Spinsters Abroad. Victorian Lady Explorers

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good
Publisher: Wiley Blackwell
Publisher Place: Uk
Publisher Year: 1989
Edition: Reprint

Description:

Publishers Description: What spurred so many Victorian women to leave behind their secure middle-class homes and undertake perilous journeys of thousands of miles, tramping through tropical forests, caravanning across deserts, and scaling mountain ranges And how were they able to travel so freely in exotic lands, when at home such independence was denied to them This book draws upon the diaries and writings of more than 50 such women to describe their experiences and aspirations. Many of the journeys they made are re-constructed - Mary Gaunts voyage along the West African coast, Mary Kingsleys jungle treks, Amelia Edwardss thousand-mile journey up the Nile and Isabella Birds ascent of the Rocky Mountains are just a few. Were women such as Mary Kingsley and Isabella Bird simply the intrepid blue-stockings of popular history, or early feminists Dea Birkett aruges that they were in fact neither - dissatisfied with the restricted lives prescribed for them by Victorian society, they sought and found new horizons abroad, and a degree of freedom and respect only afforded in their own countries to men.

ISBN: 9780631156048