This study examines and explains how British explorers visualized the African interior in the latter part of the nineteenth century, providing the first sustained analysis of the process by which this visual material was transformed into the illustrations in popular travel books. At that time, central Africa was, effectively, a blank canvas for Europeans, unknown and devoid of visual representations. While previous works have concentrated on exploring the stereotyped nature of printed imagery of Africa, this study examines the actual production process of images and the books in which they were published in order to demonstrate how, why, and by whom the images were manipulated. Thus, the main focus of the work is not on the aesthetic value of pictures, but in the activities, interaction, and situations that gave birth to them in both Africa and Europe.

In 1951 the Australian writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston left grey, post-war London for Greece. Settling first on the tiny island of Kalymnos, then Hydra, their plan was to live simply and focus on their writing, away from the noise of the big city. The result is two of Charmian Clift's best known and most loved books, the memoirs Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus. Mermaid Singing relays the culture shock and the sheer delight of their first year on the tiny sponge-fishing island of Kalymnos. Clift paints an evocative picture of the characters and sun-drenched rhythms of traditional life, long before backpackers and mass tourism descended. On Hydra, featured in the companion volume, Peel Me a Lotus, Clift and Johnston became the centre of an informal community of artists and writers including the then unknown Leonard Cohen who lodged with them, and his future girlfriend Marianne Ihlen.

First published in 1937 this is a collection of articles written by the author under the pseudonym 'Waseda Eisaku' for the Japan Tourist Bureau's magazine over twenty five years. Intended to satisfy the intellectual curiosity of cultivated tourists from abroad by giving the insider's view of all things Japanese, it was published as a book just before the outbreak of World War II.

Writing in the first person, Katsumata becomes both guide and confidante, writing about his own travel experiences in Japan and about Japanese customs and practices that interest him, such as traditional incense ceremonies, or fishing with rod and creel. This personal approach results in an unusual selection of topics and itineraries including tray landscapes, old Japanese clocks, hot springs, Japanese humour, sumo wrestling, pines in Japanese scenery, the Japanese sun flag and Buddhist temple bells. The author not only describes, but draws the reader into his own experiences - his joy on buying an antiquarian book he cannot really afford, the monotony he feels when travelling too long through snowy landscapes, the delight he takes in telling you that the best bait for carp fishing is sweet potato. Katsumata's unconventional choice of subjects and his informal and individualistic writing style make this a refreshingly different guide to Japan, and a valuable record of the period in which it was written.

The last great wilderness America has to offer...Alaska. Many people have longed to leave the hustle and bustle of everyday life and journey into the great unknown to hunt for big game and survive by their wits. In the Shadow of Mount McKinley brings all of this excitement to life with riveting stories by one of the world's most famous big game hunters. The thrill of the hunt, the exhilaration of forging through uncharted territory, and illustrations by Carl Rungius (one of the most important wildlife artists of the 20th century) make In the Shadow of Mount McKinley unforgettable reading.

George Sand recounts the story of her 1838 winter in Majorca, a winter she passed in the company of Frederick Chopin. She describes the natural beauties of Majorca as well as the rumblings of approaching war.

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.

Laos, 1900 - a frontier land caught in a power struggle between Eastern kingdoms and Western colonial powers, a fertile place teetering between an ancient pastoral existence and the modern machine age. Alfred Raquez's Laotian Pages vividly describes his exploration of the diverse kingdoms of Laos at the turn of the last century with the same Parisian verve and ironic turn of mind that he brought to his first travel book, In the Land of Pagodas. Raquez's keen eye and sensitivity to the exotic in both nature and human culture, combined with a mastery of the genre and his hallmark conversational style, transport the reader to the largely unexplored frontier of fin-de-siecle Indochina. Long known only to specialists on the history and ethnography of the region, this new work presents a scholarly translation into English together with Raquez's original photographs that will finally allow a wide audience to experience the joys and hardships of travel in a land that is both timeless and forever changing. In addition, a wide-ranging introduction and extensive footnotes provide historical context and `then-and-now' perspectives on the cultures and landscape that have undergone massive change in the past century. In the Land of Pagodas, a scholarly translation by William L. Gibson and Paul Bruthiaux of Alfred Raquez's book of travels through China in 1899, was published in 2017 by NIAS Press.

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.

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.

'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.

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.

'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.
'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.

'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 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.

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 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 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.

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.