The right sort of woman
Subtitle: victorian travel writers and the fitness of an empire
By: by Precious McKenzie
Contributors: Bird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy), 1831-1904; Dixie, Florence, Lady, 1857-1905; Kingsley, Mary Henrietta, 1862-1900; Savory, Isabel; Le Blond, Aubrey, Mrs., d. 1934
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Language: eng
Number of pages: 150
ISBN-13: 9781443836371
Subjects: Biography; Women authors; Women travelers; English prose literature; Travel in literature
Description: The rhetoric surrounding Empire, freedom, and adventure are nowhere more striking than in nineteenth-century British women's travel writing. The Right Sort of Woman charts the progression of British feminism in relationship to exploration of the Empire. Precious McKenzie introduces us to the lesser known writings of Florence Douglas Dixie, Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond, and Isabel Savory, and also revisits the more widely read travel texts of Isabella Bird Bishop and Mary Kingsley. Their travel writings explore the hotly debated Victorian ideologies of femininity, equality, and fitness. McKenzie contends that British women travel writers found opportunities for freedom when traveling abroad. Women travelers could participate in what were traditionally men's sports: hunting, riding, canoeing, shooting, mountaineering when far away from strict Victorian social codes of behavior. Because of their athletic pursuits while abroad, British women travelers found their health improved as did their self-reliance and self-confidence. McKenzie considers how sports shaped the British feminist movement and then became integral to the revolutionary image of the New Woman.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [135]-144) and index.