Olla Podrida

Captain Marryat's Olla Podrida is a brisk, satirical medley of travel writing, social comedy, and political observation, driven by a narrator whose mind is haunted by "Politicophobia," the curse of seeing Parliament and party conflict everywhere. From London drawing rooms to family meals, dances, the countryside, and even the sea, politics invades ordinary life until escape seems possible only abroad. Yet travel offers no true relief: every destination is weighed in comic debate for cost, comfort, scenery, and immunity from public quarrels, exposing the absurdity of indecision as well as the longing for peace. Once aboard ship, the narrator endures seasickness, an incessant political bore, and a series of punctured romantic and poetic moments, including a Byron-like east wind scene that collapses into cold reality. In Belgium and along the Rhine, he skewers Ostend, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, steam-boat travel, and English tourists with equal relish, mixing sharp-eyed observation with practical advice. Circuses, cathedrals, royal customs, overcharged travelers, and even vineyards become material for witty, unsentimental commentary on modern life, national change, and human folly. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.