The editors of TripAdvisor, a travel Web site that allows users to rate and review their vacation experiences, recently released a list of the top ten literary destinations worldwide. London took the top spot as "the home of literature we have spent so much time learning and loving," in the words of one TripAdvisor user, and was followed by three other locales in the British Isles.
In London, the "birthplace or home of many of the greatest authors of all time," the editors said in a press release, "visitors can stop by the home of Dickens, see the house where [Samuel] Johnson wrote the first comprehensive English dictionary, or go on one of many guided walks that let you follow in Sherlock Holmes' footsteps."
The rankings, reflecting the English-speaking Western canon, mention prominent writers whose life and work are closely tied to each city. The top ten, along with the authors noted by TripAdvisor, are:
London (John Keats, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, H.G. Wells)
Stratford-upon-Avon (William Shakespeare)
Edinburgh (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson)
Dublin (James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney)
New York (Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller)
Concord, Massachusetts (Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau)
Paris (Gertrude Stein, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Voltaire)
San Francisco (Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Whalen)
Rome (Virgil, visitors such as Keats and James)
St. Petersburg (Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov)
Destinations were ranked based on the presence in each city of literary attractions and tributes to its writers. The list, which includes suggestions of sites to visit, appears on the TripAdvisor Web site.
