Journal of a Residence in Chile During the Year 1822, and a Voyage from Chile to Brazil in 1823

by Maria Graham, Jennifer Hayward (Editor)

In 1821, Maria Dundas Graham sailed for South America on H.M.S. Doris, a ship sent to protect British mercantile interests in that volatile region. After her husband, the ship's captain Thomas Graham, died en route, the newly widowed Maria Graham landed in Valparaiso, Chile. Resisting all efforts to hustle her back to England, Graham, a professional writer and highly educated woman, rented herself a cottage in the Chilean--not the British--section of Valparaiso and traveled through Chile for nine months until driven out by a major earthquake and the threat of civil war.

The resulting Journal of a Residence in Chile (1824) tells the gripping story of a gothic heroine in a dangerous but fascinating new land. The author has an eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, and so she creates a travel narrative with a compelling plot and vividly realized characters.

Among the first travel narratives authored by a woman, Graham's Journal establishes literary strategies for travel texts to follow and shows clear differences from male narratives of the same period. The Journal, with Jennifer Hayward's illuminating new biographical and critical essays and appendices, is also invaluable for scholars and general readers interested in Latin America. Graham provides one of the few firsthand accounts in English of the independence movements in South America, meets with many of the major historical figures involved, provides detailed historical and political readings of events, and depicts Chile of the 1820s in accurate and loving detail.

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1824

About the author

Maria Graham, later Maria, Lady Callcott (sometimes credited as Maria Callcott), was a British writer of travel books and children's books, and also an accomplished illustrator.

Reviews

[Kirsty McCracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forgot to post this at the beginning of the month so I guess it's technically Book 50 but it's going up as Book 55.

Maria Graham led a most extraordinary life. She was able to follow her husband all around the world and luckily for us she wrote about it. Sadly at the beginning of this volume she loses her husband to an unmentioned malady. However she defies what was expected of her and stays on in Chile and explores the continent with her friends - old and new. And thanks to her being a woman we get a glimpse into the daily life of women and their families in Chile at the time, something we likely wouldn't have seen had she been a man.

Also, Forgotten Books are a publishing company who take undeservedly forgotten manuscripts and writings and print them in their originally published style. Pretty damn awesome of them, hey?

3.5* for a life well lived.

[QQJJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this travel journal by an Englishwoman in 19th century Chile. She happened to be in Chile to write about a major earthquake and a critical time of Chilean independence, as well as descriptions of flora, fauna, geography, housing, customs, and agriculture. I appreciated this early perspective one of the first professional female travel writers.