Often aimed at justifying the expansion of woman’s proper “sphere,” these books are perhaps even more enthralling to the contemporary reader -since they seem to defy everything we think we know about the constrained lives of women in this era. Whether erudite travelogue, personal journey of discovery, or sensationalist narrative of adventure and exploration, books written by women traveling on their own were among the most popular writings published in the Victorian era. As a historian of feminism, I am always on the lookout for sources that reveal women’s voices and interpretation of experiences often imagined as belonging primarily to men. The latter includes The Keys of Egypt, an account of Champollions successful deciphering of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
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