Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel-Writing, 1770-1840: "From an Antique Land"

349 Pages·2002·36.322 MB·English

by  Nigel Leask

Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing
1770 1840
–

Curiosity and the Aesthetics of
1770 1840
Travel Writing, –
o
‘From an Antique Land’
NIGEL LEASK
1
1
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© Nigel Leask 2002
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First published 2002
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Leask,Nigel,–
Curiosity and the aesthetics of travel writing,–: from an antique land/Nigel Leask.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
. Travelers’writings,English—History and criticism. . English prose literature—th
century—History and criticism. . English prose literature—18th century—History and
criticism. . British—Foreign countries—History. . Ethiopia—Description and travel.
. Mexico—Description and travel. . India—Description and travel. . Egypt—Description
and travel. . Antiquities in literature. . Curiosity in literature. . Travel in literature.
. Aesthetics,British. I. Title.
PR.TL  .¢—dc 
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1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset in Bulmer MT
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Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
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Padstow,Cornwall
To my daughters,Isabel (b.1997) and Flora (b.2000),
and in memory of my mother,Anne Leask (1928–2001)
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all those friends and colleagues who read and commented on this
book, either as work in progress or in its final stages: John Barrell, Peter de
Bolla, Michael Bravo, Gordon Brotherston, Steve Clark, Eivind Kahrs, Neil
Kenny,Martin Ruehl,Simon Schaffer,Nicholas Thomas,and my anonymous
third reader for Oxford. Thanks also to the many others in Cambridge and
beyond who have made writing this book such an enjoyable and interdiscipli-
nary project.To name but a few: Chris Bayly,Carlos Lopez Beltrán,Gautam
Chakravarty, Phil Connell, Stefan Collini, Mike Dettelbach, Brian Dolan, Jas
Elsner, Patricia Fara, Tim Fulford, Indira Ghose, Charlotte Grant, Sudeshna
Guha,Anita Herle,Simon Jarvis,Patrick Leech,Ruth Morse,Jackie Phillips,
Ato Quayson, Michael Rossington, Jim Secord, Kate Teltscher, and Carl
Thompson.Thanks also to Nicholas Rupke for inviting me to participate in the
International Humboldt Symposium at Göttingen in May 1997.
I owe an enormous debt of thanks to my wife,Evelyn Arizpe: if she unin-
tentionally inspired this project in the first place,as the rationale for my own
long-distance travel,she has nobly borne the consequences and been a tremen-
dous support throughout.She will doubtless be greatly relieved to see it com-
pleted! Much of the actual writing was done during a term’s sabbatical leave in
1998,and subsequently during two university summer vacations,in Tepoztlan,
Mexico,thanks to the warm hospitality of Lourdes Arizpe and other members
of my Mexican family. The ‘curious’ mountain landscape of the Tepozteco
offered constant inspiration,strenuous walking,and mysterious rock paintings.
At home,my thanks are due to the patience of the librarians in the Rare Books
Room,and to the Syndics of Cambridge University Library,for permission to
reproduce visual material.Thanks also to the President and Fellows of Queens’
College,Cambridge,for a grant to cover photographic costs.I am also grateful
to Sophie Goldsworthy, Frances Whistler, and Sally McCann at Oxford
University Press for all their work in the various stages of production.
Nigel Leask
Contents
Illustrations ix
Introduction: Practices and Narratives of Romantic Travel 1
1. Cycles of Accumulation,Aesthetics of Curiosity,and
Temporal Exchange 15
2. Curious Narrative and the Problem of Credit: James Bruce’s
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile 54
3. ‘Young Memnon’and Romantic Egyptomania 102
4. Indian Travel Writing and the Imperial Picturesque 157
5. Domesticating Distance: Three Women Travel Writers in
British India 203
6. Alexander von Humboldt and the Romantic Imagination
of America: The Impossibility of Personal Narrative 243
Conclusion: William Bullock’s Mexico and the Reassertion
of ‘Popular Curiosity’ 299
Bibliography 315
Index 329

Illustrations
1. ‘A Cognoscenti contemplating ye Beauties of ye Antique’,by James
Gillray,c.1801 33
2. ‘Joseph Banks’,c.1772,by Benjamin West 39
3. The ‘Tribuna degli Uffizi’(detail),by Johan Zoffany,1772–9 84
4. ‘The Brinde Feast’,by Henry Salt,from Valentia’s Voyages and Travels
(1809),III,facing p.136 98
5. The Egyptian Hall,Piccadilly 109
6. ‘Statue Colossale de Memnon’,Description de l’Égypte,II (1812),pl.22 127
7. ‘Tête de l’une des statues du tombeau d’Osymandyas’(‘Memnon’s
Head’),Description,II,pl.32 128
8. Belzoni’s ‘Transportation of “Young Memnon”’,Plates Illustrative of the
Researches and Operations of Giovanni Belzoni(1821),pl.46 148
9. Thomas and William Daniell,‘Cape Comorin’,Oriental Scenery,
2nd edn.,reduced from the folio edn.(1812–16),pt.4,no.1 171
10. Thomas and William Daniell,‘Entrance of an Excavated Hindoo
Temple at Mauveleporam’,Oriental Scenery,pt.5,no.2 172
11. Maria Graham,‘Banyan Tree’,Journal of a Residence in India(1812),
facing p.7 209
12. Fanny Parks,‘Sri Gunesha’,Wanderings of a Pilgrim(1850),I,
frontispiece 229
13. Fanny Parks,‘Juggunathu’,Wanderings,II,facing p.385 233
14. Fanny Parks,‘Ancient Hindu Ruin at Kanauj’,Wanderings,II,
facing p.143 236
15. Alexander von Humboldt,‘Tableau physique des régions equinoxiales’,
Essai sur la géographie des plantes(1805),frontispiece 252
16. Alexander von Humboldt,‘Humanitas.Literae.Fruges.’Atlas
géographique et physique...du Nouveau Continent(1814),frontispiece 260
17. Alexander von Humboldt,‘Calendaire mexicaine’,Vues des Cordillères
(1810),facing p.125 277
18. Alexander von Humboldt,‘Idole azteque’(‘Teoyamiqui’),Vues des
Cordillères,facing p.215 279
19. William Bullock’s ‘Exhibition of Ancient Mexico at the Egyptian Hall,
Piccadilly’,Description of the Unique Exhibition, called Ancient Mexico
(1824),frontispiece 303