Between Distance and Sympathy: Dr John Moore's Philosophical Travel Writing
- Creators
- Brewer, John
Abstract
Dr John Moore's four-volume account of his Grand Tour in the company of the Duke of Hamilton was one of the most successful European travel books of the late eighteenth century. Moore's text, I argue, is a philosophical travel narrative, an examination of manners, customs and characters, analogous to the philosophical histories of the Scottish Enlightenment. Intended as a critique of the superficial observations of much travel literature, it argues for a greater degree of closeness between the traveler and the native, one based on sympathetic conversation rather than observation, but accompanied by a more distanced analysis, based on conjectural history, of the hidden processes that explain manners and character. Difference should be understood through a combination of sympathy and analysis that makes travel and its accounting valuable.
Additional Information
© 2014 Cambridge University Press.Attached Files
Published - Brewer_2014p655.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 52590
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20141211-095820790
- Created
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2014-12-11Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field