Life and Travels of Isabella Bird

A biography of a tenacious Englishwoman who defied Victorian-era societal expectations and sought adventure around the world.Isabella Bird traveled to the wildest places on earth, but at home in Britain she lay in bed, hardly able to write: ''an invalid at home and a Samson abroad.''In Japan she rode on a ''yezo savage'' through foaming floods along unbeaten tracks, and was followed in the city by...