Serpent in Paradise

Reference

Birkett, Dea

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Picador

Lost in the surf of the South Pacific lies a speck of volcanic rock. Home to thirty-eight islanders--descendants of the Bounty mutineers--Pitcairn has no cars, no crime, no doctor, and no regular contact with the outside world. For two centuries, "Fletcher Christian's children," whose culture and language are a bizarre blend of Polynesian and eighteenth-century English, have lived out a unique social experiment. Acclaimed British travel writer and journalist Dea Birkett, obsessed like many with the island's image as a secluded Eden and its connection to the mysterious and intriguing Bounty legend, traveled across the Pacific on a cargo ship and became one of the very few outsiders permitted to land on Pitcairn. Although the islanders initially seemed welcoming, they soon wove her into a web of decades-old disputes and thwarted desires. With no means of escape, Birkett's adventure to the other side of nowhere at last became a kind of prison.

History

Australia & Oceania

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

What spurred so many Victorian women to leave behind the security and comfort of their middle-class homes to undertake perilous journeys of thousands of miles, tramping through rainforests, caravanning across deserts and scaling mountain ranges? How were they able to travel so freely in exotic lands, when in their own countries such independence was denied them? This book draws on the diaries, letters and other writings of more than 50 such women to describe their experiences and aspirations. In addressing the question of whether women like Mary Kingsley and Isabella Bird were the intrepid bluestockings of popular history, or in fact early feminists, Dea Birkett concludes that they were neither; that, dissatisfied with the cramped lives prescribed for them in Victorian society, they sought new horizons abroad, discovering in these distant places a degree of freedom and respect unimaginable to them as spinsters at home. She explores the conflict in these women between duty and desire - the wish to observe and transgress the bounds of acceptable behaviour. Dea Birkett also wrote "Jella: A Woman At Sea".

Spinsters Abroad: Victorian Lady Explorers

Orion Publishing Co

What spurred so many Victorian women to leave behind their secure middle-class homes and undertake perilous journeys of thousands of miles, tramping through tropical forests, caravanning across deserts, and scaling mountain ranges? And how were they able to travel so freely in exotic lands, when at home such independence was denied to them? This book draws upon the diaries and writings of more than 50 such women to describe their experiences and aspirations. Many of the journeys they made are re-constructed - Mary Gaunt's voyage along the West African coast, Mary Kingsley's jungle treks, Amelia Edwards's thousand-mile journey up the Nile and Isabella Bird's ascent of the Rocky Mountains are just a few. Were women such as Mary Kingsley and Isabella Bird simply the intrepid blue-stockings of popular history, or early feminists? Dea Birkett aruges that they were in fact neither - dissatisfied with the restricted lives prescribed for them by Victorian society, they sought and found new horizons abroad, and a degree of freedom and respect only afforded in their own countries to men.

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Blackwell Pub.

Accompanies the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from July 7 - October 31, 2004

Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers

Arts & Photography

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

National Portrait Gallery

Schlange im Paradies.

Knaus

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