Detained In Simon's Bay: Translated From The Original Russian By V M Golovnin

Detained In Simon's Bay: Translated From The Original Russian By V M Golovnin

Softcover

ISBN 9780620428316

Publisher: Naval Heritage Trust 2009

Used - Very Good+. This book is in very good condition. The wraps have no signs of wear and the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far.

The Russian view of the Cape as represented in this volume may be unique. During the period in question, Russia had no cultural, political or economic ties with South Africa. Russians saw the Cape only as a convenient stopover en route to the Far East, to their country’s distant domains that could not be reached by sea otherwise. The Cape was one of the ‘exotic’ lands they would visit on such journeys, their first and only introduction to the African continent. Although amazed and perplexed by the ‘entirely different world’ they found here, Russian travellers would often draw unexpected parallels between life in their motherland and the realities of the Cape Colony. The selections include memoirs of such important Russian personalities as Yuri Lisyansky, Vasily Golovnin, Ivan Goncharov and Konstantin Posyet. Most of the texts appear in English for the first time.