Artists and writers have long felt the lure of the South. Goethe was revitalised by his journey to Italy; Nietzsche took flight southwards to begin his life anew, while DH Lawrence sought the health-giving southern sun in Sicily and Sardinia. The South Seas cast a spell over Stevenson, Melville and Gauguin, while it was the frozen South...
Moving between geography and mythology, literature and history, this is the first book to look at all things Southern in one volume. It examines the South as a symbol of freedom and escape, the South as the location of Northern visions of Utopia, and the South as the imagined site of decadence, poverty and backwardness. From Tahiti to the streets of Peckham, from Naples to New Orleans, Merlin Coverley¿s brilliant and wide-ranging study throws light on how and why the idea of the South, in all its forms, has come to exert such a powerful hold on our imaginations.
