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Books > Travel > Travel writing > Classic travel writing
Some of the extraordinary women whose writings are including in
this collection are observers of the world in which they wander;
their prose rich in description, remarkable in detail. Mary
McCarthy conveys the vitality of Florence while Willa Cather's
essay on Lavandou foreshadows her descriptions of the French
countryside in later novels. Others are more active participants in
the culture they are visiting, such as Leila Philip, as she
harvests rice with chiding Japanese women, or Emily Carr, as she
wins the respect and trust of the female chieftain of an Indian
village in Northern Canada. Whether it is curiosity about the
world, a thirst for adventure or escape from personal tragedy, all
of these women are united in that they approached their journeys
with wit, intelligence, compassion and empathy for the lives of
those they encountered along the way. Features writing from
Gertrude Bell, Edith Wharton, Isabella Bird, Kate O'Brien, Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu and many others.
In 1851, Robert Macalister, a Scottish gentleman living in Ireland,
took a journey back to his native homeland with the intention of
reacquainting himself with old friends, family, villages, and
sights. By steamboat, train, and omnibus he made his way through an
autumnal, industrialising Scotland to Paisley, the town of his
birth. Having been absent for many years, he found landscapes and
people changed, taking wonder in the modernising world whilst
dwelling on those that didn't live to see his return. Along the
way, for the entertainment and education of his children, Robert
wrote his experiences in a journal he affectionately called 'Papa's
Sketches', filling it with drawings and watercolour paintings.
These scribblings and sketches give a sense of immediacy, of
intimacy and warmth, and feel as vibrant to us now as they did over
a hundred years ago, to Robert's own children. Here, Robert's
journals are painstakingly transcribed and his sketches reproduced.
Accompanying the journal, Marion Palmann's own extensive research
illuminates the world in which Robert lived, giving us context,
clarity, and closure to his story. Palmann presents readers with an
unprecedented snapshot in the life of a father, emigre, and
gentleman. Poetic, heartfelt, and at times startlingly modern,
these journals have a lasting appeal that Robert Macalister
couldn't have guessed at, sketching on a cold, autumnal day in
1851.
Johann Georg von Hahn - a nineteenth-century Austrian diplomat and
explorer - is generally considered to be the founder of Albanian
Studies as a scholarly discipline. It was he who first studied the
Balkan country and its people, and who brought them to the
attention of the academic world. Despite this acclaim, his work has
not been widely available in English until now. In this volume,
Robert Elsie has translated Hahn's most important works relating to
his travels and studies in Albania during the mid-nineteenth
century. Hahn's interests were broad, but he was especially
interested in the tribes of Albania and Kosovo and made several
ethnographic studies of the cultures and traditions of the tribes
he encountered on his travels - including the Kelmendi, Hoti and
Kastrati tribes. This volume will be invaluable readers for
scholars of Balkan history and anthropology.
Hogg left a written record of three of his many journeys to the
Highlands, those of 1802, 1803 and 1804, and in "Highland Journeys"
he offers a thoughtful and deeply-felt response to the Highland
Clearances. He gives vivid pictures of his experiences, including a
narrow escape from a Navy press-gang, and a Sacrament day with one
minister preaching in English and another in Gaelic. Hogg also
explains aspects of Gaelic culture such as the waulking songs, and
he describes the trade in kelp, lucrative to the landowners but
back-breaking and ill-paid for the workers. Highland Journeys makes
a refreshing contribution to our understanding of early
nineteenth-century travel writing.
Leaving behind Thailand after the 2004 Tsunami, Ben, aged 19, made
a life challenging journey without GPS or mobile phone to cross 11
countries in 8 months covering at least 16,000 miles, not including
the occasional detour or missed direction. This is his log of the
journey home... "What comes through most clearly is the sheer
excitement of travelling in SE Asia when you're young, and seeing
so many amazing things for the first time. This is a great account
of the traveller's life, in which random encounters become critical
junctures and you find yourself somewhere unfamiliar every day."
Tom Feiling - "Short walks in Bogota"
Few writers have known Italy better than Stendhal: he was only
seventeen when he first rode south across the Alps in the wake of
Napoleon's armies, and he continued to travel and to live in Italy
until a few months before his death. Some of his visits lasted only
a few weeks, others continued for years, and he spent the last
decade of his life as French Consul in Civitavecchia - yet he was
never a tourist in the ordinary sense of the word. Italy, for
Stendhal, was never a mere treasure trove of ruins, museums and
galleries: it was the life of the country which fascinated him, its
spirit, the inner workings of its heart and mind. This picture - or
rather this living dream - of Italy he created is as fresh and
tantalizing today as it was almost two centuries ago.
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The Oregon Trail
(Paperback)
Francis Parkman; Edited by Bernard Rosenthal
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R340
R286
Discovery Miles 2 860
Save R54 (16%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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The Oregon Trail is the gripping account of Francis Parkman's
journey west across North America in 1846. After crossing the
Allegheny Mountains by coach and continuing by boat and wagon to
Westport, Missouri, he set out with three companions on a horseback
journey that would ultimately take him over two thousand miles. In
the course of his travels, Parkman encountered numerous Indians,
living among a Sioux tribe for a time, as well as meeting traders,
trappers, and emigrants searching for a new life. His detailed
description of the journey, set against the vast majesty of the
Great Plains, has emerged through the generations as a classic
narrative of one man's exploration of the American Wilderness. It
is a journey which has shaped our picture of mid-nineteenth-century
America and which has influenced our perception of American
civilization. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's
Classics has made available the widest range of literature from
around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's
commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a
wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions
by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text,
up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Harry Peckham was educated at Winchester College and New College,
Oxford, before being called to the Bar and becoming, in time, a
King's Counsel, a Commissioner for Bankrupts and Recorder of
Chichester. He was also a witty rake, a keen sportsman (he was a
member of the committee that drew up the laws of cricket) and a
relentless tourist. Harry Peckham's Tour is a collection of letters
he wrote in 1769 while travelling through the Netherlands, Belgium
and France and contains insights into the society and culture of
the places that he visited, including Rotterdam, The Hague,
Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Paris, Rouen and Calais.
Perceptive and funny, Harry Peckham's Tour is written in a very
engaging style and is a delight to read. This edition contains a
new introduction and notes by Martin Brayne and is the only
available version of Peckham's text.
A sweeping collection of observations and episodes penned by
visitors to Louisiana from the sixteenth century to the 1990s,
Louisiana Sojourns is -- much like the state itself -- a wonder to
behold in its sum, and in its particulars, full of surprise and
delight. The seventy-six pieces that Frank de Caro has selected
give readers a vivid sense of how Louisiana's unique blend of Old
World, South, the exotic, and quintessential America has exerted a
pull and hold on travelers. Included are writings by well-known
figures such as Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, Kate Chopin, John
Steinbeck, Frederick Law Olmsted, Walker Percy, William Faulkner,
Simone de Beauvoir, Henry Miller, John James Audubon, Calvin
Trillin, Zora Neale Hurston, A. J. Liebling, William Least Heat
Moon, and Frederick Turner. Dozens of other wayfarers are
represented as well.
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