Retrospect of Western Travel, Volume 1 (of 2)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~110,000 words · 541 passages
Cite this work
- APAHarriet Martineau. (n.d.). Retrospect of Western Travel, Volume 1 (of 2). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/harriet-martineau/retrospect-of-western-travel-volume-1-of-2
- MLAHarriet Martineau. Retrospect of Western Travel, Volume 1 (of 2). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/harriet-martineau/retrospect-of-western-travel-volume-1-of-2.
- ChicagoHarriet Martineau. Retrospect of Western Travel, Volume 1 (of 2). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/harriet-martineau/retrospect-of-western-travel-volume-1-of-2.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The travel book Martineau drew from the same journey through the United States that produced 'Society in America', but written in another way.
Context and history
If that one was the analysis — comparing what the country said of itself with what she found — this is the narrative: the people she met, the conversations, the houses, the roads, the steamboats, a session of the Senate, a plantation, an abolitionist meeting. It was published in 1838, a year after the other, and it is the one her publisher wanted because it sold better. Its strength is the same as all of Martineau's: she looked carefully and wrote what she saw, including when it did not suit her. The two books complement each other, and whoever wants the argument must go to 'Society in America', which is also in the corpus.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
than from their former station. There they stood, as long as we could distinguish any forms from among the crowd. Then three cheers were exchanged between the crew and the shore, and the passengers strained their eyes no more. The greater number then went below to make arrangements in their staterooms; and afterward ensued the ceremony of introducing the company to each other on deck. Our number was twenty-three, six of whom formed the party to which I belonged; or, rather, so it seemed to ourselves before we went on board. The distinction was afterward forgotten, for the company assembled was, with two or three exceptions, so exceedingly agreeable and so wonderfully congenial, considering how accidentally we were brought together, that we mingled completely as one party. We had among us a Prussian physician; a New-England divine; a Boston merchant, with his sprightly and showy young wife; a high-spirited young South Carolinian, fresh from a German university; a newly-married couple, whose station was not exactly discoverable while on board, but who opened a public-house soon after their arrival in New-York; a Scotch major, whose peculiarities made him the butt of the young men; an elderly widow lady; two amiable young ladies; and a Scotch lady, "of no particular age," but of very particular placidity and good-humour; and a youth out of Yorkshire, who was leaving his parents' roof for the first time alone, and who was destined never to return to it. The number was made up by English and American merchants; young men so accustomed to pass between Liverpool and New-York, that the voyage was little more to them than an expedition to Primrose Hill is to a cockney. The cold dinner and drinking of healths customary on the day of sailing succeeded. Then there was the library to look over, and trial to be made of a seat on the rail, whence we could see the dim shores as we glided smoothly along in the wake of the steamer.…