This book provides both a detailed survey of Canadian travel writing in the nineteenth century and an unusual perspective on Canadian cultural history. The Canadians who wrote about their experiences abroad during the era of mass travel which followed the advent of the steamship reveal much about themselves and their own country as well.

Who were these travellers, why did they travel, and what did they expect to see? In answering these questions, Eva-Marie Kroller draws upon a wide variety of materials: novels, guide books, magazines, newspapers, photographs, paintings, and previously unpublished letters and diaries. The self-assured progress of the privileged Canadian travellers often turned into introspective voyages of self-discovery. For one thing, Europeans often mistook them for Americans, and many had to ask themselves what it really meant to be Canadian. In addition, the tone of moral earnestness which pervades the early travellers' tales begins to give way to a certain world-weariness by the end. In Canada and elsewhere, the 'tourist' was a new phenomenon at the beginning of the period, but an accepted part of the modern world by the end of it. Canadian Travellers in Europe will be required reading for devotees of travel writing, but it is also a significant contribution to nineteenth-century Canadian history.

George Bowering
George Bowering, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, was born in the Okanagan Valley.

After serving as an aerial photographer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Bowering earned a BA in English and an MA in History at the University of British Columbia, where he became one of the co-founders of the avant-garde poetry magazine TISH. He has taught literature at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario and Simon Fraser University, and he continues to act as a Canadian literary ambassador at international conferences and readings.

A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian and tireless supporter of fellow writers, Bowering has authored more than 80 books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography and youth fiction. His writing has also been translated into French, spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and Romanian.

In 2002, Bowering was recognized by the Vancouver Sun as one of the most influential people in British Columbia.

Eva-Marie Kröller
Eva-Marie Kröller is currently the Chair of the Comperative Literature Program at the University of British Columbia. George Bowering: Bright Circles of Colour was published by Talonbooks in 1992. Recently, she has co-edited Cambridge History of Canadian Literature, published by Cambridge University Press.

Eva-Marie Kroller's profile page

It is both refreshing and fascinating to finally see Canadians abroad ... a titillating and informative read.

Muse

To be commended as an original, non-doctrinal inquiry into Canadian travel culture and its ramifications ... the book will certainly prove of importance to the field.

Zeitschrift für Kulturaustausch

An intriguing prism through which to view the developing Canadian character.

The Globe and Mail