Fanny Loviot

A Lady's Captivity Among Chinese Pirates: the Adventures of a Lady Traveller During the 1850s Fanny Loviot

A young French girl's adventures in the age of Victoria

The adventures of Parisian young lady, Fanny Loviot and her eldest sister began in the Spring of 1852 when they boarded the small French schooner Independence, at Havre bound for California. They spent seven days suffering in the English Channel and a further twenty three days at sea before they arrived at Rio de Janeiro. They rounded Cape Horn, losing a seaman, but eventually arrived at San Francisco. Fanny spent almost two years in America experiencing the far west with all its wonders and diversions, including travelling into the interior and seeing her first native Indians. A house fire became the catalyst that divided the sisters and Fanny decided upon adventure to Java with a female acquaintance. In 1854 they embarked upon the Arcturus bound for China. What befell her now began to take on a far more serious aspect, with many perils, the death of companions, a hostile land and capture by Chinese Pirates awaiting her. This most interesting account of a lady's adventures in the middle years of the nineteenth century is highly entertaining, but illustrates not only the changes that have taken place in world travel over the last century and a half but also the remarkable resourcefulness the 'frail sex' could muster when necessary. Interestingly, this book was translated into English by Amelia B. Edwards, another resourceful Victorian lady and a successful 'jobbing' writer who was also very well regarded for her fine supernatural fiction, a collection of which is published by Leonaur.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.