Audiobook · read by volunteers
Europe Revised
Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944)
Read by Sibella Denton · 51 chapters · 9 h 13
About the book
Irvin Cobb sets out for Europe and sees everything with a humorist’s eye. Europe Revised is a travel book with the comic bounce of Mark Twain’s journeys abroad. Its chapter titles, such as “We Are Going Away From Here”, “My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean”, “Bathing Oneself on the Other Side” and “That Gay Paresis”, follow Cobb across the Atlantic and into France, through the sights of Paris and London, and on to Venice. The book’s dedication to his small daughter, who asked him to shed a tear at Napoleon’s tomb, sets the tone for the whole. Cobb is as funny about his own ignorance as he is about the habits of the places he visits. Over fifty-one short recordings and more than nine hours, he offers an affectionate and amusing portrait of Europe as seen by a travelling American.
Introduction
Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944) was an American author, humorist and columnist, and one of the best-known writers of his day. He worked first as a newspaperman before turning to books, stories and later films. Europe Revised appeared in 1914 and follows a journey across the Atlantic and through the sights of the Old World, told in the manner of a comic travelogue.
The chapters bear comic titles, such as We Are Going Away From Here and My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean, and they show Cobb’s habit of building a story out of small mishaps. The travelogue format allows him to roam freely, from the voyage to the sights of famous cities and the misunderstandings that come with travel. Readers of the time enjoyed his friendly, conversational manner, and the tone survives well, though a few of his jokes reflect attitudes that have changed.
As a record of how an American visitor saw Europe in 1914, the book has a certain historical interest. Mostly, though, it is a long, relaxed and good-humoured companion, with the kind of comic detail that only a wandering observer notices, for anyone who likes to laugh while travelling, even from an armchair.
Fifty-one recordings, about 9.2 hours in all, are read by a single LibriVox volunteer. Most chapters are split into two or three parts, so a chapter such as Britain in Twenty Minutes fits comfortably into one evening, and the whole trip makes a pleasant season of listening. Cobb’s dedication to his daughter sets the pattern: the author is the chief victim of every misadventure, whether he is struggling with a foreign bath, a foreign menu or a foreign guide, as the chapter titles Bathing Oneself on the Other Side and Guyed or Guided? suggest.
Public domain
Irvin S. Cobb died in 1944: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text