"Isabella Bird's Chronicles of America"

The first part of the essay deals with the reception and the contemporary critical debate on Victorian women travel writers, and especially on the so-called “spinsters abroad” (Birkett), who played a relevant role in the emancipation of Victorian women and demanded official recognition.
Among the Victorian travel writers, Isabella Bird achieved the status of an iconic figure. Her two works on North America –The Englishwoman in America (1856) and A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)‒ are analysed showing the development of an accomplished and highly literate writer. The self-creation of the image of the Amazon, riding her horse in the rugged frontier land of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, together with her ecological awareness of the natural landscape, shape the ironical image of a traveller’s I struggling to overcome gender boundaries, and, at the same time, toying with them and with her own identity.