AMERICA SEEN British and American Nineteenth Century Travels in the United States

AMERICA SEEN British and American Nineteenth Century Travels in the United States Submitted by Adam Neil Hallett to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English In November 2010 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. Adam Hallett America Seen Abstract The thesis discusses the development of nineteenth century responses to the United States. It hinges upon the premise that travel writing is narrative and that the travelling itself must therefore be constructed (or reconstructed) as narrative in order to make it available for writing. By applying narratology to the work of literary travel writers from Frances Trollope to Henry James I show the influence of travelling point of view and writing point of view on the narrative. Where these two points of view are in conflict I suggest reasons for this and identify signs in the narrative which display the disparity. There are several influences on point of view which are discussed in the thesis. The first is mode of travel: the development of steamboats and later locomotives increasingly divested travellers from the landscape through which they were travelling. I concentrate on Frances Trollope, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain travelling by boat, and Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James travelling by rail to examine how mode of travel alters travelling point of view and influences the form of travel writing. The second is the frontier: writing from a liminal space creates a certain point of view and makes travel not only a passage but a rite of passage. I examine travel texts which discuss the Western frontier as well as the transatlantic frontier. As the opportunity for these frontier experiences diminished through the spread of American culture and developments in travel technology, so the point of view of the traveller changes. A third point of view is provided by European ideas of nature and beauty in nature. The failure of these when put against American landscapes such as the Mississippi, prairies, and Niagara forms a significant part of the thesis, the fourth chapter of which examines writing on Niagara Falls in guidebooks and the travel texts of Frances Trollope, Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anthony Trollope, Twain and James. Other points of view include seeing the United States through earlier travel texts and adopting a more autobiographical interest in travelogues. In the final chapter the thesis contains a discussion of the nature of truth in travel writing and the tendency towards fictionalisation. The thesis concludes by considering the implications for truth of having various travelling and writing points of view impact upon constructing narrative out of travel. 2 Adam Hallett America Seen Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 List of Tables and Illustrations 4 Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 6 One: Travel Narratives 20 Two: Mode of Travel 62 Three: The Undiscovered Country 114 Four: The American Nightmare 148 Five: Some Stretchers 189 Conclusion 226 Bibliography 235 3 Adam Hallett America Seen List of Tables and Illustrations Table 19 Figure I: Across the Continent 90 Figure II: Westward the Course of Empire 90 Figure III: Surveyor’s Wagon in the Rockies 159 4 Adam Hallett America Seen Acknowledgements Over the last four years this thesis has taken shape and has become a narrative. With ―What‘s the story?‖ reverberating around my head early ideas have been refined into arguments and early bad ideas have been consigned to the recycle bin. This process has been fun, hard, painful and all-consuming. Many people have been helpful during this time, none more so than my supervisor, Bob Lawson-Peebles who has been patient, wise, helpful, and reassuring at all the right moments. The support of my parents has been invaluable and valuable; neither of which I will ever be able to repay in full. I owe thanks to the University of Exeter and its library and support staff. The British Library has been invaluable and the Lilly Library of the Indiana University deserves special mention for allowing me access to their Frances Trollope collection. Alexandra Wood‘s transatlantic support and affection has kept me focused, both looking forward and enjoying the now; long may it continue. The supporting cast is endless for the thesis, I hope it is worthy of everyone: Mark Whalan as my mentor; Jo Gill, Maeve Pearson, and Paul Williams for support and advice with teaching; Max Stites, Sean Willis, Rob Davidson, Mike Collins, Iain Barton, and others who are studying for or successfully gained PhD‘s; New York University, the Fulbright scholars group in New York and the new friends I made both English and American; everyone who has ever put me up on a sofa. I owe each and every one of these people (and many more) a debt of gratitude. 5 Adam Hallett America Seen Introduction America is a story. The United States is one particular story; a narrative constructed through texts which support a notion of progress and expansion. It is a narrative that is selective, jettisoning or rewriting what does not fit in the story. This study focuses on travel during the nineteenth century in the United States. It hinges upon the premise that travel writing is narrative and that the travelling itself must therefore be constructed (or reconstructed) as narrative in order to make it available for writing. It argues that travellers are trying to make their own American narrative, their own America. Peter Conrad writes that ―the reality of America is selective, optional, fantastic: there is an America for each of us‖ (4). His book is fittingly entitled Imagining America, which suggests that perhaps all that can ever be found in travel texts is imagined America. Or to be more precise, there is not one America but many imagined Americas, one ―for each of us‖. The idea that America is imagined before, during, and after travel is central to this discussion. With this in mind, I will discuss point of view in the travel and travel writing in the United States of a number of British and American authors from 1832 until 1907. These dates mark respectively the publication of Frances Trollope‘s Domestic Manners of the Americans and Henry James‘s The American Scene. This thesis is also a narrative and aims to tell a story: the development of the United States and perceptions of that nation in the period prescribed. I argue that from the beginning of the nineteenth century to James‘s work, several factors have influenced travellers‘ writing. These are technology, the landscape, and other texts (or intertextuality). Point of view is the central focus of my argument as it is this, I believe, which has affected alteration and been altered during the nineteenth century. Point of view, as discussed in the first chapter of this work, is both a visual and a narrative consideration. It affects how one sees the world and how one writes about it. Technological and artistic developments in the nineteenth century have in turn affected point of view in both senses. It is these developments which form the basis for this study. Finally, I examine the impact of changing point of view on the ‗truth‘ of travel texts; whether the developments undermine a truthful representation of America or encourage fiction. Truth and fiction, as discussed in the final chapter of the thesis, do not necessarily sit in binary opposition. Indeed, this story contains no binaries and no absolutes but is instead concerned with edges and frontiers; the point of view of the traveller. Henry James‘s thoughts on point of view and his theory of narrative provide much of the basis for investigation. To use a travel metaphor, he is my constant companion and it is fitting that his 6 Adam Hallett America Seen American travel book (from which this thesis takes its name) marks the close of the period considered in this study. Point of view is a fundamental interest throughout these pages and is explained in more detail in the next chapter. I explore three major landscape subjects for travel writers in the United States in the main body of this thesis: the Mississippi River, plains and prairies, and Niagara Falls. These are significant in terms of narrative and point of view: I argue that the experience of these three spaces was problematic for the traveller and that in turn revisiting these spaces was problematic for the writer. This difficulty is exposed in the narrative and by examining disparity between travel and writing. Travel in these spaces can be described in terms of a rite of passage and described as a liminal experience; on the ―margin (or limen, signifying ‗threshold‘ in Latin)‖ (V. Turner 5) as taken from the theory of anthropologists Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, introduced later. ‗Rite of passage‘ is particularly useful as it implies a link between movement and a change of state or status; the transatlantic passage is an excellent example of the two ideas of change and movement. It also represents one of the definitions of narrative given by Schmid in the next section. The implication of both of these on point of view is discussed in these pages. For the purpose of this work these spaces are also in a state of movement themselves; ―the liminal condition celebrates the element of passage itself‖ (Fender, Sea Changes 121).

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