Remarkable yet controversial, the Prussian-born Protestant missionary Karl Friedrich August Gutzlaff (1803 51) sought to spread Christianity in the Far East. A gifted linguist, he sailed to Siam and worked on translating the Bible into Thai. The British missionary Robert Morrison had fired his interest in China, and Gutzlaff later focused his evangelising efforts there, learning several dialects and distributing translated literature. He also worked for the East India Company, notably serving as an interpreter during negotiations for the Treaty of Nanking. Also reissued in this series are his...

Gabriel Ferrand (1864 1935) travelled widely as a French diplomat and pursued scholarly passions as a polyglot orientalist. He served as consul to Madagascar and published several works about the island, noting the Arab influence that preceded the arrival of Europeans. A member of the Societe Asiatique, and editor of its journal from 1920 until his death, Ferrand sought in particular to make Arabic geographical and nautical writings more accessible to fellow scholars and students. Forming part of that project, this work appeared in two volumes in 1913 14. It presents annotated French...

Gabriel Ferrand (1864 1935) travelled widely as a French diplomat and pursued scholarly passions as a polyglot orientalist. He served as consul to Madagascar and published several works about the island, noting the Arab influence that preceded the arrival of Europeans. A member of the Societe Asiatique, and editor of its journal from 1920 until his death, Ferrand sought in particular to make Arabic geographical and nautical writings more accessible to fellow scholars and students. Forming part of that project, this work appeared in two volumes in 1913 14. It presents annotated French...

After spending a year in Tokyo, American teacher Alice Mabel Bacon (1858-1918) became the first author to usher Western readers into the graceful, paper-walled realm of the Japanese woman. An intimate friend of several Japanese ladies, Bacon was privy to a domestic world which remained closed to male visitors. This 1891 work begins with birth and childhood, including the colourful, kimono-like dress of infants, their ornate dolls, and their education in handwriting, flower painting and etiquette. Trained for a lifetime of service to her husband and his parents, the Japanese woman was praised...

Taking advantage of his diplomatic privilege in Japan to travel further and inquire deeper than other foreigners, Swiss envoy Aime Humbert (1819-1900) brought back stories of life under the Tokugawa shogunate in its final years. First published in the journal Le Tour du monde in 1866, his account of Japanese history and daily life was republished as Le Japon illustre in 1870. This 1874 English translation brought readers up to date by including additional chapters on the 1868 revolution and its aftermath. Humbert focused his narrative on the history and culture of four locations: Benten, the...

Educated at the Government School of Design (predecessor of the Royal College of Art), Christopher Dresser (1834 1904) became arguably the first industrial designer, identified by his name on his work. He was an early proponent of oriental art: as a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement, he promoted Japonism in art and decoration. In 1876 7 he toured Japan at the Japanese government's invitation, investigating local manufacturing and design. This beautifully illustrated 1882 work is the result. The first half is a travelogue of Dresser's time in Japan, written with a designer's eye for the...

A brilliant linguist, Sir Ernest Satow (1843 1929) was recruited into the British consular service as a student interpreter in 1861. The following year he arrived in Japan, where he witnessed the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Meiji restoration of imperial rule. Drafted in the 1880s while he was consul-general in Bangkok, this 1921 account is based on the voluminous diaries Satow kept whilst in Japan between 1862 and 1869. As an interpreter he was present at many of the meetings between the diplomatic and military representatives of the Great Powers and of the Shogunate. Satow...