‘Xavier de Maistre was a French aristocrat who, after the French Revolution, fled to Turin to join a counter-revolutionary army. Whilst in Turin in spring 1790 de Maistre fought an illegal duel for which he was sentenced to 42 days house arrest. The terms of his confinement required him to stay within his room. To alleviate his boredom he began work on the book that would become A Journey Around My Room. De Maistre thought it little more than a means of filling time but his brother, the philosopher, read the work and insisted that it reach a wider audience and it was published in 1794.’
‘The book is written in the style of a travelogue and discusses the contents and furniture of his room as well as imaginary situations and dialogues. The theme of the work is that pleasure can be found in one’s everyday surroundings. At the end of the work he notes his regret at having to return to society.’ Wikipedia
At the end of his book The Art of Travel, Alain De Botton encourages us to follow the example of de Maistre:
‘We meet people who have crossed deserts, floated on ice caps and cut their way through jungles – and yet in whose souls we would search in vain for evidence of what they have witnessed. Dressed in pink and blue pyjamas, satisfied within the confines of his own bedroom, Xavier de Maistre was gently nudging us to try, before taking off for distant hemispheres, to notice what we have already seen.’
I have just started a photo project travelling round my sitting room in the spirit of de Maistre (but not in pink and blue pyjamas). I’m working on how to combine the photographs with pages from an early 20th Century copy of the text in French and selected extracts in English.