Reise um meinen Garten

A garden is enough. A delightful place of magic and spectacle in the everyday and the smallest things. Why travel far when a whole world unfolds nearby? In the 59 letters of his novel "Journey Around My Garden," Alphonse Karr takes us on a journey that goes no further than one's own garden. "Everything travels": the beetle on the leaf, the gall wasp, the migratory bird, the sky and the colors, yes, even the climate and the seasons. Alphonse Karr addresses his letters to a friend who is embarking on a long journey by car. He himself remains in his garden and demonstrates to his friend the equivalence of his explorations and discoveries in the nearby nature. It only takes open eyes: for the spectacle of spiders or bees, tree frogs or ladybugs, for the bustling of roses with their aphids, walnut trees, arrowhead, violets, or lilies. All of this is intertwined with moral and political reflections by Alphonse Karr, the romantic author and sharp-tongued journalist. And sometimes a Franciscan enthusiast reveals himself: "My God! How rich I am!" Alphonse Karr paved the way for Henri Fabre with his famous insect observations as well as for Maurice Maeterlinck with his equally renowned "Life of the Bees." Alphonse Karr continues the genre of "room travels," which Xavier de Maistre established with his book "A Journey Around My Room" nearly half a century earlier – the exploration of the nearby. Alphonse Karr's "Journey Around My Garden" was published in April 1845 in a luxury edition, illustrated by the best engravers of his time, to great acclaim. It served as an antidote in an era when world and exploratory travels were at their peak.