The Illustrated Virago Book Of Women Travellers - Softcover

Morris, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844084418 ISBN 13: 9781844084418

Publisher: Virago Press Ltd, 2006

Synopsis

Women move through the world differently from men. The constraints and perils, the perceptions and complex emotions women journey with are different. For many women, the inner landscape is as important as the outer. This does not mean that the woman traveller is not politically aware, historically astute or in touch with the customs and language of the place, but it does mean that a woman cannot travel and not be aware of her body and the limitations her sex presents. This illustrated edition of The Virago Book of Women Travellers captures 300 years of wanderlust. Some of the women are observers of the world in which they wander and others are more active. Often they are storytellers, weaving tales about the people they encounter. Whether it is curiosity about the world or escape from personal tragedy, these women approached their journeys with wit, intelligence, compassion and empathy for the lives of others.

About this title

Review:

Edited by travel writer Mary Morris and her journalist husband Larry O'Connor this beautifully illustrated book is an anthology of well-chosen extracts from the works of three centuries of women travellers, including the likes of Mary Wollsencraft, Gertrude Bell, Mary McCarthy and Vita Sackville-West.

It is only relatively recently that women have really been able to travel--to see and articulate a view of the world through their own eyes--and as Morris writes in her introduction this sets their experiences apart from those of their male counterparts, "Women, I have come to feel, move through the world differently than men. The constraints and perils the perceptions and complex emotions women journey with are different from those of men". A number of women in the book have pushed and overcome the bounds of what was considered to be reasonable or socially acceptable at the time. For example, riding a motorbike named Mephistopheles, the remarkable Sarah Hobson set off "Through Persia in Disguise" (she dresses as a man and calls herself John) in order to gain access to a forbidden Iranian shrine. During her two years in a Palestinian village on the West Bank Helen Winternitz was forced to overcome her own fears after she was attacked by the people she thought had accepted her.

Every extract selected for this book is utterly compelling--it is impossible to read an opening sentence without being drawn in for the duration. The 46 women authors are strikingly different from one another in terms of motive and personality but what unites them here is the unarguable quality of their writing. --Sarah Crawford

Review:

A truly wonderful gift book for all armchair travellers ... 300 years of wanderlust are captured by women who travelled the world. (BOOKS)

Attractive and engrossing anthology of women's travel writing (INDEPENDENT)

A terrific anthology of women as warm in all corners of "abroad" (SCOTSMAN)

The 47 authors have been responsible for some of the very best in travel writing, the results of some extraordinary journeys. Many have become classics. (SUNDAY TIMES)

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1844084418
• ISBN 13: 9781844084418
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Morris Mary