2 h 37 minAudiobook3 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 2 h 37 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On the road, a mistaken identity can tangle a romance—and a restless heart can make matters worse.
Wanderings, a comic novel attributed to Friedrich Gerstäcker, brings together mistaken identity, romantic misadventure and the pull of travel. People leave home, meet strangers and discover that things are not what they seem. Roads, inns and chance meetings form the setting for a light, humane look at love and error.
Gerstäcker’s experience as a traveller shapes the world behind this story. The pleasures lie in lively places, uncertain appearances and hearts that struggle to settle. Mistaken identity gives the comedy its spark, while romantic confusion raises a quieter question: how do people tell passing admiration from real affection?
What you’ll discover
- The comedy of error Discover the comic possibilities of people being taken for someone they are not.
- Hearts on the move Explore romantic uncertainty, where admiration, habit and affection can be hard to separate.
- Roads and chance meetings Step into a world of inns and strangers, where appearances invite a second look.
- A traveller’s eye Notice how roads, lodgings and landscapes help give the story its changing moods.
- Warmth beneath the humour Enjoy a gentle view of restless people and the errors that complicate love.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy nineteenth century storytelling, travel flavoured fiction and gentle comedy about love and error, with mistaken identities, chance meetings and restless hearts.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A traveller's writer shapes the story
- Mistaken identity drives the comedy
- Romance and the restless heart
- What to listen for as you read
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- Audiobook
- 2 h 37 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Wanderings
Restless travellers leave home, and mistaken identities and chance meetings put their hearts to the test.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A traveller's writer shapes the story
Friedrich Gerstäcker was known first as a traveller. He journeyed widely, including to the Americas, and he turned what he saw into books that German readers loved in the middle of the nineteenth century. That habit of looking at the world with a wanderer's eye is the natural starting point for a novel with this title.
A writer like this tends to treat the road as more than a way to get from one place to another. The road is where people shed their usual roles, meet others who do not know them and get a second chance at who they are. Fiction of this kind gives its characters room to move and to change.
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Who was Friedrich Gerstäcker?
Friedrich Gerstäcker was a nineteenth century German author and traveller who died in 1872. He wrote adventure stories, comic tales and travel books based on his journeys, and he was widely read in Germany.
What kind of book is Wanderings?
Wanderings is a comic novel. It belongs to the nineteenth century tradition of light fiction that uses travel, chance meetings and misunderstanding to tell a story about people and their feelings.
When was Wanderings written?
It comes from the nineteenth century, since Gerstäcker died in 1872. His fiction was popular in the middle decades of that century, when travel writing and adventure tales drew many readers.
The author
Friedrich Gerstäcker
1816–1872 · German novelist and travel writer
Friedrich Gerstäcker was a German novelist and travel writer. He was born in Hamburg in 1816 and died in Braunschweig in 1872. He travelled in the United States from 1837 to 1843. His books include The Regulators of Arkansas (1846) and The River Pirates of the Mississippi (1848).
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