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The Virago Book of Women Travellers
The extraordinary women whose writings are included in this remarkable collection—Gertrude Bell, Edith Wharton, Isabella Bird, Kate O'Brien, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu among others—are all observers of the world in which they wander. Mary McCarthy conveys the vitality of Florence while Willa Cather's essay Lavandou foreshadows her descriptions of the French countryside in later novels. Other authors are also active participants in the culture they are visiting: Leila Philip harvests rice with chiding Japanese women, and Emily Carr wins the respect and trust of the female chieftain of an Indian village in Northern Canada. Whether it is curiosity about the world, a thirst for adventure, or a need for escape from personal tragedy, all of the authors are united by their wit, intelligence, compassion, and the empathy they hold for the lives of those they encounter along the way.
438 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 1994
71 people are currently reading
995 people want to read
About the author
Mary Morris
104 books359 followersI was born in Chicago and, though I have lived in New York for many years, my roots are still in the Midwest and many of my stories are set there. As a writer my closest influences are Willa Cather and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I travel as much as I can and travel fuels everything I do. When I travel, I keep extensive journals which are handwritten and include watercolors, collage as well as text. All my writing begins in these journals. I tend to move between fiction and nonfiction. I spent seventeen years working on my last novel, The Jazz Palace. I think I learned a lot writing that book because the next one only took three years., Gateway to the Moon. Gateway which will be out in March 2018 is historical fiction about the secret Jews of New Mexico. I am also working on my fifth travel memoir about my travels alone. This one is about looking for tigers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
June 5, 2021
A very competent chronology of women’s travel writing is presented by Virago. Typically of books such as these some excepts hold the attention better than others as there is something for everyone or anyone interested in the diverse but seemingly niche travel writings of women through the ages.
First published in 1994 and edited by Mary Morris I was a little slow to take in comments she made in her Introduction. On rereading, after finishing the last except proper, she at one point writes “Women, I feel, move through the world differently than men. The constraint’s and perils, the perceptions and complex emotions women journey with are different than men. The fear of rape for example….” “….or just crossing the street at night, most dramatically effects the way they move around the world.” Further examples were given and with that the editor has a point. The more I thought about what I had read the more I realised that many of the excerpts did indeed include the writer letting the reader know their fears in certain situations. My lack of thoughtfulness on this subject on my read through of this compendium does me no favours.
The Introduction also made comment that this was a collection that looked to show past and recent examples of feminist literature. I had to admit that as a male reader I also felt bereft of understanding this when reading through but gained an understanding when reading the Intro after.
I did find myself more attracted to the later day writers than the early years, I have to admit, but I am unable to give a reason why. Maybe there was less writing on their surrounds and more sophisticated commentary on their happenings? I don’t know and I feel ham-fisted trying to explain it. An example is that is an excerpt from Annie Dillard’s book A stone to Talk that blew me away with the brilliance of the prose and observation. A few earlier writers just plodded along but that is probably unfair on my part. Just maybe I should have taken more notice of that introduction.
Be that as it may, as inarticulate as my musings are, this is a good book for those who may have an interest in women’s travel writing over the ages. Recommended to those with that interest.
First published in 1994 and edited by Mary Morris I was a little slow to take in comments she made in her Introduction. On rereading, after finishing the last except proper, she at one point writes “Women, I feel, move through the world differently than men. The constraint’s and perils, the perceptions and complex emotions women journey with are different than men. The fear of rape for example….” “….or just crossing the street at night, most dramatically effects the way they move around the world.” Further examples were given and with that the editor has a point. The more I thought about what I had read the more I realised that many of the excerpts did indeed include the writer letting the reader know their fears in certain situations. My lack of thoughtfulness on this subject on my read through of this compendium does me no favours.
The Introduction also made comment that this was a collection that looked to show past and recent examples of feminist literature. I had to admit that as a male reader I also felt bereft of understanding this when reading through but gained an understanding when reading the Intro after.
I did find myself more attracted to the later day writers than the early years, I have to admit, but I am unable to give a reason why. Maybe there was less writing on their surrounds and more sophisticated commentary on their happenings? I don’t know and I feel ham-fisted trying to explain it. An example is that is an excerpt from Annie Dillard’s book A stone to Talk that blew me away with the brilliance of the prose and observation. A few earlier writers just plodded along but that is probably unfair on my part. Just maybe I should have taken more notice of that introduction.
Be that as it may, as inarticulate as my musings are, this is a good book for those who may have an interest in women’s travel writing over the ages. Recommended to those with that interest.
March 3, 2015
A trove for further reading and social history of (largely) colonial travel by women. The quality is uneven, but I was immediately enchanted by the extract from Andrea Lee's
Russian Journal
. I would have said it was all White European women travellers, but Lee is African American. I wonder to what extent travel-for-pleasure (or 'adventure') itself is a specifically colonial activity, linked to our sense of entitlement to consume, appropriate, place and police the Other. Lee's memoir stands in contrast to the sense of this, elsewhere much in evidence.
March 7, 2017
I am an enormous fan of Virago, as anyone who knows even a little of my reading habits can probably discern. To my delight, I spotted The Virago Book of Women Travellers online at a ridiculously low price, and decided to treat myself (another of my favourite things in life is travelling, after all!). I had originally intended to read it over the Christmas holidays, but true to form at such busy times, I did not really get a chance to do so. I thus picked it up in February, just before a wonderful trip to The Netherlands.
The selection of extracts here is extensive and varied, and encompasses an incredible scope of geographical locations. Societally and historically it is most interesting, and some extracts - Beryl Markham's about elephant hunting, for instance - are very of their time (thankfully so, in this case!). Some of my favourite authors were collected here - Vita Sackville-West, and Rebecca West, as well as Rose Macaulay. As ever with such collections, there were several entries which I did not quite enjoy as much as the rest, but each was undoubtedly fascinating in its own way. I very much enjoyed the 'can do' attitude which every single one of the writers had, regardless of circumstance or destination, and very much liked the way in which this singular thread bound all of them together. The chronological ordering made for a splendid reading experience.
The Virago Book of Women Travellers is a marvellous volume in which to dip here and there, to reconnect with old favourites, and to discover new writers to find, and new women to admire. I adore the idea of thematic travelogues, and there is something really rather special and inspiring about this one. It has brought some marvellous women, both in terms of personality and writing ablity, to my attention, and I can only conclude this review by saying that it is a joy for any women traveller to read.
The selection of extracts here is extensive and varied, and encompasses an incredible scope of geographical locations. Societally and historically it is most interesting, and some extracts - Beryl Markham's about elephant hunting, for instance - are very of their time (thankfully so, in this case!). Some of my favourite authors were collected here - Vita Sackville-West, and Rebecca West, as well as Rose Macaulay. As ever with such collections, there were several entries which I did not quite enjoy as much as the rest, but each was undoubtedly fascinating in its own way. I very much enjoyed the 'can do' attitude which every single one of the writers had, regardless of circumstance or destination, and very much liked the way in which this singular thread bound all of them together. The chronological ordering made for a splendid reading experience.
The Virago Book of Women Travellers is a marvellous volume in which to dip here and there, to reconnect with old favourites, and to discover new writers to find, and new women to admire. I adore the idea of thematic travelogues, and there is something really rather special and inspiring about this one. It has brought some marvellous women, both in terms of personality and writing ablity, to my attention, and I can only conclude this review by saying that it is a joy for any women traveller to read.
March 30, 2010
I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The idea is interesting--four hundred years of women writing about their adventures. What could go wrong?
What went wrong is that a lot of these stories are just plain boring. Sometimes it's because the essays are very old, and written in an archaic style that's hard to follow. A lot of the early ones suffer in comparison to modern travel writing, which is not necessarily better, but which tends to be funnier and snappier than older works.
Another problem with these stories is that a lot of them are excerpted from longer works, so they have no real beginning, end, or story arc. This makes them a little hard to get into. Also, I don't like to say it, but the fact is that some of these narrators are a little tiresome. Some really are admirable, adventurous women, but some are over-zealous missionaries, irritating idle rich women, or unstable people on weird trips that are more like cries for help than actual vacations.
As a writer, I found it interesting to see how travel writing has evolved over the centuries. As a reader, though, I found myself frequently checking to see how much of the book I had left--and wishing it were less.
What went wrong is that a lot of these stories are just plain boring. Sometimes it's because the essays are very old, and written in an archaic style that's hard to follow. A lot of the early ones suffer in comparison to modern travel writing, which is not necessarily better, but which tends to be funnier and snappier than older works.
Another problem with these stories is that a lot of them are excerpted from longer works, so they have no real beginning, end, or story arc. This makes them a little hard to get into. Also, I don't like to say it, but the fact is that some of these narrators are a little tiresome. Some really are admirable, adventurous women, but some are over-zealous missionaries, irritating idle rich women, or unstable people on weird trips that are more like cries for help than actual vacations.
As a writer, I found it interesting to see how travel writing has evolved over the centuries. As a reader, though, I found myself frequently checking to see how much of the book I had left--and wishing it were less.
Read
September 13, 2016To be honest I didn't read every piece - some were plain old boring, some didn't engage as stand alone pieces and some had a horrible whiff of colonialism and noble savage bullshit...I didn't like the format and layout of the book at all. There were a few pieces I really enjoyed though. It got to the point where I felt like I was doing homework and so I skipped the boring ones and read the ones that struck me. Life's too short for reading that isn't pleasurable.
April 3, 2021
I really enjoyed this selection of travel writings by a bunch of different women from all different time periods.
May 26, 2021
A variety of authors made this a fascinating, inspiring and at times a frustrating read. In hindsight I would not have read this as a stand alone book but instead when I was in the mood for a short read, like short stories. Some of the snapshots made me want to but the actual books (now added to my evergrowing list). Others I found tedious and some annoying. However is was wonderful to see so many women travellers through history and going thorough some places I would have assumed to be quite hostile. A wonderful window into a world not too long ago.
November 8, 2008
I bought this book a few hours ago and have already read a number of the writings in this collection. In Le Lavandou, September 10, 1902 from Willa Cather in Europe, my own feelings about travel could not be more beautifully expressed: "... One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere....". In the excerpt from Wall-to-Wall, Mary Morris evokes the beauty and tormented past of Leningrad and her description of the White Nights has me longing for my own experience of the Midnight Sun. I love how she personalizes her experience of the city - realizing that she is having a child, she writes of "the small body contained within my own" and that "We lay there together for the first time, one inside the other, inside the bed, inside the alcove, the room, like those Russian dolls I carried with me as gifts..". This is a book to return to again and again.
November 17, 2022
The editing of this book drove me crazy. This collection of various women's writing is presented in vaguely chronological order, but there are no dates as to when any of the pieces were written or published! Why would you not have the dates of the publication we're about to read? Or the location, for that matter, as the writings are from locations across the globe. Not having a date or location stated upfront made it difficult to quickly figure out where and when each piece was written. This became increasingly frustrating the more I read.
Sometimes a year was mentioned off-handedly in the "intro" paragraphs by the editor. When this happened, it felt like putting together a puzzle between the date of the woman's lifetime, the year travelled and the year published. Sometimes those intro paragraphs came across as judgemental and awkward. They had no consistency throughout the book. Some of the selections of writing seemed absolutely random and without purpose. One of them was barely three pages long. The editor included parts of her own travel journal among the writings, and, of course, hers was one of the longest pieces in the book. That felt self-indulgent and only increased my frustration with this book.
I found several women whose works I want to read and I appreciate a book dedicated to female travellers. I loved travelling through time and place and reading about how world used to be and how women experienced it. With a few small and simple changes to the editing, this book would have been much more enjoyable and easier to read. As it stands, I was so frustrated with the way this was edited that I can't rate it higher than 3.5 stars.
Sometimes a year was mentioned off-handedly in the "intro" paragraphs by the editor. When this happened, it felt like putting together a puzzle between the date of the woman's lifetime, the year travelled and the year published. Sometimes those intro paragraphs came across as judgemental and awkward. They had no consistency throughout the book. Some of the selections of writing seemed absolutely random and without purpose. One of them was barely three pages long. The editor included parts of her own travel journal among the writings, and, of course, hers was one of the longest pieces in the book. That felt self-indulgent and only increased my frustration with this book.
I found several women whose works I want to read and I appreciate a book dedicated to female travellers. I loved travelling through time and place and reading about how world used to be and how women experienced it. With a few small and simple changes to the editing, this book would have been much more enjoyable and easier to read. As it stands, I was so frustrated with the way this was edited that I can't rate it higher than 3.5 stars.
December 1, 2025
3.5 ⭐️, rounded up because I love the basic premise of this book. Much of women's writing I read lingers around the domestic or, more often, the workings of their inner selves. I am endlessly fascinated by these, but this book was a departure. In the introduction, the editor Mary Morris writes that there are only two plots in all of literature. Either you go on a journey or a stranger comes to your town. For many, many years, women were denied the journey and therefore much of their lives were spent awaiting the stranger. This book shows that there were exceptions. It collects excerpts from the travel writing of ~50 fascinating women, written during the late 17th century all the way to the 21st.
Some of the early writing is interesting, not so much for the writing itself but for the fact that these women manage to throw off the societal and familial shackles and actually ventured out into the world. For me, anything they experienced or observed is worth reading about. As the book progresses, you can see the writing also grow more sophisticated and reflecting the changing social mores, the ebbs and flows of freedom, and how the writers' internal workings, prejudices, and the lack thereof, shape how they see the world.
Very few pieces are complete or standalone by themselves, which is also a drawback of the book. But it did make me want to look up these women and see what else they'd got up to in their lives.
Some of the early writing is interesting, not so much for the writing itself but for the fact that these women manage to throw off the societal and familial shackles and actually ventured out into the world. For me, anything they experienced or observed is worth reading about. As the book progresses, you can see the writing also grow more sophisticated and reflecting the changing social mores, the ebbs and flows of freedom, and how the writers' internal workings, prejudices, and the lack thereof, shape how they see the world.
Very few pieces are complete or standalone by themselves, which is also a drawback of the book. But it did make me want to look up these women and see what else they'd got up to in their lives.
January 20, 2025
Possibly the best anthology of travel literature I have ever read. I took my time reading it so as to be able to give each author's work time to settle but thoroughly enjoyed each. There are many fantastic quotes within this book. Some of my favourites are listed below.
"I raged at the slow progress of human reason." -Flora Tristan
"If you remain there, I remain here; and I have, beside my personal strength, the aid of two very heavy trunks, and a rifle placed against the door at about the height of a man's head. If you are not already acquainted with its contents, there is every chance that you willl become so if you open this door by violence." -Eliza Farnham
"But whilst it may be freely admitted that masculine eccentricity or originality of character is to be admired, very few will allow that any departure from an ordinary rule is approvable, or even justifiable, in a woman." -Mabel Sharman Crawford
"And if the exploring of foreign lands is not the highest end or the most useful occupation of feminine existence, it is at least more improving, as well as more amusing, than the crochet-work or embroidery with which, at home, so many ladies seek to beguile the tedium of their unoccupied days." - Mabel Sharman Crawford
" The rearguard of progress passes unmolested over the same ground the van traversed amidst whizzing bullets." - Mabel Sharman Crawford
"We had supper as soon as we reached home, tumbling into bed as early as might be afterwards for such as sleep as you Londoners don't know anything about." - Lady Mary Anne Barker
"Wanderlust can be the most glorious thing in the world sometimes, but when it gnaws and pricks at your innards, especially in spring, with your hands and feet tied, it's awful. So I left. Without telling a soul." - Maud Parris
"The dust was laid; everything was keen and fresh; indeed the appetites of the mosquitoes were very keen." -Emily Carr
In summary, I will be recommending this book to everyone and advise you read it also.
"I raged at the slow progress of human reason." -Flora Tristan
"If you remain there, I remain here; and I have, beside my personal strength, the aid of two very heavy trunks, and a rifle placed against the door at about the height of a man's head. If you are not already acquainted with its contents, there is every chance that you willl become so if you open this door by violence." -Eliza Farnham
"But whilst it may be freely admitted that masculine eccentricity or originality of character is to be admired, very few will allow that any departure from an ordinary rule is approvable, or even justifiable, in a woman." -Mabel Sharman Crawford
"And if the exploring of foreign lands is not the highest end or the most useful occupation of feminine existence, it is at least more improving, as well as more amusing, than the crochet-work or embroidery with which, at home, so many ladies seek to beguile the tedium of their unoccupied days." - Mabel Sharman Crawford
" The rearguard of progress passes unmolested over the same ground the van traversed amidst whizzing bullets." - Mabel Sharman Crawford
"We had supper as soon as we reached home, tumbling into bed as early as might be afterwards for such as sleep as you Londoners don't know anything about." - Lady Mary Anne Barker
"Wanderlust can be the most glorious thing in the world sometimes, but when it gnaws and pricks at your innards, especially in spring, with your hands and feet tied, it's awful. So I left. Without telling a soul." - Maud Parris
"The dust was laid; everything was keen and fresh; indeed the appetites of the mosquitoes were very keen." -Emily Carr
In summary, I will be recommending this book to everyone and advise you read it also.
August 24, 2023
A lot of this was great, though I have to confess I liked the idea of it more than I actually liked the experience of reading it. I wish there had been more context to the excerpts, and sometimes they just kind of weren't interesting. I would have also enjoyed more from the women about their thoughts about travel. Also, I know the editors were largely working with colonial woman because that's who was writing, but I also feel like more messy bits made it into the volume than should have. But, overall, I'm very happy it exists as a book and that I read it.
August 13, 2025
I think that everyone will get something different from this book. I enjoyed the Canadian parts as my son lives there. I enjoyed the Persian story as I teach RE and love to hear about different cultures. I found the modern parts easier to read; the older parts I could only read 2 or 3 stories at a time. Amazing that these women did in days when we thought that women only stayed at home and looked after houses and families. It amazed me, too, how long these women went on to live after these amazing journeys.
October 17, 2023
I picked up this book in a London bookstore and was intrigued by the intro enough to purchase it, and read and savor it slowly. This is an anthology of works by women travelers who were truly trailblazers in their own right, and wrote about their journeys and experiences. The traveling (often solo) woman is a recent phenomenon, and is a perspective and privilege that I have often taken for granted as a woman in the modern era. I truly enjoyed each story and voice fully.
January 23, 2021
Read parts of it, its not really the kind of book you read from cover to cover. I enjoyed reading experiences from women throughout the times (it's done chronologically) and I'm always a sucker for travel writing. May have been more impactful if the editor had chosen fewer stories but with more context - now its just a (seemingly) endless compilation of stories.
March 25, 2022
While it is at times insightful and refreshingly varied, there is a lack of voices from black and minority ethnic groups. In its defence, the book was published in the early 90s, so it is somewhat tragic that women have suffered at the mixed treatment from men throughout time. I need to read more travel books like this!
December 13, 2025
A useful collection of real travel experiences of women from a variety of time periods and cultures. Some of it was eye opening or even amusing at times, it was like a new short story each chapter. But there were quite a number of entries that were unremarkable or repetitive, especially towards the back half, and didn't seem necessary to include beyond padding out the page count.
February 8, 2021
really appreciative of the different dimensions each writer has brought to the female travel experience
Currently reading
April 28, 2021I am reading this in between other full length novels so it will be a book in progress.
Read
October 3, 2021Didn't finish. Made it halfway through, but as enjoyable some of the excerpts are, others are rather dry.
May 13, 2022
Interesting but the stories could've been a bit longer.
We only saw a glimpse of what the girls experienced
We only saw a glimpse of what the girls experienced
February 23, 2023
I tried to read this book slowly so that I could savour every different writers experience and style of writing. It is an absolute joy and inspiring.
December 31, 2025
2.5 to 3 stars - this took me so long to read! Some of the accounts I really enjoyed, especially the older ones. Others less so, which is natural in an anthology/collection.
July 16, 2025
I am ploughing through this paperback book in frustration. Instead of just cutting and pasting extracts from memoirs, it would have been so much more enjoyable if it had been illustrated. I have forgotten everything that I’ve already read and cannot differentiate between the list of names in the index - apart from Leonowens because I am familiar with The King and I. Photographs of the women depicted, maps showing their routes, anything to make these stories come to life. This book was a gift.
October 24, 2015
This book was a present I was delighted to receive. It's a beautiful book, with lovely illustrations, an excellent intro and editorial line, and it's a perfect mixture of mini-profiles for dipping in and out of.
Obviously, the link is the fact that we're reading abut women travellers, and all of them are in their way travellers outwith the conventions of their time. They are intrepid - they need to be - and they are incredibly, often painstakingly observant in a way that our generation of digitally-armed travellers don't have to be. They create the landscape, country, city, desert, sea, in words that make you feel you're there. They give you their views on the sights they see, often leaden with prejudices, personal and of their time, which can sometimes be funny, sometimes be very difficult to take. The writing comes from letters, journals and diaries, and can be incredibly candid, depending on the intended audience - which is rarely public. And they write form the heart.
I'm writing a series at the moment which requires three of my heroines to be equally intrepid, so this has the added bonus of being very readable research. A great book
Obviously, the link is the fact that we're reading abut women travellers, and all of them are in their way travellers outwith the conventions of their time. They are intrepid - they need to be - and they are incredibly, often painstakingly observant in a way that our generation of digitally-armed travellers don't have to be. They create the landscape, country, city, desert, sea, in words that make you feel you're there. They give you their views on the sights they see, often leaden with prejudices, personal and of their time, which can sometimes be funny, sometimes be very difficult to take. The writing comes from letters, journals and diaries, and can be incredibly candid, depending on the intended audience - which is rarely public. And they write form the heart.
I'm writing a series at the moment which requires three of my heroines to be equally intrepid, so this has the added bonus of being very readable research. A great book
September 10, 2016
This is a lovely book of travel essays by women from the 1700s to about the 1970s. Many of the women were traveling alone during times when traveling wasn't very easy and certainly wasn't something many women did o their own, and they were traveling to places all over the world. The majority of the essays are about Africa, Asia and the Middle East. There were a few about traveling to colonial America and one about traveling to the wilds of Ohio written by Anthony Trollope's mother that was hilarious. Many of the women faced sexism along the way and had to fight to go certain places. The defied expectations. I ended up with a long list of books to read from these ladies. And have the itch to travel.
August 20, 2016
I've been dipping in and out of this book and have found each of the selections fascinating. The intrepidity of the women - especially the earliest pioneers in foreign travel - is inspiring. Many seem without fear and have to encounter extreme discomfort and frequently danger. They often have a freshness of observation, missing from the usual travel accounts. One of my favourites is Isabella Bird (1831-1904), who cared for family members until she was 40, and from then on never stopped travelling - her account of climbing in the Rocky Mountains is full of exuberance.
A recommended and humbling read for those of us who complain about stuffy airport lounges and overcrowded trains.
A recommended and humbling read for those of us who complain about stuffy airport lounges and overcrowded trains.
January 10, 2009
Gorgeous book--featuring the lives of intrepid women who decided to see things for themselves, starting with the Lady Montagu in the 1700s. You'll find a lot of your favorite women here--Rebecca West, Beryl Markham, M.F.K. Fisher, Annie Dillard, and Isabella Bird. Beautifully illustrated. The only quarrel--tiny type that makes you long for 12 point Times Roman. But well worth the effort!
March 27, 2015
Okay the English language may be old fashioned but it makes it even more authentic, I may not always understand what is going on.in those travels but it affirms that those are be exotic and belong to a different time and best bit, it's short and sweet so perfect to read as long or as short as you like. Recommending!
August 3, 2007
This is a great book to dip into, covering a wide variety of places, authors, and experiences.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews