Impossible Journeys

This book of historical essays retells journeys that were absurd, legendary, or aimed at places that never existed. Lyons gathers travellers and dreamers who walked, sailed, or claimed to have reached destinations such as El Dorado, Utopia, and other vanished or imaginary lands, as well as real expeditions that looked impossible at the outset, among them Thomas Coryat's walk toward India and Walter Ralegh's search for gold. Other pieces take up journeys that can no longer be made, or that existed only on maps and in plays. The book is a cabinet of travel tales and false geographies, not a continuous biography and not a guidebook.

Quarter-bound in black cloth with paper sides wrap=around printed with a full colour illustration. Gilt spine title. Dark blue slipcase.