The Far Islands and Other Cold Places: Travel Essays of a Victorian Lady

Interests in Victorian Age travel was not only confined to Britain but also to Europe in general and North America in particular. The travel essays of a Victorian Lady were begun by Elizabeth Taylor in 1886 and ended with a total of 39 articles. This book has many. She wrote for the London Globe, Atlantic Monthly, New York Herald, Fishing Gazette (London), Popular Science Monthly, Forest and Stream plus other magazines. She was enthralled with the northern climates: the people and the countrysides. Her descriptive essays are priceless to be sure. Upon reading, you wont shiver because of the cold but, rather come away with warm memories! Dag Stomberg St. Andrews, Scotland

This is an excellent book for all of us who are in love with the Faroe Islands and/or Iceland. Elisabeth Taylor has a nice and easy language and one really gets involved in the everyday life that she describes in the book. Recommended to everyone who is interested in understanding the history of Faroe Islands and Iceland as well as some of their traditions.

Elizabeth Taylor, one of those indomitable Victorian women who hiked their skirts and explored where even tough moderns would pause, faced the wilds of northern Canada and of the Faroe Islands. The miserable weather etched the inhabitants but didn't faze our guide.Taylor was neither a sentimentalist nor a cynic but saw clearly and wrote straight. Trained as an artist and enamored of nature--especially birds and flowers--Taylor appreciated people who lived closest to her beloved surroundings. By her account, they responded to her interest by inviting her to share their hard-bitten lives and without pretense, she accepted their invitations. Taylor financed her economic travels by writing for middle class magazines, like Frank Leslie's, and for outdoors magazines where a female byline was a rarity. These essays come from those published pieces and some journals archived in her hometown, Minneapolis. A descendent has assembled the collection, but the task had real literary and cultural value that counts for much more than familial duty. A book about places few of us ever would want to visit became for me a book full of passages worthy of reading to friends. A description of the whale hunt, for example, rings with authority and subdued horror. Elizabeth Taylor emerges as her own modest heroine, and her quiet, gemhard descriptions stay alive long after the book is finished.