Oxford Travel Book Writers and Gentlemen-Scholars: Constructing Narrative Personae in Aldous Huxley’s "The Jesting Pilate", Robert Byron’s "The Station" and Evelyn Waugh’s "Remote People"

Abstract

The travel book as a genre in the British literary tradition has been, for more than two centuries, characterized by the central role of craftily constructed narrative personae of gentlemen/travellers. This paper is an attempt to pinpoint the main similarities and differences in the construction of the narrative personae of three key between-the-wars Oxford graduates, who later became renowned writers Robert Byron, Aldous Huxley and Evelyn Waugh.