Maurice Baring's Round the World in Any Number of Days is a witty, self-aware travel narrative that turns an ordinary voyage into a comic meditation on memory, class, and the art of seeing. Sailing from England to New Zealand aboard an Orient liner, the narrator meets dock strikes, inept crew, awkward bridge play, and a lively assortment of passengers while offering sharp, playful observations on travel, etiquette, and the absurd desire for "useful" information. The passage past South Devon and Plymouth becomes unexpectedly poignant, as childhood landscapes remain vivid yet unreachable, belonging now to memory rather than life. As the ship moves through Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, the book shifts between satire and sensual description: Naples blazes with color, music, and religious atmosphere; Port Said and the Red Sea bring heat, coal smoke, fortune-tellers, and exhausting monotony; and the sea itself becomes a setting for reflections on labor, national character, and endurance. Alongside these scenes, Baring celebrates immersive popular fiction, from Dumas and Hugo to the books that carry readers completely away, while also mounting a fierce, comic attack on travel writing and literary criticism for their pretension, vagueness, and self-importance. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.