A Journey to Nowhere: Detours and Riddles in the Lands and History of Courland by Jean-Paul Kauffmann (Translated by Euan Cameron) - review by Max Egremont

Max Egremont

Duchy Originals

A Journey to Nowhere: Detours and Riddles in the Lands and History of Courland

By

MacLehose Press 269pp £18.99 order from our bookshop
 

It may seem strange to travel where there’s not much to see and even odder to choose a place that doesn’t exist. But in this book by the French writer Jean-Paul Kauffmann, interior monologue is as important as the journey or destination. Kauffmann seeks obscurity, remoteness and the absence of other tourists: the opposite of Italy, his ideal of culture and beauty.

The Duchy of Courland, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic, suits him perfectly. After a life of just over two hundred years (which included a curious attempt to establish colonies in west Africa and the Caribbean), it became part of tsarist Russia at the end of the 18th century.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

The Art of Darkness

Cambridge, Shakespeare

Follow Literary Review on Twitter