The Greater Journey

Americans in Paris

By: David McCullough

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring - and until now, untold - story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.

After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history.

As David McCullough writes, “Not all pioneers went west.”

Nearly all of the Americans profiled here - including Elizabeth Blackwell, James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Harriet Beecher Stowe - whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’s phrase, longed “to soar into the blue”. The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece.

©2011 David McCullough (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

One of my favorite books, from my favorite author

Well done as always by Mr. McCullough, I listened to this quite a while ago and recall it being enthralling. Highly recommended!

Excellent

As always, McCullough did great research and Edward Herrmann did a great job of reading.

A few of my favorite things.

This book combines art, science, history and Paris into a wonderfully different view of life. It entertained and expanded my knowledge of American history and artists.

What a time what a city

Of course great writing, never a book by the author but what is terrific reading.

Master Writer meets Master Narrator

David McCullough's wonderful prose needs someone who can appreciate every syllable, and Edward Herrmann was the best narrator ever for that. This book could have been twice as long and remain wonderful and interesting. A great book about such varying topics, and Herrmann's extraordinary narration brings each word and insight to life in spectacular fashion. Love that he narrated more than a couple of McCullough's works. Perfection.

As always, perfect

So glad I listened to this right before my first trip to Paris! Educational and delightful!

Interesting, while not authors best book

Authors other books are superior. This story lacks cohesiveness and seems to be a collection with thin connections--nonetheless worth a read for each part, even if a bit disjointed

St Gaudens description.

Well written and researched. Tended to overload on the St Gaudens and all the small details of the sculptor’s life.

This is more of a collection of stories than the story in itself

It seems to be bits of information that were just too good to pass up and then further research to go along with the really great fits

Priceless! Best book I've read in years

Kudos to Mr. McCullough! The book is this good: I raved about it to many friends and last week received an email from one of them. He was about 1/4 of the way into it and he sent me an email thanking me for recommending it because he was already enjoying it that much . . .

. . . it's that good.

I'm an artist, and teacher, and I've led trips to Paris as well as lived there, so obviously the appeal is there for me, but my mother, who has only visited twice and doesn't have the same background enjoyed it just as much as I did.

A fabulous effort. I'll be shocked if it doesn't win the Pulitzer Prize again for Mr. McCullough.