Travel Writing 1700–1830 an Anthology
OXFORD WORLD’ S CLASSICS TRAVEL WRITING, 1700–1830 DURING the eighteenth century British travellers fanned out to every corner of the world, driven by diverse motives: scientific curi- osity, exploration, colonization, trade, diplomacy, and tourism, which began to flourish during this period. Those at home read voraciously in travel literature, which informed curious Britons about their nation’s activities overseas. The Empire, already estab- lished in the Caribbean and North America, was expanding in India and Africa and founding new outposts in the Pacific. Readers also enjoyed reports of travel closer to home: tours of the Continent and the British Isles themselves, whose beauty spots fuelled the rising fashion for picturesque and sublime scenery. Travel writing fed readers’ desire for adventure and exoticism and reinforced their pride in their nation’s achievements. It addressed scientific questions and gave philosophers food for thought. Political controversies were fought out in travel books, including the slavery question and the French Revolution debate. Above all, travellers’ descriptions of the wider world reveal their perception of themselves. Selected authors include Daniel Defoe, Joseph Addison, Mary Wortley Montagu, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, James Cook, William Bartram, Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth, Walter Scott, Olaudah Equiano, Mungo Park, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew ‘Monk’ Lewis, and Frances Trollope. ELIZABETH A. BOHLS is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. She is the author of Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics, 1716–1818, recently translated into Japanese, and of articles on travel writing and the novel. She is currently finishing a book on identity and place in writings from the colonial British Caribbean.
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