Patrick Hart, Valerie Kennedy, Dora Petherbridge Henrietta Liston's Travels: The Turkish Journals, 1812-1820

Henrietta Liston’s Constantinople journal details her journey by sea from England to Istanbul and the diplomatic mission’s Mediterranean stops at the time of the Napoleonic wars and reflects on the political situation of Europe, focusing in particular on the British and the Ottoman Empires.
An original perspective on the early 19th-century Ottoman EmpireThe first publication of Henrietta Liston’s Turkish journal and associated writingsA scholarly edition with extensive critical apparatus introducing an almost entirely unknown manuscript containing a significant, extended work of travel writing Based on archival research in the Liston Papers that sheds new light on the events described in the journal and the period in which it was written, the Listons’ life in Turkey and their circle of diplomats, travellers and writersMakes an important contribution to the recuperation of unpublished women’s travelogues and life writing, and to the study of diplomatic spouses and consortsHenrietta Liston’s Turkish journal is a significant yet virtually unknown work of women’s travel writing. As the wife of the British Ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Liston had privileged access to the Ottoman elite and diplomatic corps. Her journal reflects on British–Ottoman relations, combining Orientalist perspectives with a human-centred version of the picturesque. It offers astute commentaries on places, people and events – including a plague-ridden Constantinople, a visit to the harem of the Grand Vizier’s deputy, the presentation of ambassadors in the Seraglio and the departure of pilgrims on the hajj.This edition features Liston’s journal alongside a selection of her other, shorter writings relating to her time in Turkey, including accounts of diplomatic incidents and personal experiences. It offers an innovative coupling of print publication, providing a modernised, accessible edition of Liston’s travel writing with supporting critical apparatus, alongside an online resource containing a complete set of digitised images of the original manuscripts and semi-diplomatic transcriptions.Find out moreWatch: 'Henrietta Liston: Approaching Constantinople, 1812-1820' on YoutubeExplore: 'The North American journeys of a diplomat's wife: The journals of Henrietta Liston, 1796&;1801', the online resource from the National Library of Scotland Henrietta Liston’s Constantinople journal is a significant and hitherto virtually unknown work of women's travel writing. As the wife of the British Ambassador to the Porte, Liston had privileged access to parts of the Sultan’s entourage and the Ottoman elite. Her journal details her journey by sea from England to Istanbul and the diplomatic mission’s Mediterranean stops at the time of the Napoleonic wars and reflects on the political situation of Europe, focusing in particular on the British and the Ottoman Empires. Yet it also offers a human-centred version of the picturesque, and includes depictions of a plague-ridden Constantinople, a visit to the harem of the Kaimakam, excursions to Belgrade Village, the presentation of ambassadors in the Seraglio, and the departure of pilgrims on the hajj. This edition features Liston’s journal alongside a selection of her other, shorter writings from Turkey, including accounts of key diplomatic incidents and personal experiences.