The Burning Leg: Walking Scenes from Classic Fiction

Walkers, like lovers of literature, are driven by the urge to explore, and writers have blessed their fictional characters with itchy feet since the earliest of narratives. From Milton’s Adam and Eve leaving Eden to Mrs. Yeobright’s maternal anxiety spurring her across country in Hardy’s The Return of the Native, walks found in novels, short stories, and even drama can have a multitude of meanings. Editor Duncan Minshull explores these meanings by collecting extracts from Dickens and Dostoevsky, Proust and Poe, Kipling and Kafka, and many more, to show how this seemingly simple pastime can turn into a multifaceted symbol in the hands of the world's literary giants.