Audiobook · read by volunteers
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
Isabella L. Bird (1831–1904)
Read by Availle · 58 chapters · 12 h 56
About the book
In 1878 a Victorian Englishwoman in her forties set off alone for Japan, determined to see the parts of the country that foreign visitors rarely reached. She rode and walked through the northern mountains, slept in village inns and farmhouses, ate what she was given, and wrote home about everything: the rice fields, the fleas, the hot springs, the courtesy of her guides, the remote people of Hokkaido.
Isabella Bird’s Unbeaten Tracks in Japan is a classic of travel writing, full of lively detail and sharp observation, set down at a time when Japan was changing fast. Told in a series of letters and shaped into 58 short chapters, this recording lasts almost thirteen hours. It is a companion for armchair travellers who enjoy hearing about the world through the eyes of someone with courage, curiosity and a great deal of stamina.
Introduction
Isabella Lucy Bird (1831–1904) was an English traveller, writer and natural historian of the nineteenth century. She was a sickly child, but she was almost always healthy when she was travelling. Her first trip, in 1854, took her to America to visit relatives, and her first book, The Englishwoman in America, grew out of it. Later journeys took her to Hawaii, the Rocky Mountains, Asia and elsewhere, and in 1892 she was among the first women elected Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society.
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan was published in 1880 and records a journey made in 1878. Bird travelled from Tokyo northwards, through regions that few Europeans had visited, and then on to the island of Hokkaido, where she spent time among the Ainu people. The book takes the form of letters to her sister, which gives it an informal, conversational tone, and it mixes landscape description with comments on food, accommodation, customs and the practical difficulties of travel. As with any traveller’s account of the period, it reflects the attitudes of its author and its time, and modern readers will want to read it with that in mind.
The recording has 58 sections and runs for nearly thirteen hours. It is read by a single LibriVox volunteer.
Why listen now? Because the book offers a vivid picture of Japan in the early years of the Meiji era, seen by an observant outsider. And because Bird’s own personality, determined, observant and endlessly curious, is the best reason to keep reading. It is a journey worth taking at a leisurely pace.
Public domain
Isabella L. Bird died in 1904: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text