A Voyage Around My Room

Description

This is Kristen Hall-Geisler’s original translation of Voyage autour de ma Chambre (Voyage Around My Room) by Xavier de Maistre, from French to English. He was confined to his room for forty-two days in the 1790s as a punishment for dueling, so Hall-Geisler took it on as a project while under coronavirus-related stay at home orders in Oregon in the spring of 2020. The text includes Maistre’s thoughts on the soul, his love for his dog, his reflections on his best friend’s death, and his realization that his butler might not entirely enjoy cleaning mud from Maistre’s boots.

Kristen Hall-Geisler is a freelance writer, book editor, literary translator, and indie publisher. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, How Stuff Works, and more. She lives in Oregon  and works out of a fancy shed in her backyard.