Across Patagonia

by Florence Caroline Dixie

Across Patagonia is a travel narrative written by Lady Florence Dixie, Scottish writer and feminist. She left her aristocratic life and her children behind in England, and set out to travel, accompanied by her two brothers, her husband, and a family friend who served as a guide. Dixie debated going elsewhere, but chose Patagonia because few Europeans had ever set foot there. Dixie paints a picture of the landscape using techniques reminiscent of the Romantic tradition of William Wordsworth and others, using emotion and physical sensation to connect to the natural world. While she describes the land as "uninviting and feared territory," Dixie's actions demonstrate that survival in a wild land requires both strength and agency. During her travels in Patagonia, Dixie is "active, hardy, and resilient", rejecting Victorian gender constructs that depicted women as weak and in need of protection.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Classics

92 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Lady Florence Caroline Dixie, née Douglas, was a Scottish writer, war correspondent, and feminist. Her account of travelling Across Patagonia, her children's books The Young Castaways and Aniwee: or, The Warrior Queen, and her feminist utopia Gloriana: or, The Revolution of 1900 all deal with feminist themes related to girls, women, and their positions in society. She was also a supporter of Irish and Scottish Home Rule.

Reviews

[Christine Kindberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A (surprisingly readable!) Victorian adventure story from the first female tourist to Patagonia and one of the first female travel writers in English. The author fascinated me, and I wrote about her here: https://christinekindberg.substack.co...

[Tamara Covacevich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was fortunate to read the 1st edition of this book, and also while sitting on the border of Torres del Paine National Park (where the trip of Florence ends), which was, of course, a powerful experience. I especially liked the beginning and the end of the book, the reflections about why she is doing the trip and the reflections afterwards. In between, the hunting seems a bit excessive, but of course, its different times. She is an amazing woman, and it is great to read her (the book flies by), also interesting to see through her eyes how things were on those times.

[Andrea Janer · Rating 4 out of 5]

She was an amazing woman who did something remarkable for her time and position in the British society. The book is a little repetitive but worth reading for those who are heading to the region, which is what I did.

[Laura]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

[Ivan UM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenida, descubridora. La Patagonia vista por una mujer europea a fines del siglo XIX

[Jared Millet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Around South America:

This is special bonus book in my book-per-country travel project. Patagonia isn't a country, it's a region, and this book isn't by a native of the area. However, it was recommended by the guide who took us to Torres del Paine and is available free from Gutenberg, so there was no reason to pass it up. Besides, since I'm writing my own travel blog about my South American odyssey, it's only fair to read someone else's - from 140 years ago.

Travel to far, exotic places was much different in 1880 and so was this part of the world. The spires of Torres del Paine National Park my wife and I were able to drive to from Punta Arenas in a day took several weeks of hard wilderness riding for the Lady Florence Dixie and her companions. For them, it involved a team of horses, a pack of hunting dogs, four local guides, and having to hunt guanaco and ostrich for dinner every night. Patagonia was a wilder place and mostly uninhabited, even by indigenous peoples.

So much has changed in the past century and a half since Dixie's exploration of the area, and yet the endless pampas, the towering Torres, and then infinite herds of guanaco are still the same to this day. Albeit with a few more fences and partially paved highways.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply charming. Dixie is person from a time and place so removed from the modern day that nearly every page of the book is surprising and delightful. She takes a trip to remote Patagonia with her brothers and husband which turns out to be quite the adventure. They shoot almost every animal they encounter, but mostly they hunt guanacos and ostriches. It's unintentionally amusing with many gems like this one:

"The flesh of the young ostrich is not very palatable, so we left the bird taking only its legs, which make very nice handles for umbrellas and whips."

Yes--the whole book is like this. It's amazing.

[Ileana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We drank our fill of idleness" should not make one think that this is all they did. The author and her travel companions traveled across Patagonia, presenting us the unexplored territory. I never thought I would find interest in how an author describes a hunt, but she presented a nice image. And as an afterthought she asked herself if it is worth to kill an animal just because one happened upon it and to boast. It was interesting to see how much we have changed our way of thinking from we can take everything, it is our right, to we have to protect, it is our duty.

[Oborozukyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d have liked this more had fewer things been shot. Ok, she ate most of what she shot, but she does kill a number of foxes and puma for their skins. Sadly, there’s far too much text about hunting things, and she has nothing much to say about anything else.

[Szofia Knife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hay cosas importantes a destacar el lenguaje usado, lo que se creía en esa época, el tema del clima los humanos y animales de la Patagonia quedan plasmados en este libro.

[Kim Lanza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading about the adventures of Lady Florence Dixie while I was in Patagonia allowed me to transport myself. It amazes me that she could endure such an expedition!

[Alexia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Florence Dixie's account of her trip to Patagonia is interesting from the perspective that very few European women had at that time travelled there, and also because she very clearly places herself on an equal standing with the men in her party as regards hunting and sharing other tasks. However, she is over-fond of lengthy descriptions of catching and eating the various local wildlife - it's understandable that a group of people having to find their own dinner are rather preoccupied with it, but that doesn't necessarily make it exciting for others to read about! I'm not really going to comment on her remarks about the local people, which we would consider extremely racist, because I think that has to be viewed as standard for the time, but it is a shame that she doesn't go into more detail about her feelings during the various difficulties she faces. She seems preoccupied with presenting the group in a good light and only once mentions that tempers were getting frayed as they didn't have enough to eat. Anyway, considering this book is available for free to download (e.g. from Project Gutenberg), it's not bad to flick through for those interested in the region.

[Sneh Pradhan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Technically, I shouldn't rate this book as "read" , because I couldn't go past a fourth of the book , 25 pages to be exact. This is possibly the most boring and yawn-inspiring book I have ever read. The author makes elaborate preparations for her trip to the Patagonias , drabs on and on at every paragraph , gasps when their party meets with three accidents in a course of 24 hours,and many more such "adventures" and continues to ramble about things that probably only she finds interesting. A first-timer yawn-fest for me !!!

[Marty · Rating 2 out of 5]

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[Greynomad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a great adventure. Wish someone in the party had taken photo's

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating exploration story of Patagonia, the first to see the Torres del Paine range. Quite a lot of hunting involved however !