Henry Fielding, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon

Joshua Grasso (East Central University)

Ed. by Nicholas Seager, University of Keele
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1755

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Guidebooks / Travel writing

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Recommended Reading

Henry Fielding’s final work, the unclassifiable

The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon

(1754), is also his boldest experiment in fiction. Part travel narrative and part autobiography, it recounts the author’s desperate attempt to flee to Lisbon before an English winter exacerbates his fatal illness. Somewhat ironically, the book almost never reaches Lisbon at all, as getting from Point A to Point B becomes a maddening exercise in bad weather and cutthroat capitalism. Whether or not the journal was composed spontaneously or after reflection, it shows Fielding coming to a startling realization of travel: that it is entirely at the expense of the traveler. As he writes, “There are many evils in society, from which people of the higher rank are entirely exempt, that they have not the least…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1665 words

Citation: Grasso, Joshua. "The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=468, accessed 21 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Henry Fielding, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback