The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing

by Peter Hulme (Editor), Tim Youngs (Editor)

The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing is a broad, specially commissioned introduction to travel writing in English between 1500 and the present. Five essays survey the period's travel writing; six more focus on areas of particular interest--Arabia, the Amazon, Ireland, Calcutta, the Congo and California, while the final three analyze some of the theoretical and cultural dimensions of this enigmatic, influential genre of writing. An extensive further reading list plus a detailed chronology are included.

Genres: Travel, Criticism, History

358 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2002

About the author

Peter Hulme is Professor of Literature at the University of Essex. He is the author of Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Native Caribbean, 1492-1797 and Remnants of Conquest: The Caribs and Their Visitors, 1877-1998. He is co-editor, with William H. Sherman, of The Tempest and Its Travels and, with Tim Young, of the Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing.

Reviews

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. There's some really interesting stuff here, although in a few of the essays the interesting stuff is smothered by some rather turgid writing - I know that academic style isn't riveting at the best of times, but still. In fairness, most of the chapters here (and most of the authors) are readable enough, and their topic - the development and themes of travel writing - genuinely held my attention. Most interesting to me was Part One (of three), which dealt broadly with surveys of the state of travel writing in different time periods. This historical approach focused on the development and social context of the genre, and while I enjoy travel writing I never appreciated how broad a history it has before. Also well worth reading were the case studies of Part Two, which looked at how travel writing constructed narratives - not always truthful ones - about Arabia, the Amazon, Tahiti, Calcutta, Ireland, the Congo, and California. For all the different destinations, the one shared characteristic of analysis here seems to be how much travel writing prioritises the expectations and culture of the writer, as opposed to the destination the writer is ostensibly (and completely unobjectively) observing. Which makes total sense once you think about it...

[Maja - BibliophiliaDK ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite pleased with this book. It was easy to navigate in, had a lot of good points and essays with good notes. I liked the general layout of the book with the different topic and sub-topics. I was, however, really disappointed with the lack of Asian travel writing. There was next to nothing about China, Thailand, China and other big Asian countries.

[Selim Erdem]

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