gengelcox's review
3.0
Maiden Voyages is a compilation of excerpts collected by the excellent travel writer [a:Mary Morris|28781|Mary Morris|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1498574860p2/28781.jpg] in collaboration with her husband, writer [a:Larry O’Connor]. The collection begins with [a:Lady Mary Wortley Montagu|17855993|Lady Mary Wortley Montagu|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], whose work [b:Embassy to Constantinople|24393417|Letters During The Embassy To Constantinople|Mary Wortley Montague|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420813148s/24393417.jpg|43977528] was published in 1763, and follows a roughly chronological order through the next to last excerpt from [b:The Road Through Miyama|1182489|The Road Through Miyama|Leila Philip|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1216868192s/1182489.jpg|1170408] by [a:Leila Philip|22244|Leila Philip|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1411084706p2/22244.jpg], published in 1989. Not all the women travelers represented here acted on their own, but every one of them evidences a fierce independent strength, an absolute necessity for women daring to go abroad. As [a:Maud Parrish|2883327|Maud Parrish|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] wrote in [b:Nine Pounds of Luggage|6359385|Nine Pounds of Luggage|Maud Parrish|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|6546435]: “There wasn’t any liberty in San Francisco for ordinary women. But I found some. No jobs for girls in offices like there are now.”
The striking thing about reading this collection of women writers is akin to reading [a:Virginia Woolf|6765|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419596619p2/6765.jpg]’s celebrated essay, [b:A Room of Her Own|11154946|A Room of Her Own|Katandra Jackson Nunnally|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1324010191s/11154946.jpg|16078750]–it is amazing how much progress in women’s rights has been accomplished in such a short period of time. But as much as I would like to congratulate our society on how much more enlightened it is, there is still progress to be made in eradicating the sexism that remains. The joy in reading this volume and Woolf’s essay is the realization that things are getting better.
Women’s rights are not the only subject touched on in this volume, although it is in the forefront. Other things that can be gained in touring with these travelers are pictures of cultures now long gone, such as the “mountain men” and goldrush societies in Colorado and Alaska, respectively, to the days when the journey to Nepal required a mastery of lowering your body temperature rather than the greasing of bureaucratic palms. The only fault with this volume is the staccato nature of each entry, lifted as it is from the volume where it originally appeared. There’s a bright spot to even that, however, because you know that if you run across an essay that you like, you can find more of it in the author’s complete work.
The striking thing about reading this collection of women writers is akin to reading [a:Virginia Woolf|6765|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419596619p2/6765.jpg]’s celebrated essay, [b:A Room of Her Own|11154946|A Room of Her Own|Katandra Jackson Nunnally|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1324010191s/11154946.jpg|16078750]–it is amazing how much progress in women’s rights has been accomplished in such a short period of time. But as much as I would like to congratulate our society on how much more enlightened it is, there is still progress to be made in eradicating the sexism that remains. The joy in reading this volume and Woolf’s essay is the realization that things are getting better.
Women’s rights are not the only subject touched on in this volume, although it is in the forefront. Other things that can be gained in touring with these travelers are pictures of cultures now long gone, such as the “mountain men” and goldrush societies in Colorado and Alaska, respectively, to the days when the journey to Nepal required a mastery of lowering your body temperature rather than the greasing of bureaucratic palms. The only fault with this volume is the staccato nature of each entry, lifted as it is from the volume where it originally appeared. There’s a bright spot to even that, however, because you know that if you run across an essay that you like, you can find more of it in the author’s complete work.
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