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19+ Works 1,116 Members 39 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the name: Tony Perrottet

Works by Tony Perrottet

Associated Works

The Best American Travel Writing 2000 (2000) — Contributor — 346 copies
The Best American Travel Writing 2006 (2006) — Contributor — 205 copies
The Best American Travel Writing 2002 (2002) — Contributor — 190 copies
The Best American Travel Writing 2009 (2009) — Contributor — 124 copies
The Best American Travel Writing 2016 (2016) — Contributor — 98 copies
Insight Guides : Chile (1991) — Editor, some editions — 83 copies
Le Grand Guide de l'Islande (1993) — Editor, some editions — 9 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1961-10-24
Gender
male
Nationality
Australia
Places of residence
New York, New York, USA
Education
University of Sydney (BA - History)
Occupations
journalist
Agent
Henry Dunow
Short biography
New York–based author Tony Perrottet has written extensively about the history of travel. He is the author of five books, including Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists; Napoleon’s Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped; and The Sinner’s Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe, which began as an award-winning series for the online magazine Slate. A contributing writer at Smithsonian magazine, he also writes regularly for The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, and the London Sunday Times. His work has been translated into 10 languages and selected for the Best American Travel Writing series four times. He has used the collections of The New York Public Library for many years and been a writer in residence in both of the Library’s research study rooms, the Allen Room and the Wertheim Study.

http://exhibitions.nypl.org/biblion/o...

Members

Reviews

There were some nice locations and objects but felt they were a little buried under all of the detail about the author's family who travelled with him. Was tempted to skim in places after a while, to be honest.
 
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Helen.Callaghan | 7 other reviews | Aug 28, 2023 |
A brisk review of the history of the ancient Greek Olympic games. I was happy to see this author's appreciation of Courtesans and Fishcakes.
 
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Je9 | 3 other reviews | Aug 10, 2021 |
I enjoyed the read and was glad I wasn't along for his actual family-accompanied journey. I think it's a good thing that he didn't really examine his own motives or attitudes towards the sexually charged museum items he sought to find. It really is a tour-ist's account of what one can see now of notorious landmarks of the past.
 
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Je9 | 7 other reviews | Aug 10, 2021 |
This turned out to be a combination of modern and ancient travelogue. Perrottet stumbled across and account of Marcus Aggrippa's huge map of the ancient world on which all the great tourist sites of the ancients were laid out and he was fascinated. He started looking at the ancient accounts of travelers from the Roman world, in particular the travel account written by Pausanias. It is the only ancient guidebook that has survived to the present day.

At first the author and his wife intended to follow Pausanias's route through Greece and end their trip with that. They started out in Rome and then traveled to all the major tourist sites in Greece that were mentioned in Pausanias. Of course, that led them to Turkey and the Greek cities of Ephesus, Pergamum, and Symrna. Once there it was on to Troy and from there the trail led to the greatest of all Roman holiday trips - Egypt. The last third of the book was about the Roman fascination with Egypt and how wrong the Romans got the history and religion of Egypt. It turns out that the Romans were fascinated by the funerary customs of Egypt along with their mummification rites. They were also enthralled with the worship of Sobek - the crocodile god. The Egyptians had created an entire city devoted to this cult in the Faiyum Oasis. The city was named Crocodilopolis and was one of the must see's on the Roman tourist list for Egypt. The author says that the Egyptian priests had developed tourist spectacle to rival those found in Las Vegas hotels. His description of the place made it seem to be an impossibility - but it wasn't.

The author states clearly at the end of the book that this work was not intended to be a scholarly account. Nevertheless he takes great pains to quote from Roman and Greek authors from the Pax Romana and his has an extensive timeline and source list. He also has a glossary of Who's Who at the end of the book.

This was not the more scholarly type of travel book that I was expecting. It is a rather light hearted take on ancient tourism and what is left of those sites for the modern traveler. Some of the places are changed beyond recognition and some are simply not there anymore due to the active geology of the Mediterranean and the desertification of parts of Egypt.
… (more)
 
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benitastrnad | 10 other reviews | Apr 26, 2021 |

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Works
19
Also by
7
Members
1,116
Popularity
#23,018
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
39
ISBNs
36
Languages
6

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