No Place for a Lady: Tales of Adventurous Women Travelers

by Barbara Hodgson

Presents accounts of world travel by women over the past three hundred years.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, History, Feminism, Biography, Womens, Memoir

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Barbara Hodgson is a book designer with a degree in archeology and a diploma in graphic design. She began her career in book design by working for Douglas & McIntyre, moving from freelance designer to art director prior to taking on freelance work for other publishers and ultimately forming the book-packaging company Byzantium Books with Nick Bantock in 1993.

Designing books led to writing books: Hodgson is the author of No Place for a Lady, Dreaming of East, and Italy Out of Hand, all published by Greystone Books, and several other highly praised non-fiction books. She is also the author of four acclaimed illustrated novels Lives of Shadows, Hippolyte’s Island, The Sensualist, and The Tattooed Map.

Hodgson’s books are unique in that they combine her writing with a multitude of illustrations of various types drawn from a wide range of sources, including engravings, lithographs, photographs, stereo-cards, postcards, movie stills, and pulp magazine and novel covers. These days, the flea market is the consummate collector’s primary source of research and inspiration.

Barbara Hodgson lives in Vancouver.

Reviews

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was difficult to assign a rating to this book. It is embellished by amazing historic photographs, drawings and engravings and old maps. For illustrative design, the book gets a dazzling 5 stars. I author has done extensive research. 4 stars. In terms of format, organization and writing I will award only 1 star. That roughly averages out for a total of 3 stars.

I have owned this book for years and was determined to finally finish it today. It contains anecdotes about women travellers from the late 1600s to the end of the 1800s. The book was organized by country and sometimes a dozen women travellers would be named on a couple of pages only to pop up in different chapters where the continuity of their travels was lost. They certainly lead unorthodox lives unrestricted by expectations for women at the time. The excitement of their journeys was marred by dry narration which reminded me of a textbook. Jumping around in various centuries interfered with continuity.

I believe if the author concentrated on only a couple of women experiencing the ordeals of travel in each exotic country, their impressions of the people they observed and the wonders they saw, the reader would be more engaged.

Until the mid 19th century, the woman travelled mainly to accompany husbands in their work-related roles, but then began reaching out to see more and go solo with a guide. Early travel was accomplished with a retinue of porters, servants, guides, and security guards. Expeditions were by ship and usually overland by camels. Most supplies were carried by porters, camels or mule.

The women brought trunks full of unsuitable clothing. They wore heavy long skirts and crinolines, wool, corsets, and gloves, making climbing, horseback and camel riding most difficult. They suffered from the heat to keep up with the fashions of the time. Trousers were frowned upon. Some dressed like men to get into places like monasteries, or to disguise themselves from abduction by native bandits. Dressing in women’s clothing gave them the advantage of visiting harems and writing about these places forbidden to male travellers. Many suffered from malaria or typhoid fever during their journeys.

These brave, adventurous women defied the norms of society, and a number of those portrayed in the book deserve an entire chapter of their own or a book devoted to their hardships and adventures.

Months ago when it was possible for travel it was so much easier for women suitably dressed for the activities and for various climates. They could experience the world carrying one piece of lightweight luggage or backpack. No photographers lugging heavy equipment, just your trusty cell phone. Here's hoping those days return soon!

[Luiza Salazar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite looking very adventurous, my main problem with this book was the way it was written. Instead of telling one woman's story at a time and really letting us get to know them, the author uses paragraphs and joins them by region. The result is you can read about 10 women in 2 pages and it's not enough time to connect with them and actually follow their story.
It seems to be very well researched and informed, but the way the information is passed on isn't very entertaining, just a dry retelling of facts

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it's a noticeable improvement over my last attempt at reading a book about female travelers, No Place for a Lady still wasn't what I was hoping for.

My main disappointment was the book's superficial feel. Some of that likely has to do with its location-based organization, which turns the lives of the women included into anecdotes about their destinations. But it's probably also related to the flat, inconsistent writing. There's a lot of information, unfortunately the book is often more focused on itineraries and occasional wacky experiences than the overall lives of these women and their place in society. Transitions between paragraphs about various travelers are abrupt or awkward. Several women appear in multiple chapters, and the author has a habit of referring back (or sometimes forward!) to them without enough of a memory jog.

I came across a few details that don't match up with my earlier reading, which always makes me a little sketchy about trusting a book. It was especially uncomfortable to read a few breezy lines about the unmasking of cross-dressing botanist's assistant Jeanne Baret, considering that a more recent biography of Baret claims she was brutally assaulted by her shipmates.

The book includes a lot of maps and illustrations, which I enjoyed, but the placement of the images, captions, and sidebars sometimes tended to interrupt the flow of my reading.

I think I'd have preferred a longer book that, rather than giving brief sketches of so many women, went more into detail about fewer of them and drew deeper conclusions about their lives and influence. I'd recommend this for people interested in a light overview and some fun stories, but look elsewhere for a meatier experience.

[Andrea Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again(my second reading),Babara Hodgson captured my imagination and inspired me. What an amazing gateway to a wealth of information. Now I am better informed in my own writings about women and their travels! These ladies forged ahead and did us all a great service. "To fly abroad from the hive, like the bee, and to return laden with the sweets of travel,scenes, which haunt the eye-wild adventures, that enliven the imagination-knowledge, to enlighten and free the mind from clinging, deadening prejuidices-a wider circle of sympathy with our fellow-creatures;-these are the uses fo travel, for which I am convinced every one is the better and the happier."-Mary Shelley. p.201. This book is both informative and entertaining! I will be adding this to my own personal library and be reading it again.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covering the mid-seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth century, Hodgson's work introduces us to the women who made a name for themselves travelling the world. It's divided by country, so rather than really getting to know the individual women, you see a kaleidoscope of perspectives on each country before moving on to the next. Which can be interesting. But it also becomes a superficial overview of the ground-breaking women who were opening up the world as a place that women were capable of exploring. It could be a good introduction to travel history, but there's not really enough information for it to stand by itself. Furthermore, the writing leaves something to be desired. It's lackluster and very basic and not at all the caliber I was expecting from a book where every leaf of paper is thick and glossy as a magazine. This is a book that feels like it's going to be college-course-caliber reading, but turns out to be a mass market paperback experience.

[Cristina Urdiales · Rating 3 out of 5]

La verdad, esperaba más. Es una buena compilación, bien organizada y, hasta donde yo llego, bastante exhaustiva de las mujeres viajeras del siglo XVII-XIX. Sin embargo, las descripciones son bastante asépticas, parcas, salvo en fechas o nombres de ubicaciones y, en general, equivalentes a lo que viene siendo leer la Wikipedia (diría o una tesis doctoral, pero en éstas últimas se supone que el autor aporta algo más allá de la maquetación, y en este libro, a mi parecer, no es el caso). Es hasta cierto punto interesante en tanto que viene acompañado de referencias y una bibliografía básica y el maquetado, que parece ser la marca de casa de la autora, no está mal, además de que aparecen iconos femeninos del mundo del viaje de los que al menos yo no tenía dato alguno. No obstante, se puede llegar a hacer monótono con frecuencia.

[ShahadDocs271 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ungrateful rich white women who roam around giving their unsolicited judgmental opinions on land and culture with a touch of ✨colonialism✨

When I first borrowed this book I thought it would be about women travelers all around the world but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It’s clear the author did her research and I really enjoyed the writing and the fun facts that I learned along the way but I just dgaf what these women had to say about the places they visited. It also took me months to finish it lol.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a bit dry, with more facts than stories, but in the end it was an interesting read. I never realized before how many women travelled the world! I want to track down their original books now and read a few. They certainly lived adventurous lives!

This is a book you read while reading other books. It's a pick-up-every-once-in-awhile sort of book, but it's got plenty of research and it makes you think about what travel used to be.

[Rebecca Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard it reviewed on NPR. Sounded like a really good Non-Fiction read. I think the individuals in the book are probably really interesting. The structure and organization of the book made it hard to get to now them. The book book was organized by place instead of by author. I think that may have been the problem. I was disappointing.

[Olivia Mohney · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book on the account of female travelers. This book felt a bit more like a textbook or an academic thesis than an interesting story. There were some interesting parts but I would only recommend this book for history enthusiasts or people who enjoy learning about 16th through 18th century geographical accounts.

[Rob & Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories of female travellers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

[Marcella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't finish it, but the parts I read were cute.

[WILLIAM SMTH · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is very good this book, it is important that you pay attention to each written line.

[Shelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting info on female travelers but presented in a way that the book became boring

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations. Choppy writing. A paragraph or two about one woman and then on to another.

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to agree with many of the other reviews - despite some fascinating stories, the book suffered from poor organization, which meant we never really got to know these intrepid, resilient trailblazing women. As the author organized the book by geographic region instead of by each woman's story, they became secondary to the geography and the true potential of the book was missed. I found myself struggling to remember which adventures went with which traveller and left the book feeling disappointed and confused.

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting book! I had no idea that "lady travelers" was a thing, in the nineteenth century and even earlier.
Wealthy people didn't have much to do if they were just living off of a fortune. There were also those who had such wander lust that they found other ways to pay for it, mainly writing books. Travel books were very big. Who knew?!
Unfortunately, there were very few luxuries and very little comfort. They would have lost me right there. I don't do jungles and bugs and snakes and mud.

Update: I forgot to mention that our author is a book designer! Yes, it's a thing, think about it. Book covers have to come from somewhere. Anyway, this is an amazing cover. A photo doesn't do it justice. It's made to look like an old fabric and leather-bound book. I can't stop looking at it!

[Aby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barbara Hodgson makes a extraordinary research about woman travelers, I could never have imagined a man dealing with the tempests of a trip of these magnitudes, a lot less a woman with all that involves. In a way to see it they were even more free at that time than today (if they had enough money). They made a great contribution too, to the way other women perceived the world and take it as theirs.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book. Crystal has had alot of tragedy in her life with the loss of her mother at an early age and now her father has passed leaving her with his debt to cover. She sells the house and heads from georgia to colorado to her only relative, Aunt Kate on her cattle ranch. She leaves behind a beau that she doesn't truely love but that will give her a luxurious life. Tragedy strikes again and Crystal has lost her chance at the easy life with drew and aunt kate has passed too. She is determined to drive the cattle to sell and save Kate's ranch from the greedy neighboring rancher. In the process she can't help the growing attraction to Luke, her aunt's foreman, the only problem is he is engaged to another and thinks she is too weak for ranch life. But she will prove herself.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about one of my favorite subjects; women who were daring enough to buck convention, escape the narrow confines that defined their societal role, and who saw, explored, and experienced the world at large.

I have to admit that the writing was a little weak. Especially the structure of the book was a little choppy.

That being said, who cares? What was lacking in structure was more than made up for by the adventure, and by the lavish, beautiful illustrations. I was especially enthralled by the gorgeous maps from Victorian-era atlases.

I've learned that Barbara Hodgson is a book designer as well as an author, and it shows.

I totally fell in love with this book.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore women who defy convention and do not let men and society tell them what they can and cannot do. This book describes the adventures of women of the 1700 & 1800's traveling around the world and the books they wrote about these travels.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

My latest read and I Loved it !! As a woman imaging women traveling around the world in the 17th and 18th century is fascinating. But rarely does an author manage to match history and profound documentation with pictures and an interesting story line. Would love to read more from this author :)

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual, and interesting, but not Hodgson's best work

[Jennybeast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of really good stories, and an excellent overview of major women travelers.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories of females traveling throughout the world in the 1700 & 1800's. Very interesting stories but poorly written.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

What amazing adventures these brave and determinded women had. Oh, to be a trail blazing female traveller exploring countires unknow and exotic.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very beautiful book, with really interesting stories about women who travelled decades and hundreds of years ago.

[Dawn Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun vacation read.