Unsuitable for Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travellers

What a difference one hundred years makes. The idea of not being able to travel as a woman by oneself is unfathomable to me. This made Robinson's Unsuitable for Ladies even more of a joy to read. Her comments after some of the entries were appreciated and sometimes very much needed, even though I didn't always agree with her.
All in all, I loved the writings of smart, courageous, and independent women. While most traveled with a purpose, (serving in the war was a popular excuse to go abroad), it was the women who traveled out of curiosity and leisure that fascinated me the most. Wealth was the great commodity and motivator in the days of opium pills and ether treatments.
Notable women included one woman who dreamed of riding an ostrich; show more another who felt that plain boiled locusts were the most palatable. Another woman was funny about bugs like fleas while another desired to be immune to scorpion venom. One woman worried about being seen as a woman while she traveled dressed as man. Another woman had a more pressing concern as she watched her horse fall over a cliff. Still another survived a bear attack. Yet another willingly joined her husband on a funeral pyre.
These were very different times. Imagine a time when it was acceptable for ladies to view battlefields of Waterloo and Crimea, with all of their bloodshed and death. Imagine wearing the elaborate and heavy diving equipment of 1910. Imagine watching a native receive a tattoo by rat or shark tooth.
In truth I think Robinson missed an opportunity to publish a really robust book. It would have been great to see maps of the time period these ladies traveled, illustrations of the fashions, and maybe some photographs or illustrated portraits of the more notable lady travelers.
Favorite women: Florence Nightingale saying her mind was out of breath; Myrtle Simpson trying to figure out how to travel with a newborn; the alias Honourable Impulsia Gushington; Barbara Toy naming her Landrover "Polyanna"; Robyn Davidson bringing her camels to the beach for the first time. show less

I found this book to be curiously frustrating for two reasons. The first is of course that I would like to have read the works anthologized in their entirety, and found the little snippets to be tantalizingly short. This is criticism is a bit unfair, as that is the nature of anthologies, and many of the works here are difficult to find, so I am of course grateful to the editor and publisher for providing what they did provide.

The other thing I didn't like about this book was the voice of the editor, which I found to be somewhat patronizing of the writers she anthologized, as she humorously refers to their quaint ways and attitudes. I'm sorry, but these women were not quaint, they were courageous, and their attitudes were those of their show more time. I don't like the modern habit of looking down on the Victorians as quaint, misguided folk. Certainly they had their blind spots, but, I'm sure, so do we.

This quibble aside, the extracts in this book have inspired me to seek out some of the original works, and it serves both as an introduction to the literature and a corrective to the male-centered genre of travel writing. show less

What a fun adventure! So many places and stories, good and bad. This made me want to travel, explore the world as these women did. Nice anthology, I might read some of the full books, not just excerpts.
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