Acclaimed literary critic Hugh Kenner examines Western culture's insatiable need for stimulation encountered elsewhere - from the eighteenth century's Grand Tour, to the self-imposed exile of modernist writers, to the disembodied global journeys the Internet avails us today. Kenner brings to this fascinating study knowledge of a wide array of disciplines.

Hugh Kenner has written on topics ranging from geodesic domes to Bugs Bunny, but is perhaps best known for The Pound Era, his definitive study of Ezra Pound's life and work.