8vo. xi, 221 pp., hand-coloured frontispiece, title page woodcut, contemporary half-calf, title gilt on raised and decorated spine, all edges gilt, marbled endpaper, some light toning, occasional spotting, otherwise copy in very good condition, Chapman & Hall, London, second edition, 1846.

Synopsis

This work from Thackeray’s early career, written while he was still an impecunious journalist and before the success of “Vanity Fair”, shows the style which was soon to make him a major literary figure. It is a lively account of his journey in 1844 to the Eastern Mediterranean, via Gibraltar, Malta and Rhodes, to visit the newly-fashionable extensions to the Grand Tour of Constantinople, Jerusalem and Cairo. Thackeray travels by steamboat, itself a novelty, and gives his impressions of the people, antiquities and buildings which had already begun to captivate the imagination of the British public. These impressions combine to make a spirited and witty travelogue – sometimes irreverent, sometimes cynical, but vivid in description. The illustrations, some of which have only recently become accessible, are by leading orientalist painters of the period, a number of whom were visited by Thackeray on his journey and are featured in the book.
Contents: Gibraltar – Athens – Smyrna – First glimpses of the East – Constantinople – Rhodes – The white Squall – Telemessus, Beyrout – A day and night in Syria – From Jaffa to Jerusalem – From Jaffa to Alexandria – To Cairo.