The Way to Xanadu

by Caroline Alexander

Book Overview

A mesmerizing and wide-ranging account of Caroline Alexander's quest to experience firsthand the places that collectively inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary poem Kubla Khan. From Inner Mongolia to North Florida, Kashmir to Ethiopia, Alexander tells the rich and exotic histories of these particular places.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679419004
• ISBN13: 9780679419006
• Release Date: May 1994
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 205 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

one of my favorite books

Travel book that not only details the author's journeys around the world, but also back in time, to find the origin of Coleridge's famous poem about Xanadu. Very interesting and readable, I have read it three or four times now, always with pleasure. Readers who like "The Road to Ubar" (another fabulous travel/detective story) will like the "Way to Xanadu."

Author tracks down the sources of a poetic fragment

I love travel narratives that take me on slow, relaxing journeys to unusual places. This author takes a journey to find the sources of famous poetic fragment, trying to locate Xanadu. This is a pleasant, slow read, and it was intriguing to find that the one part of this search led her back to a neighborhood of her own childhood.