Original Publication Date: 1895
Genre: Satire/Travel
Topics: Germany, Edwardian, travel, satire
Review by : Liz Inskip-Paulk (www.ravingreader.wordpress.com)
Jerome K. Jerome is a Victorian/Edwardian writer most famous for his literary comic masterpiece of “Three Men in a Boat”, but his range was larger than that as evidenced by the enjoyable “Diary of a Pilgrimage”. It’s a novel about an overland journey of two gentlemen who travel to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau in Germany. This play has been performed every ten years since 1634 (almost every year that ends in “0” and is a religious event for the villagers (in perpetuity) to say thanks for sparing them from a plague that ravished the surrounding countryside.
Jerome’s writing is strong, but this is a confusing work as
it seemed to vacillate wildly between being pretty funny and satirical (Jerome
has a good sense of humor) to serious contemplations of religion to travel
writing. It’s rather a roller-coaster as I was never certain what kind of
writing the next chapter would bring: would I laugh or would I be asked to
consider something serious such as Christianity? (And that’s ok – this book
revolves around a Christian play after all.)
Apart from that slight confusion, Jerome writes some
fabulous descriptions of some of the characters that he and his traveling
companion B come across especially a scene at the beer garden as they wend
their way home post-play. It’s a quick read with some similar humor to “Three
Men…” but also a surprisingly serious side as well.
Download Diary of a Pilgrimage by Jerome K. Jerome at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|
