Excursions to Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Balbec From the United States Ship

Jones, George, 1800-1870Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.1

Word count: 553K words
Chapters: 56

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.Excursions to Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Balbec From the United States ShipAuthor: Jones, George, 1800-1870,Language: English, Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Release Date: Jun 8, 2019

Editor's review

This is a travel narrative by George Jones, a nineteenth-century chaplain in the United States Navy, recording what he saw and experienced while visiting Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Balbec, and other places aboard an American warship. As a public-domain work of travel literature, its value lies not in offering travel guidance usable today, but in presenting the Middle Eastern urban scenes, religious sites, and daily life as seen by a nineteenth-century Western observer. Readers can see how historic sites were described at the time, from what angle foreign customs were recorded, and the personal reflections and moral commentary common in travel writing. The Project Gutenberg electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable as supplementary material for research in historical geography, travel literature, or cross-cultural observation. It should be read as a period document rather than a neutral, objective guidebook, with attention to the author's standpoint and the limitations of his era.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century Middle East travel accounts
Students of literature and history studying travel writing and cross-cultural observation
University teachers and students who need public-domain English historical sources for textual analysis
Readers who enjoy slow reading of old-style travelogues and savoring the language of the period

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking practical Middle East travel guides and up-to-date information
General readers expecting a tight plot or a modern narrative pace
Those unaccustomed to the style of nineteenth-century English travel writing

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and the opening of each chapter to map the cities and route the author visited, then choose the chapters on cities of interest.
When encountering discussions of religion and customs, make marginal notes to distinguish factual record from the author's personal judgments.
Use a map to compare old and modern place names, which helps build a sense of space and lowers the barrier to reading.
If the English is difficult, read a Chinese translation or introduction first, then return to key passages in the original.

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.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a genuine travel record?

It is a travel record of the author's visits to Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Balbec, and other places aboard an American warship. It belongs to nineteenth-century travel literature, not fiction. The book mixes personal impressions and commentary, and should be read as a period document.

Does the book contain practical modern information on transportation and accommodation?

No. The book was written in the nineteenth century and records the observations and impressions of that time; it contains no practical modern information such as transportation, accommodation, or visas. For travel guidance, consult a contemporary guidebook.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The original is nineteenth-century English with long sentences and considerable religious and place-name vocabulary, posing a certain barrier for non-native readers. It is advisable to read an introduction or a Chinese translation first for background, then selected passages in the original, ideally with a map and notes.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Jones, George, 1800-1870 Author

George Jones (1800–1870) is an English-language author about whose life very little is publicly known; his nationality, education, and professional career cannot be reliably established. What can be confirmed is that he left one work, titled Excursions to Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Balbec From the United States Ship, of which a single copy is held in the collection. Judging from the title, the book recounts the author's travels with an American vessel to the historic Middle Eastern cities of Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Balbec, placing it within nineteenth-century travel literature that combines maritime observation with visits to the Holy Land. Writing of this kind typically follows the itinerary as its thread while recording cityscapes, ancient sites, and impressions along the way, offering contemporary English readers a first-hand view of the Middle East under Ottoman rule. Given the limited material, Jones's style and later influence are difficult to assess in detail; his significance rests chiefly on this travel account as a record of Near Eastern cities and of voyaging experience.