened to him before).  I've got a few days to decide.  I have lots of audio books lined up so I guess I'll be spending lots of time out walking (which is when I listen to most of my audio books).

I hope you'll check back later on Friday or over the weekend as I have another Lost in the Stacks instalment lined up!  In case you missed it Stefanie at So Many Books gave us a peek inside her library last week!

Views of Greece: A Brief Interlude

I've been reading my next Mythology 'assignment' this afternoon but thought it would be fun to take a little break and share a few images that came my way via Postcrossing.  If I am really trying to immerse myself in a subject visuals are always welcome, so these couldn't have come at a better time.  Imagine living in Athens and have this as your view.  Stunning, don't you think?  Of course perhaps to most Athenians this is all 'old hat' and they don't give it a second thought (or look) and mostly just resent all the camera toting tourists who must flood the city every summer?  

To this end, wondering what life in contemporary Greece is like that is, I've expanded my reading project just a little bit.  But more about that in a moment.  That's the Acropolis you see on the far horizon overlooking the city.  And the famous building is the Parthenon, or the Temple of Athena, who is the goddess of wisdom, war, divine intelligence as well as architecture and crafts.   She's the city's patron and gave her name to it.  Athens must just ooze history and culture.

To the Northwest of the Acropolis is the Ancient Agora, which is where this Temple of Hephaestos is located.  The Agora would have been an important meeting place for the people of Athens both politically and socially.  Hephaestus is the patron god of metal working and craftsmanship.  This temple is apparently very well preserved and stands much as it did when it was built.  There is something very awe inspiring to think of the history these stones have observed, particularly since it was built around 449 BC.

I wasn't sure what this building housed as there is no description on the card, but I believe it is the Old Royal Palace and is now the Hellenic Parliament.  By the way--just a little piece of trivia--they  have a unicameral legislature.  I live in Nebraska, which is the only US state that has a unicameral legislature.  Anyway, the building looks sort of small in the postcard, but if you click through the link and look at the Wikipedia photo (click to enlarge it) it is massive building!

And then we must have the requisite picturesque view of whitewashed buildings and perfectly calm, brilliant blue water.  It's only missing a cat, don't you think? 

As for my extracurricular reading . . . I've still got Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth by my bedside.  I think I need to just buy it as it's the sort of book where everything I read is something I feel I should note down and turn the page corner over to remember.  I've decided I need to just read it one one fell swoop as there is so much information to take in, it's not one to pick up and set down as it loses some continuity.

A little browsing of my own bookshelves netted me Katherine Kizilos The Olive Grove: Travels in Greece, which is a book in the Lonely Planet Journeys series.  I'm very much enjoying it.  Kizilos is Australian by birth but Greek by heritage.  Her father fled the German Occupation during WWII, so Kizilos writes about the dislocation that is felt by immigrants and his sense of being an exile not truly part of a new culture.  However she notes she has always felt like someone who lives within two cultures rather than between them (and not truly part of either).  The book is split into three sections: The Sea, Borderlands and The Village and isn't exactly like so many other books I've read that are straightforward travel narratives.  She writes about places off the beaten track and not what an ordinary tourist would expect to see, which is really sort of refreshing.    

I've also got Anne Zouroudi's The Messenger of Athens waiting for me at the library, which I hope to pick up in the next couple of days.  So I realize that reading a mystery is definitely verging off the path of mythology, but it's amazing what you can learn about a culture by reading a crime novel, and Zouroudi comes highly recommended, so I'm looking forward to it.  I don't really know much about the series, other than the detective is Hermes Diaktoros, and I believe the setting is contemporary.  I'm excited about reading this as well as it is a fresh place in the world for me to read about and an entirely new and different character.  Also on hand, though I'm not sure when I'll get to these, are Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens by Sofka Zinovieff and Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by the brilliant Patrick Leigh Fermor.

Now back to the Golden Fleece, which I'll write about tomorrow (but I promise to keep it brief--there is usually so much to write about!).