In "Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China," Robert Fortune chronicles his extensive travels across northern China during the mid-19th century, presenting a vivid portrayal of the cultural, social, and geographical landscapes he encountered. Written in a narrative style that combines descriptive detail with insightful analysis, Fortune's work serves not only as a travelogue but also as a significant ethnographic study. Set against the backdrop of Western imperialism and...

Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China is a vivid mid-nineteenth-century travel narrative combining botanical inquiry, ethnographic observation, and imperial-era reportage. Fortune records journeys through coastal and inland districts newly accessible to Europeans after the Opium War, describing gardens, nurseries, temples, markets, agriculture, and everyday customs. Its prose is plain yet attentive, shaped by the Victorian tradition of scientific travel writing, where ...

Robert Fortune, His second journey to China was for the East India company to obtain the finest tea plants to establish plantations in India. Once again he disguised himself as Chinese 'from a distant province', hired an interpreter, and headed into the tea growing regions of the country. His efforts resulted in the shipment of well over 20,000 plants and seedlings, in Wardian cases, to the Himalayas. Thus was established the tea industry in India.

In "Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China," Robert Fortune presents a meticulously detailed account of his travels and observations throughout northern China during the mid-19th century. Combining rich descriptive prose with a keen sense of environmental and cultural specificity, Fortune captures the landscapes, customs, and daily life of the regions he encountered. The work reflects the burgeoning Western fascination with Chinese culture during a time of increasing in...

Elibron Classics. Replica of 1852 edition by John Murray, London.This is an illustrated edition.Robert Fortune (1812 – 1880) was a Scottish botanist, plant hunter and traveller, best known for introducing tea plants from China to India. The books narrates about his expedition to the tea counties in China.

Described by readers as a ‘laugh out loud comedy caper’, Alaric’s Gold is the hilarious story of the race to discover the river-bed tomb of Alaric, the Goth who sacked Rome in 410 AD, and seize the fabulous hoard of treasure that was buried with him.Set in modern day Italy this is also a fast-paced and gripping thriller about the recovery of that treasure.The cast includes a roguish Italian Prime Minister, his favourite escort girl, dissolute diplomats, corrupt pol...

Supported by a family inheritance that gave her £500 a year, Mary Henrietta Kingsley traveled to Africa to complete the book her father had started. The subject was the culture of Africa and Kingsley stayed with local people while she learned to survive in the African jungles, studied cannibal tribes, discovered new species of fish, and climbed Mount Cameroon by a route untouched by any European before her. Kingsley's ideas greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and the African peo...

It was now exactly seven months since the balloon voyagers had been thrown on Lincoln Island. During that time, notwithstanding the researches they had made, no human being had been discovered. No smoke even had betrayed the presence of man on the surface of the island. No vestiges of his handiwork showed that either at an early or at a late period had man lived there. Not only did it now appear to be uninhabited by any but themselves, but the colonists were compelled to believe that it ne...

Nineteenth-century English traveler, writer, and natural historian Isabella Bird contributes this stunning narrative to the genre of early travelogues about Japan. The volume Unbeaten Tracks in Japan includes a series of essays recounting Bird's months-long sojourn in the Far East. Already a treat for fans of 19th century travel literature, the book is rendered all the more unique by virtue of Bird's perspective as a Western female traveling alone in Japan.

The authoritative original English version of a beloved classic.One of the world's best-loved stories of shipwreck and survival, The Swiss Family Robinson portrays a family's struggle to create a new life for themselves on a strange and fantastic tropical island. Blown off course by a raging storm, the family, a Swiss pastor, his wife, their four young sons, plus two dogs and a shipload of livestock, must rely on one another in order to adapt to their need...

The novel tells of a wealthy young man, Godfrey Morgan who, with his deportment instructor, Professor T. Artelett, embark from San Francisco, California on a round-the-world ocean voyage. They are cast away on an uninhabited Pacific island where they must endure a series of adversities. Later they encounter an African slave, Carefinotu, brought to the island by cannibals. In the end, the trio manage to work together and survive in an island.