Voyage Around My Room

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.