An English Girl's First Impressions of Burmah

Ellis, Beth, 1874-1913Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 2.8
Word count
246K words
Chapters
25

Tags

Motivation and Growth Daily ReflectionsExotic CultureCultural ChangeCross-Cultural ViewFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.An English Girl's First Impressions of Burmah by Beth EllisAuthor: Ellis, Beth, 1874-1913,Language: English, Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Release Date: Jun 16, 2012

Editor's review

This is a travel account by Beth Ellis, a young Englishwoman, recording her first impressions of Burma. It is a first-hand observation from the early twentieth century. Its readability comes from the personal perspective: the foreign landscape, daily life, and impressions of people carry a newcomer's freshness and bewilderment, making it more vivid than a systematic local gazetteer and easier to enter the overseas experience of Britons of the time. As a public-domain historical source, it conveys the tone and concerns of colonial-era travel writing and can serve as supplementary material for regional studies of South and Southeast Asia. Note that many judgments in the book carry period prejudice and a colonial viewpoint; keep your distance and treat it as a historical source rather than objective description. English original, moderate length, best read slowly with excerpts.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the opening chapters to establish the narrative context, then choose sections on customs and people as interest dictates.
  2. Flag prejudiced judgments as you go, then review them together and add critical notes.
  3. Read alongside an overview of modern Burmese history to place the people and events.
  4. Note place names and relationships as you read so unfamiliar background does not lose you.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25

FAQ

Can this book be used as a Burma travel guide? No. It is a personal account by an Englishwoman in the early twentieth century, recording impressions of the time. It contains no practical information on transport, lodging, or routes, and does not reflect present-day Burma. Readers wanting a practical guide should look for modern publications.
Are the descriptions objective and reliable? They should not be taken as objective description. The author writes from the viewpoint of a Briton of her time, with colonial-era prejudices, and some judgments are clearly one-sided. Its value lies in showing how foreigners of that generation saw Burma; distinguish factual observation from subjective evaluation and keep a critical distance.
How difficult is the English? Is it suitable for non-English majors? The original is early twentieth-century English prose with unhurried sentences and no very difficult vocabulary, though it includes place names and old-fashioned expressions. Non-English majors with a basic reading level can read it slowly with a dictionary; readers who depend entirely on Chinese translations will need to find one elsewhere.
Do I need to know Burmese history before reading? Some background helps. Knowing the rough geography, the political situation of the time, and Britain's position there will clarify the people and tone of the book. It can be read without background, but personal impressions may then be mistaken for the general situation; a concise history of Burma is a good companion.

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About the author

Ellis, Beth, 1874-1913 Author

Beth Ellis (1874–1913) was an English-language writer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Public information about her life is limited, and her nationality, education, and personal experience are difficult to establish with certainty. Judging from the two works held in the collection, her writing tends to center on personal observation and themes of growth. An English Girl's First Impressions of Burmah records local scenery and daily life through the fresh perspective of a newcomer, in the lively manner of travel writing, while Barbara Winslow, Rebel turns to character-driven narrative and portrays a rebellious young girl. Though different in subject, both works concern how young women respond psychologically to unfamiliar surroundings or social pressure and how they define themselves, with plain language and attention to detail and genuine feeling. Classified under inspirational and coming-of-age writing, her works offer some reference value for understanding how personal experience and narratives of growth were combined in women's writing of the period.