A E I. Arabia Egypt India.

Inscribed to George Augustus Sala

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author, "George Augustus Sala, with Isabel Burton's kindest complements - 21 Jun 1879" to the half-title, with Sala's ownership inscription directly below. Sala (1828-1895) was one of the leading writers and journalists in England at this time, and was a long-time friend of both Isabel and her husband Richard, through their shared literary circles. This "notable travel account" details Isabel and Richard's six month tour of India from December 1875 (ODNB). The pair left from Trieste, where Richard acted as consul, and sailed by way of Port Said and Jeddah to Bombay, proceeding from there to Hyderabad before making a brief tour of Sind and returning to England via Goa and Suez. In addition to their itinerary this work covers the Jeddah massacre of 1858, the history of Hyderabad, the work of the missionary Francis Xavier and the Goa Inquisition. In the work Burton "characterises her descriptions of a foreign elsewhere as pertaining to the lived life rather than to more abstract thoughts or data", and explores the physical strain of the various pilgrims she meets en route (Kuehn, p. 94). Richard also described the journey in his own work Sindh Revisited (1877).