Many things have surprised me in these beautiful pages, now so old (written in 1899, exactly one hundred and twenty years ago next July) but, especially, so far-removed from our way of being and of living nowadays. It is as if many more years have passed, when one compares the lifestyle at that time with our own. There have been such changes in the times, the ways of doing things and of living, there has been so much change in the very scenery they contemplated during their seafaring tour! Above all, the values that inspired them on their travels and now inspire us on ours have changed! Which is why I believe the story we have the good fortune to read and to follow step by step is something more than just a trip round the Mediterranean that bathes the shores of our beloved island. It is the chronicle of an attitude to life. And it is worth reliving it in order to see the usual old things through the eyes of our heroes. It is worthwhile to look out for the values hidden beneath the clear, transparent prose of the chronicler. Not only because nowadays we suffer from a certain lack of humanizing values, but also because we can find proof that what we call values are the energy that drives one to travel in a certain direction, just like the wind that fills the sails of the llaüt on which they sail. I shall, however, limit myself to underlining just a few of these things, those which have especially caught my attention as an interested reader. Just a few, because I believe the most original ones will be those each reader will discover through his or her own contact with the life conveyed by each page written day after day until the end. That is the magic of good literature, to transmit the life, especially the life of the writer, pulsating behind the words. Thus, the work of art reveals a slice of eternity: an amount of humanity sufficient to interest each new generation of readers… as long as there are readers. |
