Travelling through the wartorn Balkans with her husband on what proved to be a wholly useless diplomatic mission to Constantinople, Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) left a vivid, informative, clever account of her adventures in the mysterious, sophisticated culture of Ottoman palaces, bathing places and courts which - even as her husband's career was falling apart - she could not have enjoyed more.
'And O, Angelica, what has become of you, this present Sunday morning when I can't attend to the sermon; and, more difficult question than that, what has become of Me as I was when I sat by your side?
Racked with fever, virtually broke and earning a precarious living through sending back to London the plumes of beautiful birds, Wallace (1823-1913) ultimately became one of the most heroic and admirable of all scientist-explorers.
The literary world was shocked when in 1889, at the height of his career, Robert Louis Stevenson announced his intention to settle permanently on the Pacific island of Samoa.
'it appeared to me that the greatest and best feelings of the human heart were paralyzed by the relative positions of slave and owner' In Domestic Manners of the Americans, Frances Trollope recounts her travels through America between 1827 and 1830, describing her voyage up the Mississippi from New Orleans, a two-year stay in Cincinnati, and a subsequent tour of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.
Endlessly restless and endlessly curious, Isabella Bird (1831-1904) travelled the world looking for new experiences, but never more delightfully than in her pony-bound adventures in the Colorado Territory at a time when it was only notionally under the control of the American authorities.
'it appeared to me that the greatest and best feelings of the human heart were paralyzed by the relative positions of slave and owner' In Domestic Manners of the Americans, Frances Trollope recounts her travels through America between 1827 and 1830, describing her voyage up the Mississippi from New Orleans, a two-year stay in Cincinnati, and a subsequent tour of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.
One of the great derisive monuments to the imbecilities of the tourist experience, Mark Twain's (1835-1910) account of his tour with a group of fellow Americans around the sights of Europe is both hilarious and touching, Twain's exasperation and dismay at the phoney and exploitative being matched by his excitement and pleasure in the genuinely beautiful.
The literary world was shocked when in 1889, at the height of his career, Robert Louis Stevenson announced his intention to settle permanently on the Pacific island of Samoa.
The American Henry James's descriptions of the countryside, monuments, universities, cathedrals, castles, customs and manners of the English are filled with elegant charm and good humour.
Disguised as a Persian dervish, Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) set out to become the first Christian to penetrate the Muslim shrines of Medina and Mecca - a reckless stunt that would have resulted in his being executed if discovered.
From the famous stunt girl reporter who wrote the well-known expose, Ten Days in a Mad-House, this 1888 travelogue details Nellie Bly's experience of living in Mexico in the late nineteenth century.
As Marco Polo (1254-1324) returned home across the Indian Ocean, after years in the service of Genghis Khan, he picked up a fabulous array of stories from sailors and merchants, about the peoples of the region, some reliable, some wholly implausible, but all fascinating.
'And O, Angelica, what has become of you, this present Sunday morning when I can't attend to the sermon; and, more difficult question than that, what has become of Me as I was when I sat by your side?
A great, innovative and restless thinker, the young Humboldt (1769-1859) went on his epochal journey to the New World during a time of revolutionary ferment across Europe.
Between the end of the nineteenth century and the Second World War Macmillan published a much-loved and extremely successful series of books under the title of 'Highways and Byways'.
Contemptuous of Europe's 'civilising mission' in Africa, Mary Kingsley's (1862-1900) extraordinary journeys through tropical west Africa are a remarkable record, both of a world which has vanished and of a writer and explorer of immense bravery, wit and humanity.
Touring the southern counties of England by foot and on horseback from the white cliffs of Dover to the heart of the countryside, William Cobbett recorded a swiftly changing way of life with energy, wit, passion and principle.
Dampier's (1651-1715) adventures and writing inspired both Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels, but in his own right he was a remarkable, observant and enjoyable writer - whether on a woefully mishandled pirate raid in Spanish America or on a desperate journey to Sumatra in an open boat or on the habits of manatees or bats.
1948: with post-war Britain's sense 'dulled by traffic and by bombs', this pocket-sized book was a clarion call for readers to rediscover the beauties of the idyllic English countryside.
Reisererzählungen einer Rucksacktour von Leipzig durch Osteuropa bis in die MongoleiIn diesem Buch zur erfolgreichen MDR TV-Serie "Ostwärts" erzählt die gewitzte Journalistin Julia Finkernagel launig und geistreich von ihrer ganz persönlichen Premiere als "Go East"-Travellerin, den sehr speziellen Reise-Highlights und kleineren und größeren Katastrophen auf der Tour von Leipzig bis tief in die Mongolei.
First published in 1898, and now a major TV series, Moonfleet is a riveting adventure story full of drama, mystery, revenge, pursuit, smuggling, pirates, and romance, sharing its literary canon with Treasure Island and Kidnapped.