Description:
Today Mallorca is a favored vacation haunt of travelers from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia. For most of the nineteenth century, however, difficulties of transportation and its reputed ‘miasmic’ climate discouraged foreign visitors to Mallorca.

In the present anthology, Brian Dendle and Shelby Thacker present texts by seven British visitors to Mallorca published between 1811 and 1888. The texts reveal British reactions to the beauty of the island, the courtesy, honesty and cleanliness of its inhabitants, and the absence of poverty. Negative aspects of Mallorcan life were the prejudice against descendents of Jews, the lack of social life for foreigners, the indolent of the upper classes, absence of hygiene, unhealthy climate, and food not suited to British tastes.

Some British travelers were strongly prejudiced, denouncing Mallorcans (and Spaniards in general) as backward, slothful, and superstitious. Those travelers who could speak Spanish and who knew Spain, on the other hand, offered far more favorable opinions: E. G. Bartholomew, William Dodd, and Charles Toll Bidwell note the considerable material progress and prosperity of Mallorca, the deep religious reverence of the people, the conscientious clergy, and an elementary educational system superior to that of England.

Finally, Dendle and Thacker quote from the 1890 edition of Richard Ford’s A Handbook for Travellers in Spain which strongly encourages tourists to visit Mallorca.


CONTENTS:

Introduction......11

Sir John Carr. Descriptive Travels in the Southern and Eastern Parts of Spain and the Balearic Islands......23

Elizabeth Mary Belgrave, Marchioness of Westminster. Narrative of a Yacht Voyage in the Mediterranean during the Years 1840-41......39

E.G. Bartholomew. Seven Months in the Balearic Island......53

William Dodd. Three Weeks in Majorca......69

J.W. Clayton. The Sunny South. An Autumn in Spain and Majorca......81

Charles Toll Bidwell. The Belearic Island......93

Charles W. Wood. Letter from Majorca......119

Richard Ford. A Handbook for Travellers in Spain......151