"Wanderings of a Journeyman Tailor through Europe and the East, During the Years 1824 to 1840" by P.D. Holthaus, translated by William Howitt. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman's in 1844. 3rd edition.Holthaus was a journeyman tailor, from Werdohl in Westpahlia, who took up his knapsack, needle and pen and set off through the highways and byways of the world, over Europe, Asia and Africa. Through Turkey, Wallachia, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Italy and France he walks and sews. Howitt notes in his Preface-
“We see here the German, both as master and man...marching off, and establishing himself in the remotest countries, and amongst the strangest people. The Germans...insinuate and settle themselves down in every region, and often amongst people where we little expect to find them. Holthaus himself works in Constantinople, Athens, Beyrout, etc. He depends for the gratification of his passion for travel, solely on his needle. He literally sews his way from continent to continent..."
"His travels are not only well written, and display a great deal of shrewd observation and excellent feeling, but they have a peculiar advantage of observing everyday life from a new point of view. Our traveler does not glide on luxuriously in an easy-cushioned carriage, with his letter-book stuffed with introductions to all the prominent men of every prominent place; but he trudges on through desert-ways, works amid the swarming mass of strange cities, meets with all the rubs and rebuffs attendant on his humble station, and looks on things not as they show through the halo of wealth, luxury and favour, but to the eyes of the multitude”.
Hardcover. 4.5"x7", 286 pages, woodcut portrait frontispiece showing Holthaus in a broad-brimmed hat, with his walking stick, knapsack, dagger, tobacco pouch and pipe; old quarter leather and marbled boards, covers scuffed, but else a nice copy. [09526] $275.00
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