From the Four Corners

by Jan Morris

Four world cities seen through the eyes of Jan Morris.
Jan Morris's books include works of history, travel, autobiography and fiction. Here she is represented by essays about four of the world's great cities - Delhi, Manhattan, Sydney and Vienna - each from a different continent, each described in a different mood and with a different technique. They are taken from her collection Among the Cities, also published in Penguin.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, India, Australia

89 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1995

About the author

Jan Morris was a British historian, author and travel writer. Morris was educated at Lancing College, West Sussex, and Christ Church, Oxford, but is Welsh by heritage and adoption. Before 1970 Morris published under her assigned birth name, "James ", and is known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy, a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, notably Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong, and New York City, and also wrote about Wales, Spanish history, and culture.

In 1949 Jan Morris married Elizabeth Tuckniss, the daughter of a tea planter. Morris and Tuckniss had five children together, including the poet and musician Twm Morys. One of their children died in infancy. As Morris documented in her memoir Conundrum, she began taking oestrogens to feminise her body in 1964. In 1972, she had sex reassignment surgery in Morocco. Sex reassignment surgeon Georges Burou did the surgery, since doctors in Britain refused to allow the procedure unless Morris and Tuckniss divorced, something Morris was not prepared to do at the time. They divorced later, but remained together and later got a civil union. On May, 14th, 2008, Morris and Tuckniss remarried each other. Morris lived mostly in Wales, where her parents were from.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A selection from Jan Morris's Among the Cities, with four cities covered: Manhattan, Delhi, Sydney & Vienna.
I enjoyed the format, and the fact the author wrote about the city and its evolution over a timespan - ie she visited most of these cities a significant number of times over a long timespan, and therefore wasn't describing a snapshot or an interpretation of a short visit, which as we all know often ends up skewed by mood, circumstance and one off events.
The writing is descriptive and often amusing (Sydney appealed as the most amusing, but perhaps this is because of the four it is the one I am the most familiar with). Despite these being short chapters, they sometimes felt a few pages too long for me - and might have held my attention a little better if they had been edited up a little.
having said that, I have copy of the full book somewhere up high on my bookshelf, and I am interested enough to want to read the remainder of the book, so I will move it forward in my 'to read' list a bit based on this taster.
Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me, but closer to 3 than 4!

[Tony Lawrence]

(review from a bookcrossing shared book)

[I think I know what Kittiwake means] Jan Morris does come across as a bit supercilious and the language & construction is fussy. But, for me, the greatest crime of a travel writer, she doesn’t seem to enjoy travelling or experiencing new cities and cultures; a bit jaded maybe? That said, I enjoyed the descriptions of Manhattan as a provincial old maid of a city, and Australians as ‘ockers’ clinging to the edge of civilisation and lacking in self confidence(!) I haven’t been to Delhi or Vienna, but I would (of course) make my own mind up ;)

...

Addendum: I have now been to Delhi; I will look out for this copy to re-read, now that I know a lot more about the author, her personal history, and her style.

[Catrinamaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manhattan, Delhi, Sydney and Vienna in the late 70s/early 80s and written for a contemporary reader I should think. A curious read therefore from 2020’s COVID 19 Lockdown. Morris’s style is most appealing from 000s of miles and 40 years away. The character of the landscape, mood, culture and architecture communicated mainly through keen observance of the inhabitants. Note to self: read more of her more recent travel writings.

[Nikol · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enthralling commentary that brings each of the cities to life and makes you want to visit them even if you never wanted to before.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

From The Four Corners is a penguin 60s booklet of four essays by Jan Morris, taken from her collection Among The Cities. The first, and longest essay is The Islanders Manhattan 1979 and is a series of personal observations about the population and atmosphere. Morris describes Manhattan as cosmopolitan with ethnic enclaves, surreal, with a wasplike buzz rather than a leonine roar. Central Park, she tells the reader, is interesting, but the antithesis of what a city park should be. Her comments about how she imagines the end of the world come eerily close to presaging the events of 9/11. In the second essay Mrs Gupta Never Rang, Delhi 1975, Morris describes Delhi variously as a city of pathos, full of Britishness, antique, a city of dead and tombs, imperial, military, a city of power and corruption, a city of planners. And that “The capital is essentially apathetic to the nation: the nation is aloof to the capital. In the third essay, Over The Bridge, Sydney 1983, Morris tells the reader that Sydney’s stature resides in its unchallengeable Australianness. She describes it as one of the most beautiful in the world, at the same time complacent and tentative, the Stockholm of the South, located on a fjord-like harbour. She comments on the Australian language, the youthfulness of the city, and feels sorry for the Aboriginal. She calls it the city of numbed reflex, of blank eye. In the fourth essay, A Baleful Parable, Vienna 1983, Morris calls Vienna a city of consequence, obsessed and obsessive, snobbish, nostalgic, maudlin and rather cheap. A conglomerate of neurosis. Not often do I resent the time I spend reading a book: this is a rare book indeed, 89pages I wish I had not bothered with; or perhaps I was in the wrong frame of mind for it.

[Coenraad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jan Morris started writing about her travels shortly after the Second World War. The four essays in this book were originally published in the 1970s (Manhattan and Delhi) and the 1980s (Sydney and Vienna). I enjoyed the incisive way in which she observes and interprets, although some might feel that she presents her limited view of a city as the total truth. However, in many cases she visited a city and wrote about it many times - we therefore read here a developed and matured view. Whereas she mellowed in her criticism of Sydney, she still does not like Vienna and does not sugarcoat her feelings. It will be interesting to follow in her footsteps and record one's own impressions of these cities. I would also have liked to read her response to the post-9/11 Manhattan. I'll look out for her complete collection of travel essays.

Jan Morris het oor dekades heen geskryf oor haar besoeke aan groot stede. Sy slaag daarin om fyn waarneming en kennis van die geskiedenis te kombineer in deurtastende interpretasie. Sommige lesers mag voel dat sy haar beperkte siening verabsoluteer; ek het haar bykans wreed eerlike insig en die soepele taalgebruik waarin dit uitgedruk is, waardeer.

[Dheerapol · Rating 2 out of 5]

เล่าถึง 4 เมืองใหญ่อย่างนิวยอร์ก, ซิดนี่ย์, เดลี และเวียนนาในสายตาของผู้เขียน ปีที่ตีพิมพ์นี่เก่าไปหน่อย (1983) แต่ก็อ่านเพลินๆ (บทนิวยอร์กยาวมากก)