Travel Writing and the Natural World, 1768-1840 [Hardcover]

Taking as a starting point the parallel occurrence of Cook's Pacific voyages, the development of natural history, scenic tourism in Britain, and romantic travel in Europe, this book argues that the effect of these practices was the production of nature as an abstract space and that the genre of travel writing had a central role in reproducing it.List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction The Scientific Gaze and Museum Order Natural History in the Contact Zone Natural Order: Metaphor and Structure Romantic Technique and Humboldtian Vision Landscape and Nation-Building The English Picturesque as Social Order Natural Sublime and Feminine Sublime Prescribing Nature: Wordsworth's Guide To The Lakes Textual Landscapes and Disappearing Nature Conclusion and Coda Bibliography Index

'Paul Smethurst's study of the conceptualisations of 'nature' in the heyday of scientific and Romantic explorations of the natural world is ambitious, shrewd and illuminating; and there's a stirring urgency in his own quest as he travels the intellectual territory - a tour de force, if he'll forgive the pun.' - Professor Malcolm Andrews, University of Kent, UK

'The scholarly breadth and intellectual ambition of Travel-Writing and the Natural World is a welcome addition to the field, making it indispensable reading for scholars and students alike.' - Nigel Leask, Literature & History

PAUL SMETHURST is Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches courses in travel writing, fictions of globalization and literature and the environment. As well as publications on postmodernism and contemporary fiction, he has published widely on travel writing, and is presently completing a book on the cultural history of the bicycle.