Little Swiss Sojourn
In the autumn of 1871, William Dean Howells and his family paused their journey from England to Italy for two months on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. What could have been merely a tourist's rest becomes, in Howells' capable hands, a portrait of a place suspended between old Europe and the new influx of foreign visitors. With the quiet authority of a writer who would later shape American letters, Howells records the play of light on the lake, the particular quality of Swiss hospitality, and the small dramas of the expatriate community - those Americans and Brits who, like him, had drifted to this crescent of shoreline seeking something they couldn't quite name. His observations are never heavy-handed; he prefers the telling detail to the sweeping generalization, the overheard conversation to the grand statement. The result is a travel narrative that rewards patience, offering glimpses of a vanished world where an American family could spend weeks simply watching the mountains change color at dusk.
X-Ray
