A Year’s Journey through France, and Part of Spain

Thicknesse, Philip. A Year’s Journey through France, and Part of Spain. London: Printed for W. Brown, 1789.

 

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The Amateur Emigrant

Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Amateur Emigrant. Chicago: Stone and Kimball, 1895.

The Amateur Emigrant (in full: The Amateur Emigrant from the Clyde to Sandy Hook) is Robert Louis Stevenson's travel memoir of his journey from Scotland to California in 1879-1880. It is not a complete account, covering the first third, by ship from Europe to New York City. The middle leg of the trip is documented in Across the Plains (1892) with the final part covered in The Silverado Squatters (1883). The Amateur Emigrant was written in 1879-80 and was not published in full until 1895, one year after his death.

 

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Frauenfahrt Um Die Welt

Pfeiffer, Ida. Frauenfahrt Um Die Welt. Wien: Carl Gerold, 1850.

 

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The Yangtze Valley and Beyond

Bird, Isabella. The Yangtze Valley and Beyond: An Account of Journeys in China. London: John Murray, 1899.

 

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A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains

Bird, Isabella. A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. London: John Murray, 1881.

 

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A Tour Round the Globe

Perkins, James. A Tour Round the Globe. London: W.H. and L. Collingridge, 1891.

 

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The Inner Life of Syria

Burton, Isabel. The Inner Life of Syria. London: Henry S. King & Co, 1875.

 

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Travels in West Africa

Kingsley, Mary Henrietta. Travels in West Africa. London: The Macmillan company, 1897.

 

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The Indian Alps and How We Crossed Them

Mazuchelli, Nina Elizabett. The Indian Alps and How We Crossed Them. London: Longmans, Green, 1876.

 

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The Travels of Mungo Park

Mungo Park. The Travels of Mungo Park. New York: J. M. Dent & co., E. P. Dutton & co., 1907.

Born in 1771, son of a yeoman of Ettrick Forest, the seventh of thirteen children, Mungo Park was intended for the Scottish Church, but chose the medical profession. He served his time with Mr. Anderson, a surgeon in Selkirk ; attended lectures during three sessions at Edinburgh University; and in the summer gave his leisure to botany, assisted by his brother-in-law, James Dickson, by whom he was afterwards introduced to Sir Joseph Banks. Through Banks' influence he was appointed assistant-surgeon on the Worcester, East Indiaman, and sailed to Bencoolen, Sumatra, in 1792. He returned the following year, bringing with him several rare plants for Banks. The Association for Promoting Discoveries in the Interior of Africa next appointed him (succeeding Major Houghton) to explore the course of the Niger, and he sailed from Portsmouth in May 1795.

Arriving in the Gambia, Park studied the Mandingo language, collected information at Pisania, 200 miles up the river ; left Pisania December 2, with only a negro servant and a boy, one horse, and two asses, and, after severe hardships, arrived at Sego and the Niger, to discover that its stream flowed from west to east, as Herodotus thought. We learn from his own narrative how he had eventually to return against the river, fell ill, and was saved by the care of Karfa Taura. He reached Pisania again on June 10, 1797, sailed thence in a slave ship bound for America, and eventually arrived at Falmouth on December 22, 1797. Landing in London before daylight on Christmas Day, 1797, he went to the gardens of the British Museum, to pass the time until he could call on his brother-in-law, James Dickson, "who, unexpectedly coming to the gardens on some trifling business, was deeply moved to see there his long-lost friend, whom he had long numbered among the dead."

 

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A Sportswoman in India

Savory, Isabel. A Sportswoman in India. London: Hutchinson & co., J.B. Lippincott company, 1900.

 

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By Desert Ways to Baghdad and Damascus

Jebb, Louisa. By Desert Ways to Baghdad and Damascus. London: T. F. Unwin, 1909.

Every age witnesses the birth of some great soul. Sometimes events bring these people to the attention of the world. More often than not, they alter the lives around them, then pass on quietly. Such a soul belonged to the author of this cherished book. There was nothing in Louisa Jebb’s comfortable Victorian youth to indicate she would one day take to the saddle and pen one of the most eloquent equestrian travel books ever written. Yet in the early years of the 20th century, Jebb set out with a female companion to cross the Turkish Empire on horseback. To say they were unprepared to become Long Riders would be an understatement. Neither of them could speak the local language. Furthermore, both wore cumbersome full-length skirts and rode side-saddles. They were, in a word, enthusiastic amateurs who believed courage and common sense would see them through. Remarkably, it did. Having hired a picturesque guide and reliable horses, they set out to explore the secret corners of the Sultan’s empire. What they discovered were guarded harems and regal Pashas, fabled rivers and a desert world of intense beauty. If Jebb rode into Turkey expecting to find adventure, she found it. Yet she discovered something else – nomadic freedom. It is her personal observations about this subject that set “By Desert Ways to Baghdad and Damascus” apart from other equestrian travel books. “In the untravelled parts of the East you reign supreme, there is no need to go about securely chained to a gold watch. Ignore Time, and he is your servant,” she observed wisely. Sadly, revolution and death soon swept across this fabled land, wiping away the kingdom of the Turkish Caliphs and laying the foundations for the grief which enshrouds this unhappy part of the world today. Upon her return to “civilization” the author lamented about what she had found, then lost. “Last night we were dirty, isolated and free, tonight we are clean, sociable and trammelled. Last night the setting sun’s final message was burnt into us. Tonight the sunset passed unheeded as we sit imprisoned and oppressed by the confining walls of Damascus Palace Hotel. We are no longer princesses whose hands are kissed. We are now judged by the cost of our raiment.” Few books contain as many great abiding truths as this one does.

 

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A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the Cradle of the Arab Race

Blunt, Anne. A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the Cradle of the Arab Race. London: J. Murray, 1881.

This book documents the journey of Lady Anne Blunt (d. 1917) to Arabia in 1875.

Table of Contents

  • The Charm of Asia
  • Brotherly offices
  • Beating about
  • We start in earnest
  • Kaf and Itheri
  • The Jof oasis
  • The Ibn Aruks of Jof
  • Mohammed in love
  • Jobba
  • Hail
  • Political and Historical
  • Nejd horses
  • Mohammed loses his head
  • We go in search of adventures
  • Muttlak Ibn Aruk and the Ketherin
  • The Shrines of the Shias
  • New plans and new preparations
  • We are betrayed into the hands of robbers
  • A prince in exile
  • Pleasures of town life
  • Illness and misery
  • A last rush through the sun

 

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Voyage en Arabie

Blunt, Anne. Voyage En Arabie. Pèlerinage an Nedjed, Berceau de La Race Arabe. Paris: Hachette, 1882.

Voyage en Arabie est un récit par Lady Anne Blunt du périple qu'elle effectua avec son époux, le poète Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, dans la région du Najd de l'actuelle Arabie saoudite durant l'hiver 1878–1879. Lady Anne (1837–1917), fille du comte de Lovelace et petite–fille de Lord Byron, est non seulement connue en tant que voyageuse aventurière du Moyen–Orient, mais également comme la cavalière et l'éleveuse de chevaux arabes la plus accomplie de son temps. Le livre, initialement publié en 1881 à Londres par John Murray & Sons sous le titre Un pèlerinage au Nejd, fut écrit par Lady Anne et amplement édité par Wilfrid. L'ouvrage présenté ici est la traduction française de Léopold Derôme (1833–1889), qui parut à Paris l'année suivante. Ce livre est l'unique production de Derôme, homme de lettres et bibliophile, ayant trait aux récits de voyages. Bien que Derôme ne voyageât jamais en Arabie, il écrivit une introduction de 68 pages dans laquelle il prétend pénétrer dans la psychologie profonde des Bédouins d'Arabie. En s'inspirant amplement des vues de Lady Anne et de Wilfrid Blunt, il écrit que « l'Arabe du désert est emblématique de sa race, le père et le chef de la ville arabe […], c'est–à–dire noble et de sang pur ». Durant leur voyage, les Blunt accompagnèrent les tribus nomades du Najd de l'Arabie du Nord, jusqu'à Bagdad. Ils séjournèrent avec la tribu des Al Rachid dans leur capitale fortifiée d'Haïl. Les Al Rachid étaient les rivaux traditionnels du clan des Saoud, partisans du mouvement islamique wahhabite. Wilfrid Blunt offrit même à un moment donné de servir auprès de l'émir al-Rashid comme ambassadeur pour l'Europe. À chaque étape du voyage, Lady Anne commente l'excellence des chevaux qu'elle rencontra et teste ses montures lors d'excursions de chasse. Le livre fut illustré par Gaston Vuillier (mort en 1915), artiste et illustrateur prolifique qui travailla pour différentes maisons d'édition et journaux parisiens. Pour ses dessins, il s'appuya sur les croquis et les descriptions de Lady Anne. Charles Barbant (mort en 1922), dont l'atelier était souvent utilisé par les principaux éditeurs français, fournit les planches gravées. La traduction inclut une carte spécifiquement préparée pour cette édition, des tableaux généalogiques des tribus Al Rashid et Saoud, ainsi que des annexes sur l'histoire de la secte wahhabite et les conditions géophysiques de l'Arabie du Nord. Elle ne contient pas les commentaires de Wilfrid Blunt dans les notes de fin sur les chemins de fer de la vallée de l'Euphrate ou de Lady Anne sur « notre campagne persane », disponibles dans l'édition d'origine anglaise.

 

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