Sydney [Hardcover]

Jan Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 1992

Let loose in a town whose first citizens were British criminals, a world-renowned travel writer shows how Sydney has grown into a beguiling, vibrant city full of promise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Elegantly written and charmingly impressionistic, this newest addition to the author's distinguished series of travel books ( Hong Kong ; Venice ) paints a vivid picture of Australia's largest city. Founded in 1788, when England sent its first shipload of convicts to Australia to atone for their crimes by settling the remote wilderness, Sydney in the 1990s is, Morris states, "one of the great cities of the world," booming from its participation in Pacific Rim trade, blessed with a splendid climate and a spectacularly beautiful harbor. She captures the sardonic, earthy humor for which Sydneysiders are famous: the pupils who translate their school's motto ("I Hear, I See, I Learn") into the mock-Latin "Audio, Video, Disco," spoofing the city's famously hedonistic lifestyle; the infirm woman who, helped up from a bench, confides, "It was a good lay, anyway." The author capably describes Sydney's social structure and memorably captures its architectural ambience. Yet she admits she found the city elusive, and she fails to provide the single crucial insight into Sydney's essence that would bring her slightly fuzzy portrait into focus. Not quite as wonderful as some of Morris's other titles, but great fun to read all the same.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Well-known travel writer Morris (e.g., Pleasures of a Tangled Life , LJ 10/15/89) takes a historical and social look at Sydney, Australia. Sydney is a relatively "young" city whose English penal colony roots have shaped its current social and economic conditions. "Sydneysiders" are products of both their history and their environment. They work hard, play hard, and have a civic pride based, not unlike American pride, on the fact that they made a go of it despite their rabble-rousing, lower-class beginnings. Morris's Sydney is full of dichotomy, a love of drinking, gambling, and a laissez-faire attitude versus traditionalism and culture. She has come to delight in the city and its people, yet is not afraid to expose the prejudice and excess which are also present. The writing is clear and accessible. This book would make a fine, light companion to Robert Hughes's The Fatal Shore ( LJ 11/1/86). Recommended.
- Lisa J. Cochenet, Rhinelander Dist. Lib., Wis.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House (August 18, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394550986
• ISBN-13: 978-0394550985
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,962,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Generous View of a Fast-Disappearing City, September 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sydney (Hardcover)

Jan Morris has been everywhere, seen everything, met everyone, and tries to see the good in all of it. She seems happiest, though, among the young. She is surprisingly forgiving toward some of the hollower booster-driven cities of North America, while often coming down hard on New World cities that seem too full of themselves. (She memorably describes Washington, DC as seeming designed for nuclear annihilation.)

Not surprisingly, then, Morris is generous toward Sydney, honoring its brief history but focusing on its childlike present. Since the book was completed, of course, the child has become an adolescent, frantically acquiring attractions that will make it seem more adult -- preening itself for its moment on the world stage in the 2000 Olympics. Like many books about childhood, this one should be read wistfully, with the knowledge that the city it describes is only a snapshot, circa 1990, of a place that seems to be disappearing under its own need for approval.

Of course, during the inevitable post-Olympics hangover, this book may be useful in another way. When we lose track of who we are, when the purpose that has obsessed us suddenly evaporates, it's sometimes helpful to recall what gave us pleasure when we were children. At such a moment, Morris's portrait of Sydney in its last moments of childhood may offer the city a route back to its core, and thus forward into a happier adulthood.

5.0 out of 5 stars great book on Sydney!, September 10, 2000

By 

JOHN RAMIREZ (CHINO HILLS, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sydney (Hardcover)

I bought this book in Sydney and found it a wealth of information on Sydney's beginings. The first time I read it, I savored every page...I couldn't put it down. As I got to the end of the book I felt bad that it was over, so I re-read it every few years. Jan Morris's style of writing is so entertaining and makes for a easy read.