History SceneryPorn / Literature

* All of Creator/JulesVerne's adventures novels:

** Much like his {{Fictionary}}, Tolkien insisted on drawing (and making corrections to) a FantasyWorldMap as the story was being written, setting a trend for future writers. His scenery descriptions were sufficiently detailed that geographer Karen Wynn Fonstad was able to reconstruct a ''thematic atlas'' of Middle-Earth including geology, climate, and vegetation.
** The moon world in his children's book, ''Literature/{{Roverandom}}'' is so imaginative and vividly-described that it qualifies as this.

* Something noted by the lone reviewer of ''Literature/MurderAtColefaxManor'' on Amazon.com.
* Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose''. According to rumour, he wrote the first few chapters especially Scenery Porn-heavy in order to drive off readers looking for cheap and quick thrills. Elitism isn't dead!
%%* The different worlds in ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'', a Norwegian fantasy series, are described to have this.

* Brett Roehr's ''Literature/TheYukonWolf'' uses plenty of description involving snow-covered landscapes, mountains, icy rivers, and of course the Aurora Borealis.

* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': It is from the Romantic period, after all. Particular highlights include Victor's walk into the Alps at the end of Volume 1, scenes on Walton's ship in the Arctic, and the cottage owned by the de Lacey family that the Monster shelters near.

* Ridiculously long sections of ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' are dedicated to descriptions of the titular castle.

* The first two books were fine, but the last two books of the ''Literature/HyperionCantos''--especially the last one--are largely endless descriptions of pretty nonexistent locales on other planets (well, aside from the transplanted Vatican City), with little bits of completely inconsequential {{plot}} and exposition thrown in here and there.

* Jean M. Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series -- more known for its normal Porn, but full of pages and pages of descriptions of apparently identical hills covered with many, specified, types of grass.

* ''{{Literature/Hannibal}}'' is worth reading for the sumptuous descriptions of Florence.

** Hugo did much the same thing with ''Literature/LesMiserables'', wherein the story - changed in the musical version to be centrally about Jean Valjean and Cosette - was centered around the ''entirety of France''

* All of Creator/JulesVerne's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_Extraordinaires Les Voyages Extraordinaires]]'' are like this.
** ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' is the most notable example. The book indulges in long descriptions of scenery and culture as well -- in fact, it's half of the appeal of the book. That's not even mentioning the incredible number of journey-delaying encounters Phileas Fogg encounters while being "in a big hurry". They'd be {{Wacky Wayside Tribe}}s if Verne hadn't integrated them seamlessly into the {{plot}}.
** ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon''
** ''[[Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon Around the Moon]]'', the sequel to ''From the Earth to the Moon'', contains highly-detailed descriptions of the Lunar scenery the astronauts are passing over. Unfortunately, ScienceMarchesOn, and every last word of it is wrong.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. At least 80% of it was Scenery Porn, or it felt like that. This is why it made such good stock for film. There's a particularly good speech by Gimli about the caverns behind Helm's Deep, which goes on for a page and a half.

* Chris Riddell's pictures of the sky ships in ''The Edge Chronicles''. Hell, ''most'' of the pictures in those books. None of the illustrations distract from the actual written story, but they're still rather detailed and well-drawn.

* Creator/DeanKoontz can take this to great lengths, sometimes exaggerated for humor.
** ''By the Light of the Moon'' features a very detailed description of a bedroom shared by two brothers, contrasting the personality of the elder with the younger, ending by mentioning that the latter has been left bound and gagged on his bed. The surreal church visions throughout the book (isolated bits of the church appearing in hallucinations to the protagonists, such as a font seen in the desert and a confessional booth reflected in a restroom mirror rather than the stalls that are really there) are crowned with elaborate descriptions of the church interior proper late in the book. One of the viewpoint characters is a painter, which helps justify some of the Scenery Porn.
** ''Dark Rivers of the Heart'': JustifiedTrope in that the traumatic memories of [[TheProtagonist the male protagonist]] center around a childhood incident involving his father's home; he says of his father, a noted painter, that anything he did was done with the aesthetics well worked out in advance.

* In many of the stories in ''Literature/LotStories,'' Creator/BryanWashington rattles off lists of street names, route numbers, or neighborhood names in Houston.

* Brett Roehr's ''Literature/TheYukonWolf'' uses plenty of description involving snow-covered landscapes, mountains, icy rivers, and of course the Aurora Borealis.
* John Steinbeck had a crush on the Salinas Valley.
* ''Dragons Wild'' by Creator/RobertAsprin spent an extremely inordinate amount of time describing both the scenery and streets of New Orleans French Quarter and the people who lived there (and their hours and routines as a result of living in the Quarter) as if to say "see, I really lived here! I'm a local!"
* The first two books were fine, but the last two books of the ''Literature/HyperionCantos''--especially the last one--are largely endless descriptions of pretty nonexistent locales on other planets (well, aside from the transplanted Vatican City), with little bits of completely inconsequential {{plot}} and exposition thrown in here and there.
* ''3001'' by Creator/ArthurCClarke has the first two-thirds of the novel basically taken up by a tour of the future world through the eyes of 21st-Century viewpoint character Frank Poole.
* David Weber seems to do this a lot. In his ''Prince Roger'' books, pages and pages are devoted to lovingly-crafted descriptions of the Mardukan jungle, cities, and other locales, while in his ''Bahzell Bahnakson'' series, he had a tendency to get overcreative when it came to creating his cities, and he seemed to want to let the reader know every in-and-out. This is most evident in ''War God's Own'', in which the characters never seem to be able to go into a city without commenting in 3-5 page long descriptions on how advanced/beautiful/innovative it is. To be fair, this is ''probably'' because they are country boys who have never been out of their respective, reasonably barbaric homelands in their lives, but the point still stands.
* ''{{Literature/Hannibal}}'' is worth reading for the sumptuous descriptions of Florence.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels don't usually have too much of this stuff beyond the EstablishingShot of the Disc at the start of the early books. But you can definitely tell that ''Literature/MenAtArms'' was being written at the same time as ''The Streets Of Ankh-Morpork: A Discworld Mapp'' was being compiled. The description of the "gnarly ground" in ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' probably counts as well. And then there's ''Literature/TheLastHero'', and Paul Kidby's gorgeous pictures of the Rimfall, Cori Celesti, and [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome the Disc as seen from the moon]].
* ''Literature/TalesOfTheCity'' is the urban version of this trope featuring not just streets and locations both notable and mundane, but accurate (for the time) bus lines. While it was admittedly a serialized story in a local newspaper and thus explicitly aimed at a local audience it can still feel like more effort is spent on showing off how real and local it was than writing a compelling narrative.
* Ben Aaronovitch does this with London in his ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' books, it starts to get a bit out of hand in the {{sequel}} ''Literature/MoonOverSoho''.
* Both of the primary narrators in ''Literature/TheHistorian'' describe their surroundings in lengthy and exquisite detail. Landscape and architecture both receive near-fetishistic attention, taking up a sizable portion of the book's 650+ page length.
* The illustrations of ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'' are filled with gorgeous cities and ruins. [[http://www.dinotopia.com/images/art/waterfall.jpg See for yourself]].
* Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/TheSongOfTheCardinal'' opens with several paragraphs of lavish description of the Limberlost.
* ''Literature/GivesLight'', which takes place on an Indian reservation, delves into this frequently, especially whenever Skylar is describing the sky, the badlands, or even the desert.
* ''Literature/BrideOfTheRatGod'' gives lots of detailed descriptions of places and events.
* ''María'', the novel by Jorge Isaacs, is all about this. The author spends pages and pages talking about the beautiful scenery of the region of Valle del Cauca, in Colombia.
* Creator/DanielleSteel sets her novels in glamorous locales such as Paris, London, San Francisco, New York, etc, and treats her reader to endless descriptions of them.
* Creator/RoaldDahl indulges in this in ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' with regards to the Chocolate, Inventing, and Television Chocolate Rooms. (Adaptations tend to follow suit, ''especially'' with the Chocolate Room.)
* Something noted by the lone reviewer of ''Literature/MurderAtColefaxManor'' on Amazon.com.
* ''[[Literature/{{Videssos}} The Misplaced Legion]]'' devotes two pages to Marcus Scaurus' first impression of the architecture of Phos' High Temple (which is based on the Hagia Sophia).
* The ''Literature/BramblyHedge'' picture books are lovingly illustrated with a wealth of warm colors and background details, from lavish clothing to stocked cabinets. The animated television series also worked hard to replicate this look.
* ''Literature/WishBookSeries'': Quite a few photos used to make these books are stunning.
* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': It is from the Romantic period, after all. Particular highlights include Victor's walk into the Alps at the end of Volume 1, scenes on Walton's ship in the Arctic, and the cottage owned by the de Lacey family that the Monster shelters near.
* ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld'' describes the English countryside in loving detail.

* Creator/KimStanleyRobinson's ''Literature/RedMarsTrilogy'' is a pure example of the trope. Page after page after page is given over to detailed descriptions of the Martian landscape -- that nobody has ever laid eyes on yet. Could easily be condensed to a single volume without it.
%%* The different worlds in ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'', a Norwegian fantasy series, are described to have this.
%%* The different worlds in ''Literature/{{Halvgudene}}'', a Norwegian fantasy series, are described to have this.

** Hugo did much the same thing with ''Literature/LesMiserables'', wherein the story - changed in the musical version to be centrally about Jean Valjean and Cosette - was centered around the ''entirety of France''.
* The heath is described so much in Thomas Hardy's ''Return of the Native'' that it might as well be its own character.
* Creator/RobertJordan had a tendency towards this sort of thing - settings, views, and even minor character mannerisms were described in great detail.
* Creator/DeanKoontz can take this to great lengths, sometimes exaggerated for humor.
** ''By the Light of the Moon'' features a very detailed description of a bedroom shared by two brothers, contrasting the personality of the elder with the younger, ending by mentioning that the latter has been left bound and gagged on his bed. The surreal church visions throughout the book (isolated bits of the church appearing in hallucinations to the protagonists, such as a font seen in the desert and a confessional booth reflected in a restroom mirror rather than the stalls that are really there) are crowned with elaborate descriptions of the church interior proper late in the book. One of the viewpoint characters is a painter, which helps justify some of the Scenery Porn.
** ''Dark Rivers of the Heart'': JustifiedTrope in that the traumatic memories of [[TheProtagonist the male protagonist]] center around a childhood incident involving his father's home; he says of his father, a noted painter, that anything he did was done with the aesthetics well worked out in advance.

* Creator/HPLovecraft is best known for indescribable {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, but he certainly didn't skimp on description when it came to scenery. He was very much a fan of architecture, and his stories feature long and detailed descriptions of the scenery (see for example the descriptions of Providence in ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard''). Usually this worked well and helped to set the mood, but on a few occasions it came out as rather JustForFun/{{egregious}}. ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'' in particular has a scene near the end where it seems like the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep has been hired as the spokesbeing of the New England tourism committee.

* Chris Riddell's pictures of the sky ships in ''The Edge Chronicles''. Hell, ''most'' of the pictures in those books. None of the illustrations distract from the actual written story, but they're still rather detailed and well-drawn.

* All of Creator/JulesVerne's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_Extraordinaires Les Voyages Extraordinaires]]'' are like this.
** ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' is the most notable example. The book indulges in long descriptions of scenery and culture as well -- in fact, it's half of the appeal of the book. That's not even mentioning the incredible number of journey-delaying encounters Phileas Fogg encounters while being "in a big hurry". They'd be {{Wacky Wayside Tribe}}s if Verne hadn't integrated them seamlessly into the {{plot}}.
** ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon''
** ''[[Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon Around the Moon]]'', the sequel to ''From the Earth to the Moon'', contains highly-detailed descriptions of the Lunar scenery the astronauts are passing over. Unfortunately, ScienceMarchesOn, and every last word of it is wrong.
** ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea''
** ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland''
** ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth''

* Lampshaded in ''[[Literature/UnwovenLiteraryUniverse Unwoven Legacy]]'' when [[TheHero Red]] sees Cuteness Valley for the first time:
->'''Red''': Only a girl would create a world made entirely out of pink.
* Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose''. According to rumour, he wrote the first few chapters especially Scenery Porn-heavy in order to drive off readers looking for cheap and quick thrills. Elitism isn't dead!
* There's an awful lot of Scenery Porn early on in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant''. Once Lord Foul really gets going, however, it turns into a kind of BreakTheCutie exercise on ''the world''. SceneryGorn, anyone?

* Ridiculously long sections of ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' are dedicated to descriptions of the titular castle.

* ''Literature/WatershipDown'' may require you to consult a botanical guidebook in order to follow the story, as it slides seamlessly between Scenery Porn and existential dread. After an [[{{Epigraph}} opening quote]] from Creator/{{Aeschylus}} about [[CassandraTruth death and dripping blood]], you get this:
-->The primroses were over. Towards the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and oak-tree roots...
* Creator/StephenKing is a big fan of describing the surroundings even when the characters are being hunted by TheLegionsOfHell. If it weren't for the [[BroadStrokes looseness of his geography]], it would be possible to draw a map of his fictional Maine towns... and he spent extra time describing the entire American landscape in ''Literature/TheStand''.

* Creator/LMMontgomery's ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' put Prince Edward Island on the map, for this very reason.

* In Creator/StanislawLem's ''Literature/TalesOfPirxThePilot'', a spacesport is described very vividly. You can almost smell the Diborane.
* Brett Roehr's ''Literature/TheYukonWolf'' uses plenty of description involving snow-covered landscapes, mountains, icy rivers, and of course the Aurora Borealis.

* E. Annie Proulx does this really weirdly. In "The Half-Skinned Steer," she has a character trapped in a Wyoming blizzard compare the swirling snow to mythical beasts and Arab women. Never mind that a character trapped in a Wyoming blizzard ''should'' be wondering why he was stupid enough to leave his car and try to navigate his way through the storm on foot, while no one knows where he is.

* The novels of Creator/TonyHillerman are famous for their depictions of the deserts of the American Southwest, especially in his ''Literature/LeaphornAndChee'' series. The characters are Navajo, Pueblo, and Zuni Indians, so the scenery has spiritual importance as well.

* ''Avenger'', the second volume of ''Literature/WayOfTheTiger'' {{Gamebook|s}} series has a sequence when your at a Lord's estate and you can't sleep one particular night and so you walk around. What follows is an evocative sequence of a palatial residence in the dead of night that creates a beautiful atmosphere while still giving off the feeling that something is wrong. Then you find a dead guard and you're suddenly being garroted and the book's climatic action sequence begins.

* ''Literature/DarkLordTheRiseOfDarthVader'':
** Alderaan is a jewel of a Core World. The Royal Palace is a BigFancyCastle in the center of the capital city Aldera, which in turn is in the center of a mountain lake surrounded by picturesque peaks.
** Kashyyyk is described in lush detail. The capital city Kachirho's central tree is a multilevel edifice, with balconies, bridges, and walkways both inside the trunk and out, all carved from the living wood with intentional imperfections that draw the eye.

* ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld'' describes the English countryside in loving detail.
* In many of the stories in ''Literature/LotStories,'' Creator/BryanWashington rattles off lists of street names, route numbers, or neighborhood names in Houston.

* In many of the stories in ''Literature/LotStories,'' ''Creator/BryanWashington'' rattles off lists of street names, route numbers, or neighborhood names in Houston.

* ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld'' describes the English countryside in loving detail.

* Shaun Tan, man. Just Shaun Tan. If you're reading this page, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of ''The Arrival''. Or ''The Red Tree''. Or ''Tales from Outer Suburbia''. Or any other book with his name on the cover.

* William Golding's ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' is ''full'' of this.

* The different worlds in ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'' and ''Literature/{{Halvgudene}}'', both Norwegian fantasy series, are described to have this.

* Kim Stanley Robinson's ''Mars Trilogy'' is a pure example of the trope. Page after page after page is given over to detailed descriptions of the Martian landscape -- that nobody has ever laid eyes on yet. Could easily be condensed to a single volume without it.
* The different worlds in Literature/{{Phenomena}} and Literature/{{Halvgudene}}, both Norwegian fantasy series, are described to have this.

* The novels of Creator/TonyHillerman are famous for their depictions of the deserts of the American Southwest, especially in his Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series. The characters are Navajo, Pueblo, and Zuni Indians, so the scenery has spiritual importance as well.

* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': It is from the Romantic period, after all. Particular highlights include Victor's walk into the Alps at the end of Volume 1, scenes on Walton's ship in the Arctic, and the cottage owned by the de Lacey family that the Monster shelters near.