A Voyage Round My Room
A novel by Xavier de Maistre
In 1790, Xavier de Maistre was sentenced to forty-two days under house arrest for his participation in a duel. Bored and frustrated, but unwilling to let domestic confinement wreak havoc on his sanity, de Maistre decided to look at his prison with fresh eyes. What he saw was a world of unexpected wonder, a world as full of marvels as any distant land.

Xavier de Maistre (1763–1852) was a French aristocrat, military man, and writer. A Voyage Round My Room, his best-known work, was written while de Maistre was under house arrest in Turin, for a total of forty-two days, as punishment for his participation in a duel.