The Browser - Waltzes and Trains

Waltzmania In The Paris Pleasure Gardens

Elizabeth Claire | MIT Press Reader | 6th December 2021

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, a "culture of dancing madness" gripped Paris. The early 19C saw the German fashion for waltzing spreading to France, a moral panic trailing in its wake. This new kind of "closed couple" dancing, in which man and woman embraced as they revolved, threatened established notions of purity, hygiene and social class. The urge to waltz was contagious (1,621 words)

🦒: The Man In Seat 61 On Global Train Travel

Sylvia Bishop | The Browser | 13th December 2021

Sylvia Bishop talks to legendary railway writer and traveller Mark Smith, alias the Man In Seat 61, about the shortage of trains in Antarctica, missed connections in South America, Burmese numerals, the bliss of sleeping-cars, orange juice in Transylvania, and the Best Train Journey In The World — clue: it comes with "haggis, tatties and neeps and a wee dram before you retire" (3,200 words)

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