Book Review: Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit

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Book Review: Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit

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This was SO informative and thorough. Solnit truly grasped the in-depth history of walking in a very accessible way. She explores pilgrimages (religious rites and practices), flânerie (specifically in Paris and recounting Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin), protests (revolutions and social change through the practice of marching), hiking (mountaineering, sports clubs) while touching on social classes and elitism, land ownership as well as transgression. Lots of transgression from women as heroines, authors, and real life women (Dorthy Wordsworth, Jane Austen heroines). Walking as cultural, creative (wandering, poetry, gardens! romanticism such as Wordsworth and his sister), as dangerous and liberate (confinement and freedom). As public places for courtship or social engagement, as exercise or as mode of travel, as tourism. Rural spaces and urban spaces. Sexuality (prostitution, condemnation, and arrest) and the risks for women walking and minorities group for walking freely. And the list goes on and on and it is absolutely amazing and a fascinating exploration of the history of walking.

“Those we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch.” 

“In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.” 

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