- The first comprehensive anthology of writing covering travel in Britain, Europe and Asia Minor, Africa, the Caribbean, North America and the Pacific in the 'long eighteenth century' (1680s-1830s).
- The anthology features writing by famous authors such as Daniel Defoe, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Wollstonecraft as well as lesser known and obscure ones; famous voyages and expeditions (by Captain Cook, Mungo Park), and lesser known ones.
- A wide variety of different kinds of travellers and travel-writing is represented: natural historians, tourists, explorers, slaves (Olaudah Equiano), and a good representation of women travellers.
- A lively introduction by Elizabeth Bohls surveys the contexts of early modern travel writing, and informative headnotes cover the different geographical regions, periods, genres and individual authors.
- Texts are taken from the earliest published versions, modernized where necessary.
'How is the mind agitated and bewildered, at being thus, as it were, placed on the borders of a new world!' - William Bartram
'Thus you see, dear sister, the manners of mankind do not differ so widely as our voyage writers would have us believe.' - Mary Wortley Montagu
With widely varied motives - scientific curiosity, commerce, colonization, diplomacy, exploration, and tourism - British travellers fanned out to every corner of the world in the period the Critical Review labelled the 'Age of Peregrination'. The Empire, already established in the Caribbean and North America, was expanding in India and Africa and founding new outposts in the Pacific in the wake of Captain Cook's voyages. In letters, journals, and books, travellers wrote at first-hand of exotic lands and beautiful scenery, and encounters with strange peoples and dangerous wildlife. They conducted philosophical and political debates in print about slavery and the French Revolution, and their writing often affords unexpected insights into the writers themselves. This anthology brings together the best writing from authors such as Daniel Defoe, Celia Fiennes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Olaudah Equiano, Mungo Park, and many others, to provide a comprehensive selection from this emerging literary genre.
Contents
- Europe and Asia Minor
- The British Isles
- Africa
- The Caribbean
- North America
- Australia and the Pacific
- The anthology features writing by famous authors such as Daniel Defoe, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Wollstonecraft as well as lesser known and obscure ones; famous voyages and expeditions (by Captain Cook, Mungo Park), and lesser known ones.
- A wide variety of different kinds of travellers and travel-writing is represented: natural historians, tourists, explorers, slaves (Olaudah Equiano), and a good representation of women travellers.
- A lively introduction by Elizabeth Bohls surveys the contexts of early modern travel writing, and informative headnotes cover the different geographical regions, periods, genres and individual authors.
- Texts are taken from the earliest published versions, modernized where necessary.
'How is the mind agitated and bewildered, at being thus, as it were, placed on the borders of a new world!' - William Bartram
'Thus you see, dear sister, the manners of mankind do not differ so widely as our voyage writers would have us believe.' - Mary Wortley Montagu
With widely varied motives - scientific curiosity, commerce, colonization, diplomacy, exploration, and tourism - British travellers fanned out to every corner of the world in the period the Critical Review labelled the 'Age of Peregrination'. The Empire, already established in the Caribbean and North America, was expanding in India and Africa and founding new outposts in the Pacific in the wake of Captain Cook's voyages. In letters, journals, and books, travellers wrote at first-hand of exotic lands and beautiful scenery, and encounters with strange peoples and dangerous wildlife. They conducted philosophical and political debates in print about slavery and the French Revolution, and their writing often affords unexpected insights into the writers themselves. This anthology brings together the best writing from authors such as Daniel Defoe, Celia Fiennes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Olaudah Equiano, Mungo Park, and many others, to provide a comprehensive selection from this emerging literary genre.
Contents
- Europe and Asia Minor
- The British Isles
- Africa
- The Caribbean
- North America
- Australia and the Pacific