Reviews for Maiden Voyages: Writings of Women Travelers

The average rating for Maiden Voyages: Writings of Women Travelers based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-09-12 00:00:00 Steve Duthie 52 excerpts from travel tales by women voyagers in the 1800's and 1900's. My favorites were: 1. Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley (good sense of humor) 2. The English Governess at the Siamese Court by Anna Leonowens (original basis for story of Anna and the King of Siam, but shows the true story was a lot darker than the musical portrayed) 3. On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers by Kate Marsden (what an ordeal for her and the lepers had it even worse!) 4. Sister of the Road by Box Car Bertha (harsh realities of a woman hobo riding the rails) 5. Nine Pounds of Luggage by Maud Parrish (good sense of humor) 6. Klee Wyck by Emily Carr (Native American culture) 7. Times and Places by Emily Hahn (becoming an opium addict in China) 8. Turkish Reflections by Mary Lee Settle (searching for ancient ruins with a mime guide) 9. Through Persia in Disguise by Sarah Hobson (disguised as man to go where women prohibited) 10. Travels with Fortune: An African Adventure by Christina Dodwell (paddling down river with inescapable mosquitos and other delights) 11. Season of Stones by Helen Winternitz (attacked while doing good deeds in Palestine) 12. The Holyland Buffet by Gwendolyn MacEwen (good sense of humor)

Review # 2 was written on 2018-07-23 00:00:00 Linda Harper Maiden Voyages is a compilation of excerpts collected by the excellent travel writer Mary Morris in collaboration with her husband, writer Larry O'Connor. The collection begins with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose work Embassy to Constantinople was published in 1763, and follows a roughly chronological order through the next to last excerpt from The Road Through Miyama by Leila Philip, published in 1989. Not all the women travelers represented here acted on their own, but every one of them evidences a fierce independent strength, an absolute necessity for women daring to go abroad. As Maud Parrish wrote in Nine Pounds of Luggage: "There wasn't any liberty in San Francisco for ordinary women. But I found some. No jobs for girls in offices like there are now." The striking thing about reading this collection of women writers is akin to reading Virginia Woolf's celebrated essay, A Room of Her Own-it is amazing how much progress in women's rights has been accomplished in such a short period of time. But as much as I would like to congratulate our society on how much more enlightened it is, there is still progress to be made in eradicating the sexism that remains. The joy in reading this volume and Woolf's essay is the realization that things are getting better. Women's rights are not the only subject touched on in this volume, although it is in the forefront. Other things that can be gained in touring with these travelers are pictures of cultures now long gone, such as the "mountain men" and goldrush societies in Colorado and Alaska, respectively, to the days when the journey to Nepal required a mastery of lowering your body temperature rather than the greasing of bureaucratic palms. The only fault with this volume is the staccato nature of each entry, lifted as it is from the volume where it originally appeared. There's a bright spot to even that, however, because you know that if you run across an essay that you like, you can find more of it in the author's complete work.