The Lover's Baedeker and Guide to Arcady by Carolyn Wells

Carolyn Wells's The Lover's Baedeker and Guide to Arcady turns romance into a delightfully absurd travel destination, inviting readers to wander a parody guidebook where love has borders, customs, climate, and even public services. Arcady emerges as a lush, moonlit province of poets, lovers, and dreamers, complete with neighboring fantasy lands, rose-embowered cottages, enchanted forests, and symbolic landmarks that make courtship feel both grandly poetic and comically bureaucratic. Across witty verse, mock advertisements, and comic catalog entries, the book satirizes familiar romantic clichés while celebrating their charm. Lovers navigate roads that lead to fame, fortune, or matrimony, endure the strange weather of waiting hearts, and browse institutions such as post offices, hospitals, weather bureaus, and halls of fame reimagined as love-haunted establishments. Flowers, hotels, sweet shops, and even money are given romantic meanings, while pieces like "An Arcady Girl," "Under a New Charter," and "The Lay of Lothario Lee" keep the tone playful, affectionate, and slyly inventive. The result is a light, clever collection that treats courtship as a world of performances, phrases, and tender absurdities. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.