Recollections of a Happy Life

Book excerpt: Marianne North was a Victorian figure of some consequence. An amateur botanist and painter, she journeyed to the world's farthest reaches, to its ancient and new civilizations. She also wrote one of the major travel accounts of the Victorian period. Written after she retired from travel because of ill health, Recollections of a Happy Life incorporates journals and letters from throughout her travelling years. The huge manuscript left at her death was reduced and edited by her sister and published in 1892 in three volumes. Volume 1 is reprinted here. In a new Introduction, Susan Morgan raises issues of gender, imperialism, and the Victorian approach to science.