Undoubtedly, delving into the pages of a good book is an amazing journey. Discovering new ways of seeing the world around us, new secrets are hidden from our adjusted knowledge, in short, a whole universe of possibilities, is without a doubt a wonderful adventure. Not satisfied with this, writers from long ago have not only told us about experiences in worlds unknown to us, but they have perfectly described the journey to and through these places.

Travelling is a symbol and as such can be interpreted in many ways: a religious pilgrimage, an opportunity for experimentation and knowledge testing, an adventure to get hold of treasure or a desperate search for rest and home. The books that I am going to be talking about next refer to all this sea of possibilities.

Before, I have to clarify something very important about the books that I will be mentioning. I believe that most stories involve a journey in themselves. In fact, Vladimir Propp in his book The morphology of the story describes the reason for the trip as one of the narrative functions that usually appear in texts of this type. However, there are stories that are specifically about the journey itself, without which the narrative could not exist. It is about this type of work that I want to talk about next.

The journey in Greco-Latin literature

In the classical world, travel literature had a very significant place. However, it was undoubtedly Homer’s Odyssey, an epic poem, marked the most important guidelines within the genre. Odysseus or Ulysses has become a prototype of every adventurous character. The book tells, with all the formal specificities of the Greek epic, the gripping story of the Greek warrior, King of Ithaca, who tries to reach his homeland after the outcome of the Trojan War. The journey includes encounters with Cyclops, mermaids, and even dead people like Agamemnon and Achilles on a brief descent into Hades. But not only that, the first four songs of the poem, known as telemachy, are dedicated to narrating the reverse journey, that of Telemachus, son of Odysseus, in search of his father.

Following the travelling line, we also have the story of Jason and his journey in search of the Golden Fleece. This story was told by various Greek authors, including the Hellenistic poet Apollonius of Rhodes in his famous epic poem called Argonautica.

Among Latin literature we have the wonderful work of Virgilio called Eneida. The first part of this narrates the journey of Aeneas and his companions, who had fled the destruction of Troy, on their way to Lazio. Here the hero would found a great civilization from which the Romans would come. In this narrative, there is also a visit to the underworld.

The Bible

A book as important as the Bible could not be missing in this recount of travel literature through the ages. However, the time when I would say that the journey is most important is the pilgrimage of the Jewish people through the desert for forty years. This time of crossing has been considered, by Christian and non-Christian authors, as an intermediate state between slavery and the complete freedom of the homeland, which allegorically can represent the transition between the absolute depravity of sin and paradise. The journey of the Jewish people is the journey of humanity and is, at the same time, one of the most profound representations that have been made of the human pilgrimage.

Dante’s spiritual journey in three books

Within the context of the Middle Ages, and specifically of his Florentine homeland, Dante wrote a wonderful work: the Divine Comedy. It is not called that because it aims to make people laugh, but because it has a happy ending, which, according to classical standards, could not be considered a tragedy. I include it in this list because in it Dante describes his journey through three places from which he named each of the books: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

The book is a sample of how travel literature fits perfectly with the main concerns and ideas of an era. Through this journey, the character of Dante can finally come out of his doom, because he is transformed by what he sees.

The adventure of the New World

The adventures of the discovery of the Europeans in America were recorded in thousands and thousands of books: travel diaries, official relations, etc. The first and most important of all was that of Christopher Columbus’ diary. The Genoese navigator described in amazement all that he was discovered in the new American lands. However, he does not call them that, he does not even suspect where he was, but believed he had reached Asia. These writings were later compiled by Bartolomé de las Casas and are fascinating and worthwhile reading.

The pilgrim’s progress, a medieval symbol with a Protestant reinterpretation

Between 1678 and 1684 the Protestant writer of English origin John Bunyan wrote his book The Pilgrim’s Progress. This is a theological and allegorical novel that describes Christian’s journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. The book turned out to be so important in English and Christian literature that it has been translated into more than 200 languages ​​and also made into a movie.

The pilgrimage is a religious allegory that, although it is found in the Bible as we have already mentioned, is duly formulated in the Middle Ages. One of the most important religious rituals of Christianity was to make a pilgrimage to the city of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. Bunyan somehow renews this idea and adapts it to his Protestant ideas.

Candide, the travel book par excellence

I have to admit that of all the travel books I have read, Voltaire’s Candide is my favorite. What I like the most is the way the distances are shortened, and the narrative time speeds up. The significance of Voltaire’s journey will be far from the ideals of Christian pilgrimage. Candide travels to discover, to learn, to experience the world from his eyes and thus arrive at his own philosophical conclusions. Voltaire’s way of narrating is hilarious and, although it is an 18th-century book, one cannot help feeling close, witty, well, wonderful.

Jules Verne, the traveler who never left France

I think there should be no list of travel literature in the universe that did not mention the French novelist Jules Verne. To how many incredible places Verne traveled with his books! The irony is that he himself never left France, but dedicated himself to writing all his adventures using maps, books, encyclopedias, etc. Here I am going to leave you a list of some of those most famous travel books that he wrote, all as part of his Extraordinary Journeys collection:

•Journey to the Center of the Earth

• Five Weeks in a Balloon

• Around the World in Eighty Days

• From the Earth to the Moon

• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

C.S. Lewis and his Dawn Treader

Many travel books of the twentieth century could be mentioned, but I want to continue with the fantastic and transcendental line that characterizes most of the books that I have mentioned. That is why I want to tell you about the Chronicles of Narnia by the English author C.S. Lewis. Specifically, from the third instalment of this series, in order of publication, called The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It tells the story of Lucy, Stephen and Eustace aboard a Narnian ship on a search for missing Lords, in the company of Prince Caspian. It really is an exciting novel, which can be enjoyed by any audience.

I’m not going to mention 21st century travel fiction books because I really don’t know of any that focus solely on this. I would dare to say that this type of literature has declined, perhaps because already discovering what exists in another part of the world does not seem so wonderful and fantastic to us anymore. Anyway, I’m going to ask you to recommend me a contemporary travel book in the comments section.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and that you read the stories I have mentioned. If so, you can subscribe to continue reading about literature, language learning, productivity and other related things. Also, let me know in the comments other travelling fiction you know.