Victorian travelers and the opening of China, 1842-1907
By: Susan Schoenbauer Thurin.
Publisher: Ohio University Perss
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 253
Subjects: China -- Description and travel.; China -- History -- 19th century.; China -- Relations -- Great Britain.; Great Britain -- Relations -- China.
Description: Three men and three women - a plant collector, a merchant and his novelist wife, a military officer, and two famous women travelers - went to China between the Opium War and the formal end of the Opium trade, 1842-1907. Their travel records and novels became a significant source of many of the West's impressions of that far-off land.

All of the writers had a degree of contemporary importance or fame and represented different views that lent significance to their writing about China. Robert Fortune, a horticulturalist, and Archibald Little, a merchant, represent travel and the business of empire. Constance Gordon Cumming, Henry Knollys, and Isabella Bird Bishop were adventure travelers. Alicia Little, wife and novelist, helpmeet and humanitarian, was a woman of empire.

Susan Schoenbauer Thurin's study of these writings presents a rich tapestry of impressions, biases, and cultural perspectives that inform our own understanding of the Victorians and their views of the world outside their own.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-245) and index.