Travels in Kamtschatka, During the Years 1787 and 1788, Volume 1

Jean-Baptiste Barthélemy de LessepsProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5

Word count: 268K words
Chapters: 27

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.Travels in Kamtschatka, During the Years 1787 and 1788, Volume 1 by LessepsAuthor: Lesseps, Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy, baron de, 1766-1834,Language: English, Class: DK: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Russia, Former Soviet Republics, Poland, Release Date: Mar 13, 2015

Editor's review

This is a late-eighteenth-century travel account of an expedition to the Russian Far East. Baron de Lesseps, who had taken part in the Lapérouse expedition, later recorded his own observations of Kamchatka. The book offers detailed views of the region's natural setting, the life of its indigenous peoples, and the operations of the Russian garrison and administration, giving it value both as geography and as ethnography. The prose retains the typical tone of Enlightenment travel writing: curiosity about unfamiliar sights and customs coexists with the unexamined sense of superiority of a European observer, so readers can trace the complex workings of colonial-era knowledge production. As a public-domain ebook, it is better used as a primary source than enjoyed as a popular travelogue. Reading it alongside maps and background on Russian expansion into the Far East will make its significance clearer. For readers studying North Pacific history, ethnographic writing, or the travel-literature tradition, this is a rare firsthand source.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and graduate students of Russian Far East history and North Pacific exploration
Readers interested in eighteenth-century travel writing and ethnographic writing
English literature students who need primary English sources for textual analysis
Deep readers who enjoy slow, source-based reading and can accept an archaic style

Not a good fit for

Casual readers expecting the pace and ease of a modern popular travelogue
Beginners who find English reading difficult or dislike consulting background materials
Readers with little patience for critically examining a colonial-era gaze

Reading tips

Keep a map of Kamchatka at hand and locate the places and routes mentioned as you read.
Read alongside works on Russian expansion into the Far East or the Lapérouse expedition to understand the author's background.
Do not force your way through archaic spellings and long sentences word by word; first follow the main line of observations and events.
After finishing, note the descriptions of indigenous customs and reflect on the European observer's narrative stance.

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 work of nonfiction?

It is a factual travel account recording what the author saw in Kamchatka between 1787 and 1788; it is nonfiction. Its content centers on geography, customs, and administration and can be used as historical material.

Is the original English text difficult to read?

The book was written in the late eighteenth century, with long sentences, spellings that differ from modern English, and many place names and Russian official titles. It suits readers with some English proficiency who are willing to read with maps and background materials.

Why is only Volume 1 available?

This ebook is Volume 1 of the work and covers the earlier part of the journey. To understand the author's Kamchatka observations in full, look for the later volumes and note how the volumes connect.

Does the book describe the local indigenous peoples?

Yes. The author records observations of the customs and livelihoods of Kamchatka's inhabitants, but these descriptions carry an eighteenth-century European perspective. Read them alongside modern ethnographic research rather than treating them as objective fact.

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

Jean-Baptiste Barthélemy de Lesseps Author · French · 1766–1834

Baron Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy de Lesseps (1766–1834) was a French diplomat and writer. In 1785 he joined the La Pérouse round-the-world expedition and served as an interpreter in Russia; in 1787 he was ordered to travel overland from Kamchatka back to France to deliver reports, a journey that took about a year. This experience supplied the material for his best-known work, Travels in Kamtschatka, which combines travel observations and geographical description with a personal narrative style and remains an important source for understanding Kamchatka in the late eighteenth century; it has come down to us in several language editions, and three of his works are held in this collection. Public information about him is limited, and the details of his life center largely on this journey. He was also the uncle of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who later directed the Suez Canal project.