Access Instantly Adventures In The Rocky Mountains Devised By Isabella Lucy Bird Provided As Paper Edition
a trail blazer! I was under the impression Miss Bird ventured to Colorado to convalesce from a degenerative back illness, however, she makes no complaint or mention of recuperation in her intrepid and hellishly exciting account of her time in the heart of the Rockies.
So matter of fact, she seems to take the ruffians and outlaws, drovers and mustangs, Indians and black bears all in her stride.
She delves into canyons and crevices, clings to rock faces, wrangles unruly cattle and survives snow storms.
Her language is languid, poetic in parts and reminiscient of Steinbeck's passages descibing the beauty of Salinas Valley.
An accurate depiction of the monumental achievements of a solo female traveler in the days before lonely planet, google maps and travel blogs! This is one of the best travel narratives I have read.
Isabella Bird was one fearless woman, traveling on her own in the true Wild West and lodging with complete random pioneers and desperadoes.
I loved her descriptions of the scenery but more than anything her anecdotes of steering cattle or climbing with Jim.
It was also interesting though cringeworthy to read about the prejudice against the Native population, and surprising that a welleducated and welltraveled person would not see why they were so aggressive and why they lived the way they did as a response to their very recent encounter with the colonials.
Fascinating stuff all in all, nice short book w/ great episodes of woman vs nature, I only wish it was longer, . .
In the latethcentury Isabella Bird travelled to America after doctors suggested it might improve her poor health.
This book consists of the letters she sent back to her sister while on her travels,
She battled bears, deep snow and limited supplies, but she still enjoyed herself I think and never complained about her health once! However, some of the views expressed by Bird in her letters are not very nice at all especially towards Native Americans, but they aren't surprising considering when these letters were written and the events unfolding in America at this time.
An interesting insight, but at the same time a little dull, I expected to enjoy the book more than I did, The author was a hardy and physically courageous woman making me wonder why English doctors diagnosed her as being in poor health.
She rode for hours, coped with weather cold enough to freeze boiling water as it was poured, and worked alongside men rounding up cattle.
Although determined to experience the life of American settlers, she shows no curiosity about Native Americans and their way of life.
Even allowing for theth century language, I found her descriptions overwritten, I was more interested in descriptions of places I've lived then the story or life of the narrator,Isabella Bird is badass, she makes the Wild West sound so awesome.
"So in this glorious upper world, with the mountain pines behind and the clear lake in front, in the 'blue hollow at the foot of Long's Peak,'at a height offeet, where the hoar frost crisps the grass every night of the year, I have found far more than I ever dared to hope for.
" Wonderful descriptions of Colorado scenery and an evocative account of pioneer life, Also an uplifting tale of "a sister doing it for herself", living the cowboy life, Contnuing to work my way through this set of Penguin 'Great Journeys' and stumbled on this gem.
Bird, clearly a most remarkable woman, at the age ofand after a long history of illhealth and depression, in the year, sets of to explore the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, heading east from San Francisco and into the 'parks' including South Park! of Colorado.
Her descriptive writing recorded in letters back home to her sister in England reach the sublime as she describes mountains, like and forest, as well as a giant spherical moon hanging in a crisp frosty sky, purple sunsets and golden dawns.
It is interesting that her status as a women is no barrier to her the journeys she embarks on.
The wild Western folk she encounters, uncouth ruffians for the most part, are struck dumb with respect for the lone travelling female and for the most part she is able to rely on the kindness of these strangers.
Most enjoyable read left with a feeling of envy for her courage in being able to make this great trip Isabella Bird was a woman in the lates who was diagnosed with "an ailment of the spine".
So her doctor sent her to Western America to take in some better air, After climbing the world's largest volcano in Hawaii, she set out to explore the mountains of Colorado.
All this as a single, traveling, unarmed woman in the frontier towns of the west, She rode horse for most of her journey, stopping occasionally to climb mountains that enticed her to their peaks, or visit beautiful lakes.
She was a lover of the mountains for beauty's sake, and seemed to have no fear in attaining her most longed for dream, to visit Estes Park, a region in the high rockies of Colorado.
I was pretty amazed at her courage and pluck, But what amazed me most about the book was the simple fact that her doctor prescribed this journey for her health.
What a better medical system we would have if you went to the doctor, and told him you just weren't feeling to well, and he said, "Well, you probably should go camping in the High Sierra for a few months or years.
" Probably the only prescription a doctor could give me that I would ever take, and take it faithfully!
Her adventures are told through her letters to her sister, and are quite well written.
I would have liked to have known what ever happened to her, and why is she someone I have never heard of.
. . With all of the books paying homage to works that are much longer, all of the books in the Penguin series of Great Journeys each around one hundred one hundred and fifty pages offer the reader a glimpse into a much longer, possibly daunting, text that they may well have never considered.
I know a few of them even made me want to take a look at the book from which the abridged excerpt had been taken.
. . others, well, not so much,
Along with Escape from the Antarctic by Ernest Shackleton and Life on the Golden Horn by Mary Wortley Montagu, Isabella Lucy Bird's Adventures In The Rocky Mountains an abridged version of her A Lady's Life In The Rocky Mountains is one of my favourite reads in the whole series.
What a woman! even if it has to be said that, typical of the times, her views on some of the peoples she met were, well, questionable.
Encouraged in her's by her doctors to 'do a bit of travelling love, cheer yourself up, feel better', I expect thinking she'd maybes go and take in the sea air at some then fashionable resort not for one moment expecting her to travel to the Americas where, a single, unarmed English woman, she set out to explore the mountains of Colorado for the main part travelling on horseback.
Copyright Felicity Grace Terry Pen and Paper I had a hard time finishing this book mostly because of the archaic and poetic style of overly descriptive writing of which sometimes I could only readpages max a day.
but eventually the reading sort of 'grows' with me from halfway through to the end,
The adventure revolved around plains, parks and mountains with majestic views and a lot of wildlife.
at the beginning of the journey, from my point of view, she was a lady who sought adventure but craved the comfort of a 'luxurious' stay.
which was rather vexatious to read about, but with the winter coming and some financial shortcomings, her adventure became tough and more challenging, and towards the end of the book, she got what she wanted to have a plucky adventure like no other, which is something admirable and highly respectable of a woman.
Inspired by Penguin's innovative Great Ideas series, our new Great Journeys series presents the most incredible tours, voyages, treks, expeditions, and travels ever written from Isabella Bird's exaltation in the dangers of grizzlies, rattlesnakes, and cowboys in the Rocky Mountains to Marco Polo's mystified reports of a giant bird that eats elephants during his voyage along the coasts of India.
Each beautifully packaged volume offers a way to see the world anew, to rediscover great civilizations and legends, vast deserts and unspoiled mountain ranges, unusual flora and strange new creatures, and much more.
I love, really love the writing style, I feel like the scenery is romantically poetic written, Not really sure about the plot and all that, but I am truly inspired to write a piece like Isabella didseries of letters addressing the reader as 'you'.
The letters felt honest and as a reader I feel connected with the author, I really recommend this book for those who not only look for good plots and characters in a book, but also an interesting writing style.
To be alone in the Park from the afternoon till the last glory of the afterglow has faded, with no books but a Bible and Prayerbook, is truly delightful.
p
What No! That sounds awful, I cannot think of a worse time than being stuck anywhere with no books but those,
Isabella Bird was a British woman in the lateth century who was encouraged by doctors in her lates to do a bit of traveling in effort to try to make all her woes better.
She took them up on that offer and had horrible adventures like the one detailed above from pageof this unfortunately abridged version of sitelinkA Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains.
In addition to that above statement, she was thrown from a horse during an encounter with an ambling grizzly bear, and nearly froze her tits off night after night in a cabin that provided her very little protection from the elements.
We all cried and moaned about the Polar Vortex not that long ago Yeah, we got nothing on this lady.
She woke up to find the sheet she used to cover her head had frozen to her face.
Bird had a few notsonice things to say about Native Americans, Chinese, and I think some Mexicans, and definitely cowboys.
. . she was a product of her time and place, a British woman traveling in a fairly unexplored part of America the Colorado territory, out of her element.
This doesn't explain her attitude towards, well, everyone, but there it is, She didn't, at least, shy away from some adventure, wanting to ride her horse not sidesaddle like women ought to do in that day, but "just like a man" because that's the only way you can actually get somewhere.
Not only did she ride rough with the menfolk, she wrote about it as well.
I like writing too, but put me on a trail for a couple hours, I'm pretty well worthless by the time I get in at the end of the day.
And here she's all tramping through the woods, no trail, avoiding bears and rattlesnakes and chipmunks spelled back then 'chipmonks' isn't that adorable wearing however many layers of skirt and she gets where she's going, pulls out paper and is all "Dear sister.
. . ", writing some of the most lovely prose about the Rocky Mountains I've ever read, Except for those parts where she wrote really awful things about anyone who wasn't white or, I guess, British.
Penguin had this great idea to make this Great Journey's collection, publishing abridged versions of some great travelogues from history, both men and women.
I'm excited about that, though continuously saddened by the fact that this was an abridgment, just because abridgments make me incredibly sad.
I have a few others that I got at the same time that I picked this one up, and I'll check them out.
Ultimately, though, I'd rather read the complete works from which they were abridged, The idea with this collection, I suppose, is that they're small enough to stick in a backpack on one of your own adventures, sitting by the campfire at night or next to a bubbling brook during a break in your hike.
And it's true reading Bird's words about her travels through the Rocky Mountains wants me to drop everything and go backpacking except for all the bad things Bird went through.
While there is no longer a Mountain Jim to help me along the way, who knows who I might meet up with! Adventure!
I will say this, though: there will be more in my backpack than a freaking Bible and a prayerbook because come on.
.