Dreaming of East: Western Women and the Exotic Allure of the Orient

by Barbara Hodgson

When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu visited the baths in Turkey in 1717 she was so tightly corseted that Turkish women were convinced her husband had locked her into some devious machine. Montagu’s account of her journey helped bring the region into the Western world’s consciousness, and by the 1800s, the vogue for Orientalia had overtaken a continent slowly sinking into the gloomy repressions of the Victorian era. Richly illustrated with color photos and sketches, Dreaming of East examines not just the exotic trappings of the Middle East but the heady freedoms it offered Western women. Conditioned to defer to men, women travelers were suddenly free to make their own choices and form their own opinions, ones that were respected by all people, including men. For a woman all too used to her inferior status, this venture into quasi-equality and latent sexuality was exhilarating. When she returned home, and found herself again relegated to second place, she would never be content there again.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel, Womens, Middle East, Biography, Feminism

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2005

About the author

Barbara Hodgson is a book designer with a degree in archeology and a diploma in graphic design. She began her career in book design by working for Douglas & McIntyre, moving from freelance designer to art director prior to taking on freelance work for other publishers and ultimately forming the book-packaging company Byzantium Books with Nick Bantock in 1993.

Designing books led to writing books: Hodgson is the author of No Place for a Lady, Dreaming of East, and Italy Out of Hand, all published by Greystone Books, and several other highly praised non-fiction books. She is also the author of four acclaimed illustrated novels Lives of Shadows, Hippolyte’s Island, The Sensualist, and The Tattooed Map.

Hodgson’s books are unique in that they combine her writing with a multitude of illustrations of various types drawn from a wide range of sources, including engravings, lithographs, photographs, stereo-cards, postcards, movie stills, and pulp magazine and novel covers. These days, the flea market is the consummate collector’s primary source of research and inspiration.

Barbara Hodgson lives in Vancouver.

Reviews

[Salma]

ذكرت المؤلفة في مقدمة كتابها الذي جمعت فيه عن المستشرقات اللواتي زرن الشرق، سؤالا في عن سبب انجذاب الغربيات للشرق، و بحثهن عن الحرية فيه، إذ كيف لشرق يحجب نساءه في حريم و يعطيهن مرتبة دنيا أن يكون ممدا لهؤلاء الغربيات بفكرة الحرية؟
الجواب الذي عثرت عليه المؤلفة أن الغربيات في بلادهن في تلك الفترة كانت حقوقهن ضيقة و النظرة إليهن دونية. لكن السفر للمشرق قد وفر لهؤلاء الغربيات الانعتاق من أعرافهن و سدت فجوة النقص التي يشعرن بها، و ذلك حين قارن معارفهن و أنفسهن بالمرأة الشرقية. فشعرن بتفوقهن، بالإضافة إلى أنهن أي الغربيات كن يعاملن في الشرق باحترام و يُسمع لأرائهن كما لو كن رجالا و يحظين بحرية الحركة، مع البقاء على ميزة كونهن نساء. لذلك فتن به. 0
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لم أستطع أن أقرأ من الكتاب سوى مقدمته و بعض المقتطفات و اختلست النظر للصور التي فيه ثم أغلقته و من وقتها و مرت سنتين أو أكثر و أنا لم أتابع
أشعر بأن ما يمنعني عن قرءاته هو افتتاني به
و كأني أسوف و أنتظر أن تأتي تلك اللحظة الكاملة لأرتشفه
لا أريد إفساد قراءة شيء جميل في وقت كريه
أو ربما أخاف أن يزول السحر عنه الذي يفتتني فيما لو قرأته
و كأني اشتريته فقط لأتلذذ به بين يدي بين فترة و أخرى و أبهج ناظري بمرآه و أحلم بمحتواه كما أريد
ذكرني بكتاب الأسد و الغواص و ما جرى لي معه حيث فتنني الجو الذي يحيط به و أغواني و جعلني أعيش أحلاما عما يمكن أن يكون فيه
فما كان إلا أن قرأته و زال سحره نهائيا لأنه كان لا يضاهي ما حلمت به

:/

[Velvetink · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like I said it's more of a coffee table book and a wee one at that. It gives an introduction to 19th C women who traveled through the "East" usually on their own, & many of them cross dressing as men. There's a lot of hype about the clothing they wore which may seem trivial now but was in fact a big factor in inhibiting women from doing things. The most annoying thing I found was the actual binding, being not really a book but more of a thick brochure, one really had to bend the spine to be able to read the text at times. sigh...
Some of the more interesting women mentioned include the Saint-Simoniennes, Princess Cristina di Belgiojoso, Ida Pfeiffer, Isabella Bird, Rosita Forbes, Freya Start, Lady Hester Stanhope, Isabel Burton, Regula Engel, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Lady Elizabeth Craven & Countess Ida von Hahn-Hahn and Lucie Duff Gordon. Many of whom left diaries or autobiographies that are published now. Hopefully I can track these down. A few of these women did actually do some real exploring and are worth tracking down more info about.
There are some great old vintage photographs and drawings, sadly some are presented too small to be appreciated.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is a book designer and, as you would expect, this is a beautiful book. The photos and illustrations are extraordinary. A lot of research has gone into this book, but because it is arranged thematically, the same names and events keep cropping up in different places, making it confusing to follow. Still, a lot of wonderful information and encounters from a bygone age when the East was the Middle East and Islam, and its harems was seen as terribly exotic

[Carla Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depois de séculos confinados à ideia de que o destino natural de todas as mulheres até ao início do século XX era o lar, surgem agora diversos trabalhos de história que demonstram que a vida real nunca foi assim tão linear. São já muitos os livros que se detêm no percurso de mulheres que optaram por outros caminhos, conjugados ou não com o que alguém um dia designou como projectos mais amenos (como casar e ter filhos). E são tantas essas mulheres que, não podendo considerar-se a regra, também não podem ser vistas como simples excepções. A investigação na área da pintura (de que é exemplo o trabalho de Filipa Lowndes Vicente A arte sem história) e da história da música (Sounds and Sweet airs: The forgotten women of classic music, de Anna Beer) é disso elucidativo. E também o trabalho de Carla Hilário Quevedo As mulheres que fizeram Roma, bem elucidativo de que nem sempre aquelas se resignaram a ficar pacientemente sentadas a ver a História desenrolar-se. Isto para além da recuperação de figuras que ultrapassaram o esquecimento do tempo, mas foram muitas vezes deturpadas em aspectos essenciais, por esse poderoso mecanismo que é a imaginação romântica. Hipátia de Alexandria e Cleópatra são dois exemplos disso mesmo.

O livro de Barbara Hodgson é mais uma machadada nessa visão tradicional. A autora põe em relevo o modo como a região do Médio Oriente constituiu um forte atractivo para muitas mulheres ocidentais, em particular no final do século XIX e inícios do século XX. Os costumes eram ali muito diferentes e mais liberais. Acresce que essas mulheres beneficiavam do estatuto híbrido decorrente de serem ocidentais e, com frequência, terem dinheiro. Algumas seguiram para aquela região para acompanharem o marido e outros familiares. Outras foram por sua conta e risco estudar, trabalhar ou mesmo visitar tais países (um exemplo bem conhecido é o de Agatha Christie, que conheceu o seu segundo marido nas escavações arqueológicas em Ur). Este estudo de Hodgson é detalhado e completo, mas de leitura muito simples, sendo ilustrado com diversos exemplos de mulheres que se mudaram para o Médio Oriente e suas motivações. Um dos exemplos mais interessantes é o de Georgina Bell, inglesa, escritora, viajante e política. Sobre a sua vida, aliás, foi feito recentemente um filme em exibição entre nós, Rainha do Deserto, tendo no papel principal Nicole Kidman. Bell é admirável, até pela influência política que granjeou, mas não é caso único. Por isso, vale a pena investigar um pouco mais, sendo o livro de Hodgson, uma boa base para isso mesmo.

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2009 bookcrossing review:

I really, really enjoyed this book. It´s not a long history book, and has lots of lovely glossy pictures in it. It´s a general overview of female travellers in the late 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s who went travelling in the middle east. Because it gave them freedom - which maybe seems bizarre as woman in these areas at the time had very cut-off lives stuck in harems often; but for the European woman to leave their native society and get to travel, realise what they were capable of, and dress in native or men´s clothing for ease of travelling, it was like real liberation.

Hodgson refers to some real characters in this book... Isabella Bird, Isabel Burton to name a couple. I feel this is an area I want to read so much more about now. Also gives you the wanderlust a bit... although the worlds described in this book will be very different to what the middle east is like today.

[Kerry Hennigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an unusual book in that it reads almost like an academic essay, citing examples of Western female travelers via anecdotes from historical sources under various categories, i.e. Logistics of Travel, Overcoming Decency, Friendship & Love, etc.

Despite the fact that what we learn about the individuals named is via tiny bites scattered across the topics, the glimpses Hodgson gives us of these mostly determined, sometimes formidible women, are intriguing and unable to be replicated in today's world.

"Dreaming of East" is a good guidebook to some of the significant travelogues of yesteryear, written by those who dared to travel, explore and document the "exotic East" from their personal perspective. Some, like Isabella Bird, Amelia Edwards and the redoubtable Gertrude Bell, have left a lasting legacy for us to continue to enjoy, or reappraise in the light of events subsequent to their lifetimes.

[Dianne Trautmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading about women traveling in remote areas of the Middle East and the culture clashes they encountered both abroad and at home upon their return.

[Abdulla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aside from the by-now banal orientalist images, I wish I hadn't stumbled on this book by accident and hadn't bothered to try reading it. The book lacks any sort of critical analysis, and is merely another example of Westerners' fascination with the 'exotic'. In fact, the author mentions in the introduction that while "it is no longer possible to write about European women in the East without some reference to [Said's] 'Orientalism', feminism, and imperialism. This books is not about these aspects of Western culture; it is about women who did not fit in." So yes, if you would like a nice book to look at, or to extract some information for further research/familiarity, then go ahead. Otherwise, this is just a reproduction of the same orientalist narrative the author is examining/reliving.

[Andrea Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very pleased once again with Barbara Hodgson's work. Not only was it detailed, it was entertaining as well! I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading travel literature and social history. Barbara is one of the best authors in Canada today. I have read her fiction as well and I can certainly say that she is both a gifted author and artist/bookmaker. I also recommend checking out her website. She has created some very unique work. See Heavenly Monkey letter press and binding studio for a peek at a rare one of a kind project she worked on. They can also be found online. I'd love to own some of the treasures she has created for Heavenly Monkey.

[Jessie B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at women travellers to the Middle East from the 17th century to the early 20th and how by immersing themselves in another culture they were able to find freedom they couldn't at home. While this book does not go into great depth, it makes interesting arguments and is beautifully illustrated. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

[Mallee Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This non-fiction book is about adventurous European women from the 1700-1900s who ventured east into Northern Africa as well as Iran, Iraq and as far east as Palestine. Some travelled with their husbands; some with only their maids; others solo. An interesting insight into why these women left their own countries, often reluctant to return and why some never returned.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well done to those adventurous women travellers.