Description

The Englishwoman in America, the first of Isabella Bird's numerous travel-related publications, was released in 1856. She recalls in great detail the difficulties and annoyances she had while traveling by road to Boston, Cincinnati, and Chicago as well as while traveling by sea from England to Halifax. The book's 20 chapters are jam-packed with stories of pickpockets, suitcase thieves, filthy hotels, and polite Americans who have the unpleasant habit of spitting on the ground, all of which are finely observed and amusingly described. Bird acknowledges having a sadly skewed perspective of America similar to that of the English, but finds much to appreciate in this new nation teeming with energetic immigrants of many racial and ethnic backgrounds.This 19th-century travelogue describes the author's mid-1850s summer excursions. intelligent, perceptive, bold, and able to synthesize. She displays no remorse for a section of the Canadian populace, but rather a contempt. This is a tour de force that pays careful attention to admirable but underappreciated aspects of that era's American culture, and it should unquestionably be noted and preserved.The Englishwoman in America is a great travelogue that gives readers a vibrant and intimate look at America in the middle of the nineteenth century.