Far-fetched Facts: The Literature Of Travel And The Idea Of The South Seas

Synopsis

Far-Fetched Facts is a fascinating look at travel literature, both real and imaginary, from classical times, via early accounts of the new world, to later accounts of the South Sea islands that lay beyond. Rennie traces continuities from the Odyssey to the twentieth century, and stresses the interplay of fact and fiction in a literature with a notorious tendency to stray from the truth. In the process, he provides close readings of various accounts of the mutiny on the Bounty as well as writings by and about Cook, Bougainville, Defoe, Swift, Byron, Melville, Loti, and Stevenson.