Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English short story writer, dramatist, essayist, and the most popular novelist to come from the Victorian era. He created some of the most iconic characters and stories in English literature, including Mr. Pickwick from «The Pickwick Papers», Ebenezer Scrooge from «A Christmas Carol», David Copperfield, and Pip from «Great Expectations», to name a few. In 1842, Dickens and his wife travelled to the United State ...
Mary H. Kingsley (1862-1900) was an English writer and explorer who, in 1893, set out to complete the work of her father in the study of sacrificial rites and fetishes. She arrived in Sierra Leone and spent the next four years living with local people, learning the skills necessary to survive the African jungles. Although she was trained as a nurse, most people at the time were shocked that a single, unaffiliated woman would brave such dangerous ...
The great American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937) here gives us her colorful and textured travel memoir «In Morroco» (1920). Still a deeply energized work, Wharton imbues the reader with a sense of wonder that served as the impetus for her travels into this exotic Northern African land. Edith Wharton made her name as a novelist closely associated with the prolific Henry James. Their personal and literary kinship may be seen in much of her lo ...
D. H. Lawrence, in full David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), was an English author of novels, poems, plays, short stories, essays and travel books. He is valued by many as a visionary thinker and significant representative of modernism, as well as one of the finest writers in English literature. His novels «Sons and Lovers» (1913), «The Rainbow» (1915), and «Women in Love» (1920) made him one of the most influential English writers of the 20th ce ...
William Bartram (1739-1823) was America's first native born naturalist, artist, and botanist and first author in the modern genre of writers who portrayed nature through scientific examination as well as personal understanding. The son of noted botanist, John Bartram, William, from his mid teens, was noted for the quality of his botanic and ornithological drawings. His role in the maintenance of his father's botanic garden sparked Will ...
"The Travels of Sir John Mandeville" which was written in Anglo-Norman French is believed to have first appeared sometime in the mid to late 14th century. It soon would be translated into many other languages and would subsequently be very popular in its time. While the identity of Sir John Mandeville is thought to possibly be based on a real historical figure the work seems to be largely one of fiction. «The Travels of Sir John Mandeville» ...
Based on a trip with his brother in 1839, «A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers» is an excellent example of Thoreau's talent for naturalistic writing. In exquisite detail Thoreau depicts the nature that surrounds him over the course of his trip. One of only two books to be published during his lifetime, Thoreau began work on «A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers» following his brother's death in 1842, however the work was n ...
Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald of Wales, was born around 1146 in Wales. A fascinating twelfth century churchman, he became one of the most important English chroniclers of the High Middle Ages, leading the way for modern historiography. In 1118, Gerald set out to explore Wales with his companion Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury. Their journey is chronicled here in «The Itinerary Through Wales». In «The Description of Wales», Gerald of Wales doc ...
Scottish-born naturalist and writer John Muir undertook a daring adventure in 1867, just a few years after the Civil War. After recovering from an injury at a saw mill, Muir decided that he wanted to explore the world. He left his life in Indiana and walked one thousand miles to Florida. Without any real direction or purpose other than to study the flora and fauna, Muir trekked south through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Flor ...
