Korea and her Neighbours - Volume 1

Isabella Bird (Mrs Bishop 18311904) was recommended an open-air life from an early age as a cure for her physical and nervous difficulties. Her accounts of travel in America Hawaii Japan and Persia were best-sellers. This two-volume work first published in 1898 was one of the books arising from Bird''s visit to Korea and China between 1894 and 1897 the other being The Yangtse Valley and Beyond (1899) also available in this series. Korea was a battleground during the Sino-Japanese War of 18945 and subsequently became increasingly dominated by Japan being annexed fully in 1910. Bird provides vivid descriptions of the Korean people their way of life and customs at a time when the country had only recently opened up to the West. In Volume 1 she gives her first impressions of Seoul and travels down the Han river commenting especially on the lowly position of women.