Literary tourism has become a mass pursuit. For many, fiction can seem more vivid than life
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskOr so classical authors such as Euripides implied; others put the gateway farther north in Greece, or near Naples, or on the Turkish coast. But for visitors who suspend disbelief on the path that winds from a derelict chapel to a quiet cove, this is it: the place where Heracles dragged Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog, snarling into the light, and where Orpheus turned and lost Eurydice to the darkness for ever.
A quarter of British travellers stop at bookish attractions on domestic trips, says a survey. On the face of it, the urge to follow in imaginary footsteps is odd, even irrational. Look more closely, and as well as private enthusiasms, these journeys trace the alchemical links between stories and their readers.
Plainly, it is easy to be snooty about literary tourism. The yen to see and touch the scenery of books can seem ploddingly literal. In their heads, it is said, everyone is the hero of their own story, but lots of people seem content to be an extra in someone else’s. Missions to track down invented figures or settings seem bound to end in disappointment—except for the entrepreneurs and marketeers who peddle Sherlock Holmes deerstalkers or guides to Jane Austen’s Bath.
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