Martineau's 1854 Windermere handbook represents an early example of a literary tourist guide, combining practical information with rich descriptive writing.

A passionate adventuress and scholar, Graham presents readers with a vivid and absorbing account of Madeira, Tenerife, and South America.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 1797) published A Vindication of the Rights of Men anonymously in 1790. The pamphlet sold out within three weeks to great acclaim, though later editions published under her own name met with notable opprobrium. It was the first of many printed responses to Edmund Burke's conservative attacks on the French Revolution, and it marked Wollstonecraft's entry into the intellectual arena of the late eighteenth century. She attacked hereditary privilege and political conservatism, arguing for codified civil rights and political liberty. She also highlighted Burke's gendered...

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 1797) published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. It was written in reaction to Rousseau's Emile (1762), which argued that the purpose of a girl's education was to make her useful to a man. Wollstonecraft offered a defence of woman's ability to reason, given appropriate education. She argued that the limited education given to women made them docile and empty-headed playthings whose supposed fragility and coquetry were constructions that damaged not only the individual but society as a whole. Her radical prescription was for girls to be educated alongside...

Mariana Starke (c.1762 1838) published this work in 1802, launching her career as a travel writer. The work, consisting of twenty-five letters spread over two volumes, describes the political situation in Italy after the first Napoleonic campaigns and offers practical guidance for tourists visiting Italy's cultural sites. Volume 1 contains sixteen letters: the first seven describe Starke's experience of the Napoleonic conquest and the following nine describe the architecture, paintings and sculptures of Pisa, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples, Bologna and Venice. The work quickly became popular...

First published in 1830, this pioneering work introduces readers to exotic locations and intriguing cultures.

Josephine Butler (1828 1906) was a prominent English feminist who was best known for her controversial campaigns concerning the welfare and civil rights of prostitutes. In 1869 she became the leader of the movement to limit the extension of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and was instrumental in having the Acts repealed in 1886. She later became involved in campaigns to stop child trafficking and child prostitution, which led to the age of consent being raised to 16 from 13 in 1885. This volume, first published in 1893, contains Butler's memoirs of her many campaigns. Focusing on the years 1869...

Mrs Fenton's account of Calcutta, Mauritius and Tasmania provides rare insights into the life of an adventurous nineteenth-century woman.

First published in 1830, this pioneering work introduces readers to exotic locations and intriguing cultures.

Caroline Norton (1808 1877) was a Victorian author and campaigner for social reform, especially reform of women's legal rights. In this lucidly written account Norton describes how upon marriage in 1855 women became legally 'non-existent': they could not bring cases to court; they could not enter into a contract; they could not instigate a divorce and their possessions, earnings and any bequests made to them automatically became their husband's property. Norton explains how this lack of legal autonomy affected women if they became estranged from their husbands, using her own experiences for...