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Books > Sport & Leisure > Travel & holiday > Travel writing > Classic travel writing
Part of a seven-volume facsimile set, this volume comprises
firsthand accounts of France in the 1790s. It includes Helen Maria
Williams' letters which narrate the fall of Robespierre in 1794 and
her 1798 book on Switzerland which comments sceptically on the
necessary coexistence of liberty with peace.
This seven-volume facsimile set comprises first-hand accounts of
France in the 1790s. Helen Maria William's letters narrate the fall
of Robespierre in 1794 and her 1798 book on Switzerland comments
sceptically on the necessary coexistence of liberty with peace.
Charlotte West (who, like Williams, celebrated the fall of the
Bastille but was later imprisoned by the Republic) records the
corruption, paranoia and violence of the Terror both in the
provinces and in Paris. All texts, the majority of which have never
been republished, are reproduced in full, augmented by a
substantial general introduction to each set, headnotes, endnotes,
and a consolidated index in the final volume. Selected for their
rarity, the texts are drawn from the unparalleled Chawton House
Library collection; each facsimile page has been digitally cleaned
and enhanced, significantly improving on the quality and legibility
of the original.
This largely unknown travel book, written by a sporting and hunting
enthusiast in 1896, recalls his journey with his wife and two
dachshunds in what was then a largely unknown part of Europe. Not
even Thomas Cook had conducted tours east of Trieste, and our two
travelers were exploring territory less well known to the Victorian
traveler at the time than Egypt or Brazil.
Carl Peter Thunberg studied at Uppsala University in Sweden where he was a favourite student of the great Linnaeus, father of modern scientific classification. He determined to travel the world and enlisted as a physician with the Dutch East India Company. He arrived in Japan in the summer of 1775 and stayed one year, the maximum continuous term permitted for a European at the time. He travelled to Edo (modern Tokyo) where he became friends with the shogun's private physician, Katsuragawa Hosshu, a notorious rake. They maintained a correspondence even after the Swede had returned to his homeland. Thunberg's 'Travels' appeared in English in 1795 and was never reprinted. This edition makes available once again Thunberg's extraordinary writings on Japan, complete with illustrations. Fully annotated and introduced by Timon Screech.
As well as including Sherley's own account of his journey into
Persia in 1600, this valuable edition includes the main works
dealing with Anthony Sherley and his life. Original inaccessible
texts are reprinted in full and the critical bibliographical
introduction provides excellent guidance for the understanding of
the various sources (and their merits and limitations), and the
context in which Sherley's own account was composed.
When first published in 1933, Sherley's narrative (1613) had never
before been reprinted.
First published in 1930. The wandering Jew is a very real character
in the great drama of history. He has travelled as nomad and
settler, as fugitive and conqueror, as exile and colonist and as
merchant and scholar. Of necessity bilingual and therefore the
master of many languages, the Jew was the ideal commercial
traveller and interpreter.
Based on the volume of 24 Hebrew texts of Jewish travellers by J D
Eisenstein, this volume begins with the ninth century. After the
sixteenth century geographical discoveries had made the whole world
familiar to most people. Consequently, the wandering Jew becomes
less the diplomatist or scientist but still remains a link between
the scattered members of the Diaspora. The volume ends in the
middle of the eighteenth century and taken as a whole provides a
survey of Jewish travel during the Middle Ages. For this
translation, some of the texts have been abridged, whilst retaining
many of the original notes.
First published in 1927. John Macdonald (1741-96) was born, and
died, a Scottish Highlander. First published at the time of the
French Revolution, these memoirs of his days in service provide a
rich panorama of life in the company of blind fiddlers,
maid-servants, the Scottish aristocracy, soldiers, historians,
Oriental Princes, servants of the East India Company and men of
great wealth, including James Coutts the banker. In 1768 - as the
result of an errand - it fell to Macdonald to witness the death of
Laurence Sterne.
'Simply packed with interest' Sunday Times
'..a model of genuine writing' Evening Standard
'Deserves a high place among autobiographies.' Nation
When first published in 1928, Herbert's work enjoyed immediate
success. The narrative is of considerable importance from an
historical point of view, as it gives the only detailed account of
the first English embassy to Persia. It also paints a graphic
picture of the Perisa and the Persians in the early part of the
seventeenth century, with vivid and extensive descriptions of the
towns of Abbas, Lar, Shiraz, Persepolis, Isfahan, Ashraf, Tehran,
Qazvin, Qum and Kashan.
This edition is based on the revised edition of 1677, but has in
turn been edited so that the version reprinted here includes only
what the author actually saw or gleaned at first hand. The notes
include identification of places and a glossary of the strange or
obsolete terms.
'Of all literary fakes this is surely the most impudent, ingenious,
and successful. The Comtesse D'Aulnoy was never in Spain (but) she
was a born traveller. Not without reason have the editors of The
Broadway Travellers included her fiction in their library of fact.
For, despite its falseness, it is intellectually the real thing.'
Saturday Review
However her work is judged today, it seems certain that Madame
D'Aulnoy was one of the most widely-read and most popular authors
of her time. Seeing Spain at a strange moment in her history, it is
the end of a great age. The last descendent of Charles V is king;
after him the nation is destined to enter upon a new phase, under a
new dynasty. After reading this journey we see and touch Spain and
the reader can judge the Spanish character from a witness who saw
it.
First published in 1930. This volume contains letters and
narratives of some of the Elizabethans who went to India. Here the
beginnings of the British Indian Empire can be seen, arising out of
the trading operations of the East India Company.
'A document of unique interest it is a picture of Europe at a most
critical moment of its history, when the Continent was overwhelmed
by misery, disease and unrest. A cool observer, without prejudice
or excitement Tafur noted the symptoms of decay.' Sunday Times.
This edition, translated and edited by Malcolm Letts, was the first
complete translation of Tafur in any language.
First published in 1928.
'To read it is like seeing the scenes described' Evening
Standard
'One of the world's best travel books' Spectator 'The work remains
a classic worthy of reproduction' The Times
Published to critical acclaim and well known for many years
afterwards this account of the journey across Mongolia to Lhasa in
the early nineteenth century owes much of its success to the
literary skills of its authors, made available in English for the
first time by William Hazlitt and Paul Pelliot.
Among other topics the chapters cover: The French mission of
Peking, Tartar manners and customs, festivals, an interview with a
Tibetan Lama, the flooding of the Yellow River, Tartar veterinary
surgeons, irrigation projects, comparative studies between
Catholicism and Buddhism, war between two living Buddhas, and the
Chinese account of Tibet.
'To read it is like seeing the scenes described' Evening
Standard
'One of the world's best travel books' Spectator 'The work remains
a classic worthy of reproduction' The Times Published to critical
acclaim and well known for many years afterwards this account of
the journey across Mongolia to Lhasa in the early nineteenth
century owes much of its success to the literary skills of its
authors, made available in English for the first time by William
Hazlitt and Paul Pelliot.
Among other topics the chapters cover: The French mission of
Peking, Tartar manners and customs, festivals, an interview with a
Tibetan Lama, the flooding of the Yellow River, Tartar veterinary
surgeons, irrigation projects, comparative studies between
Catholicism and Buddhism, war between two living Buddhas, and the
Chinese account of Tibet.
First published in 1931.
'Hall is the ideal travel-writer. He never wearies his readers, but
makes them love him.' Times Literary Supplement
Basil Hall's Fragments of Voyages and Travels originally appeared
in nine volumes. Miscellaneous in their topics, and arranged
without any order the volumes re-issued here have been selected for
their clarity and interest, both geographical and historical.
Few books give a more graphic picture of the Royal Navy a century
ago and Hall's volumes are full of nautical information. Hall was
also an indefatigable traveller and a keen observer who learnt
Hindustani, Malay and Japanese, studied Hindu mythology, flora,
fauna and geology and compiled the first ever vocabulary of the
language of the Loo Choo Islands.
First published in 1931.
Mainly focussing on cultural and geographical aspects, Travels of
an Alchemist are unique in their importance as a source for early
Mongol history, enabling us as they do to fix with certainty the
otherwise obscure and much disputed dates of Chingiz Khan's
movements during his Western campaign. The author, a Taoist doctor,
left some of the most faithful and vivid pictures ever drawn of
nature and society between the Aral and the Yellow Sea.
Waley's introduction provides excellent background information
with which to place the Travels in their appropriate historical,
social and religious setting.
First published in 1932.
As well as an extensive introduction, this edition contains notes
to all four books, a bibliographical index, a general index and an
index of Tibetan words. The introduction is particularly valuable
in that it sets the importance of Desideri's mission in the general
context of the Jesuit Missions to Tibet.
In Desideri's account we receive the first accurate general
description of Tibet: from the natural world to the sociological
and anthropological aspects of the people and a complete exposition
of Lamaism. His is the only complete reconstruction that we possess
of the Tibetan religion, founded entirely on canonical texts. And
all of this more than a century before Europeans had any knowledge
of the Tibetan language.
First published between 1926-1931, with the invaluable addition of
introductions and explanatory notes, maps and appendices, this
series makes available in English inaccessible texts of travel from
around the globe. 'The variety of the Broadway Travellers becomes
more remarkable and refreshing with every new addition to the
series. It is possible to range from Bristol to Darien, from China
to Peru and to pick a Puritan, a Moslem, a Jesuit or a footman for
one's guide. The English denounce the Spanish, the Spanish watch
the French, and the Portuguese fight the Dutch. The drama of the
three great centuries of discovery - the fifteenth, sixteenth and
seventeenth - are revealed by the shrewdest of observers' - The New
Statesman.
First published in 1928.
'Lescarbot was a man of lively wit, and a practical sagacity and
breadth of view far in advance of his time.' Spectator
'This admirable edition reveals to be a lesser-known Montaigne,
and Erondelle a second Florio' Daily News
'One must be singularly hard to entertain if Lescarbot fails'
Birmingham Post
Nova Francia is an account of the foundation of the first French
colony in Acadia in 1606. The author, Marc Lescarbot, had an
inquisitive mind and an independent outlook, with a special faculty
for clear thinking, and it is this authorial style which gives the
work its unique value. To read Lescarbot is to enter again into the
outlook of an intelligent Frenchman of the sixteenth century.
First published in 1929.
'Fire and shipwreck, fights ashore and afloat, the pitting of
ceaseless patience and resource against fate, these things make one
understand why the book, famous in its original tongue, has but to
be savoured in translation to gain an equal popularity.' Manchester
Guardian
Bontekoe's East Indian Voyage was one of the most popular books in
which the Dutch seventeenth century public delighted and it
continued to be reprinted throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
As well as providing an illuminating insight into the machinations
of the Merchants and Directors of the East India Company and the
often troubled waters of international trade and diplomacy, the
account is a very personal one: of a human being battling against
elemental forces, at tremendous odds, tenaciously holding on to
life and coming through in the end.
First published in 1927. 'This diary is history' The Observer
This is the first complete published edition of Teonge's Diary. The
edition of 1825, besides omitting several passages, contained many
faulty transcriptions which have now been corrected for this
edition. An intensely human document, enlivened with sketches of
the people he met and places he visited, Teonge's Diary is one of
the finest accounts of life on board ship in the seventeenth
century. When not at sea, Henry Teonge's life was as a parson and
this edition of his Diary includes a full inventory for his Parish,
providing an excellent source of historical and social information
on rural life in the late 1600s.
First published in 1931. None of the manuscripts which have come
down to us represent the original form of Marco Polo's narrative,
but it is clear that certain texts are closer to the lost original
than others. Entrusted with the task of preparing a new Italian
edition of Marco Polo, Benedetto discovered many unknown
manuscripts. He carefully edited the most famous of the manuscripts
(the Geographic text) and collated it with the other best known
ones.
- An invaluable index has been added to Aldo Ricci's of
Benedetto's text, which includes all the identifications made in
the Geographic text and also later editions by Marsden (1818),
Pauthier (1865) and Yule (1871).
- The difficulty of following Polo on his many journeys has also
been simplified by the process of distinguishing between those
places on his main route to China and his return journey by sea to
Persia and those places which he visited during his stay in China
and those he never visited at all.
First published in 1926. Don Juan was a Persian Moslem who became a
Spanish Roman Catholic. His description of Persia and his account
of the wars waged by the Persians during the sixteenth century
considerably add to modern day knowledge of the history of the
period. The book describes the Safavi rule as first established,
and the system of government set up in the prime of Shah 'Abbas, as
well as being an account of the long journey from Isfahan to
Valladolid.
Guy Le Strange's comprehensive introduction places the book in its
historical context, as well as providing important information on
how the book was written. Many of the inaccuracies of the original
text are corrected in translation with references and notes added
to the index to guide the reader.
'One of the most fascinating travel books of all time' Times
Literary Supplement 'He could not have been more 'modern' if he had
been born in the twentieth century' Evening Standard Ibn Battuta
was the only medieval traveller who is known to have visited the
lands of every Muhammadan ruler of his time and the extent of his
journeys is estimated to be at least 75,000 miles. His work
presents a descriptive account of Muhammadan society in the second
quarter of the fourteenth century, which illustrates, among other
things, how wide the sphere of influence of the Muslim merchants
was. Ibn Battuta's interest in places was subordinate to his
interest in people and his geographical knowledge was gained
entirely from personal experience. For his details he relied
exclusively on his memory, cultivated by the system of a
theological education. This edition, translated afresh from the
Arabic text, provides extensive notes which enable the journeys to
be followed in detail. Important historical and religious
background to the Travels is also added by H. A. R. Gibb.
Examines the experiences of Japanese travellers during the 1860s
and 1870s, particularly with regard to their impressions of
Victorian Britain. Japan had been culturally isolated for the
previous 200 years and the observations they made still underpin
much of their understanding today.
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