Recollections of a Happy Life (2-Volume Set) Being the Autobiography of Marianne North

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Marianne North (1830-90), the Victorian amateur botanist and painter, travelled to distant countries of the world to paint exotic flora in their natural surroundings. This two-volume collection of her memoirs, edited by her sister and published in 1892, records North's remarkable travels. Laden with her palettes and easels, the independent North travelled alone and fended for herself. Her journals describe how she endured swarms of insects, scaled cliffs, trudged through wilderness and crossed swamps in order to reach the plants she wanted to paint.

Volume 1 describes North's early upbringing and the origins of her enthusiasm for nature, and traces her travels through Canada and the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, Japan and India. Volume 2 covers North's travels to Australasia, which she undertook at the suggestion of Charles Darwin. The work concludes with the last journey she made, to Chile in 1884-5, to paint the monkey-puzzle tree.

Contents

Volume 1:
1. Early days and home life
2. Canada and United States
3. Jamaica
4. Brazil
5. Highlands of Brazil
6. Tenerife. California. Japan. Singapore
7. Borneo and Java
8. Ceylon and home
9. India

Volume 2:
10. Hill places in India
11. Rajputana
12. Second visit to Borneo. Queensland. New South Wales
13. Western Australia. Tasmania. New Zealand
14. South Africa
15. Seychelles Islands, 1883
16. Chili

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