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On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers. Illustrated, Etc.
On Sledge and Horseback to outcast Siberian Lepers. Illustrated, British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The HISTORY OF ASIA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This series includes ethnographic and general histories of distinct peripheral coastal regions that comprise South and East Asia. Other works focus on cultural history, archaeology, and linguistics. These books help readers understand the forces that shaped the ancient civilisations and influenced the modern countries of Asia. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition ++++ British Library Marsden, Kate; 1892 xv. 243 p.; 8 . 10075.ff.21.
358 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1892
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March 8, 2018Earnest memoir by a late Victorian lady who visited Yakutia in Siberia out of concern for the local leper population. Reading it I did wonder if the extremity of what she did was part of the point, there would have been leper populations no less needy that she could have ministered to without having to have made such a difficult journey to such a remote region. Afterall what self respecting charitable endeavour wishes to minister to the conveniently needy? Surely maximum merit is only available to those who go the furtherest and endure the gravest difficulties, particularly if they accomplish very little.
Sadly the front cover is slightly misleading and her sledge is not attacked by wolves, but she does get excited about a rumour of a herb that is used to treat leprosy in the area. Naturally the herb is impossible to track down, maybe something was lost in translation.
Sadly the front cover is slightly misleading and her sledge is not attacked by wolves, but she does get excited about a rumour of a herb that is used to treat leprosy in the area. Naturally the herb is impossible to track down, maybe something was lost in translation.
March 6, 2021
El viaje de la propia Kate Marsden por Siberia. Un libro escrito por la propia protagonista que de verdad existió y de verdad hizo ese viaje.
Me ha gustado mucho, y tiene de bueno que cuando lees no sabes si es ficción o no y parece que de ficcion quitando adornos no debería de haber.
Me ha gustado mucho, y tiene de bueno que cuando lees no sabes si es ficción o no y parece que de ficcion quitando adornos no debería de haber.
August 19, 2018
This is an account by Kate Marsden of her journey to Yakutsk in Siberia in 1890-1891 to set up a resources for the lepers she had heard about there. She is a middle aged Englishwoman, devoutly Christian and decidedly eccentric. Yet she writes engagingly. I found my cynicism melting away.
So she travelled a long way to find a particular group of 66 people with leprosy. There must have been other people in similar need nearer. She handed out thousands of bibles as she went, to prisoners, to lepers and to nuns who don't seem to be offended although it seems offensive to me. Different country, different age. Many of the prisoners were given packets of tea and sugar as well and Miss Marsden says that she knows she may be criticised for giving out tea and sugar when they really needed their spiritual welfare addressed. As I said, different times. And the description of the conditions of many of the prisoners was heartbreaking.
As she had to travel with her food much of the time I simply can't imagine where she put this huge number of bibles.
She was armed with a letter from the Empress and this gave her access to dignitaries wherever she stopped and where she set up committees. I was cynical. Committees set up and then left don't seem viable to me.
But I found my cynicism melting away. Her journey was horrific. There were nearly 3000 miles by horse drawn sledge and another 2000 miles on horse back. She travelled on top of her luggage (all those bibles!). She became sick with an abscess from all the horse riding. Sometimes she simply fell off her horse by the side of the road and went to sleep. There were bogs, mud, forests where the ground was on fire, mosquitoes and extremes of temperatures.
And in the end she raised thousands of dollars for hospitals (two, one for males and one for females) ten houses for accommodation for the lepers and resources for food production and staffing for the colony. Nuns were setting off for Yakutsk and doctors and nursing staff were appointed.
My Century Travellers edition has an introduction by Eric Newby in 1986. He points out the frustration we feel in knowing nothing else about Kate Marsden. Nor do we know if hospitals were ever built or if the condition of lepers in Yakutsk were improved.
So she travelled a long way to find a particular group of 66 people with leprosy. There must have been other people in similar need nearer. She handed out thousands of bibles as she went, to prisoners, to lepers and to nuns who don't seem to be offended although it seems offensive to me. Different country, different age. Many of the prisoners were given packets of tea and sugar as well and Miss Marsden says that she knows she may be criticised for giving out tea and sugar when they really needed their spiritual welfare addressed. As I said, different times. And the description of the conditions of many of the prisoners was heartbreaking.
As she had to travel with her food much of the time I simply can't imagine where she put this huge number of bibles.
She was armed with a letter from the Empress and this gave her access to dignitaries wherever she stopped and where she set up committees. I was cynical. Committees set up and then left don't seem viable to me.
But I found my cynicism melting away. Her journey was horrific. There were nearly 3000 miles by horse drawn sledge and another 2000 miles on horse back. She travelled on top of her luggage (all those bibles!). She became sick with an abscess from all the horse riding. Sometimes she simply fell off her horse by the side of the road and went to sleep. There were bogs, mud, forests where the ground was on fire, mosquitoes and extremes of temperatures.
And in the end she raised thousands of dollars for hospitals (two, one for males and one for females) ten houses for accommodation for the lepers and resources for food production and staffing for the colony. Nuns were setting off for Yakutsk and doctors and nursing staff were appointed.
My Century Travellers edition has an introduction by Eric Newby in 1986. He points out the frustration we feel in knowing nothing else about Kate Marsden. Nor do we know if hospitals were ever built or if the condition of lepers in Yakutsk were improved.
September 17, 2013
Curioso libro de viajes victoriano sobre las aventuras de una mujer inglesa en Siberia en la búsqueda de consuelo para los enfermos de lepra. Las referencias religiosas llegan a ser cansadas.
Biografía de Kate Marsden: http://mujeresquehacenlahistoria.blog...
Biografía de Kate Marsden: http://mujeresquehacenlahistoria.blog...
December 2, 2018
This is an absolutely incredible sorry of a British philanthropist who wanted to tour the most remote part of the world, looking for what she called the most destitute people in the world : the lepers, in central Siberia, first among the city of Yakutsk, then to the even more remote city of Vilhuik, about 1,000 miles away from Yakutsk. All this in the year 1891, i.e there was no helicopters, not even a proper road to bring her there.
She describes her journey starting from St Petersburg, then Moscow, then a few miles away from Moscow where the train line finishes and she has to take the sledge for 3,000 miles to reach Irkutsk on lake Baikal, then an extra 2,000 miles (partly by boat) to reach Yakutsk.
The story and the suffering she met are incredible : bumpy rides, filthy shelter to stop, travelling in dreadful conditions, mosquitoes, bears, fire, cold during the beginning of her journey (in February, the journey lasted 10 months). At every stop, before Yakutsk, she was welcome by the officials, visited all the prisons (and assess how awful or comfy they are) to give copies of the gospel to relieve the convicts sufferings. Then, once in the heart of Siberia, she tells the wretched life of the lepers she meets, very often outcasts from their communities in solitary huts to survive - or to die slowly - struggling for food and warmth.
The story was great, the style a little less. It was purely descriptive, a bit like a survey, and every empathy that could come from the book was tarnished by some kind of religious address to god (the lady is a sister of Mercy and only a solid faith could have pushed her to undertake such a journey and endure such sufferings).
I also like the last chapters less where she is back to St Petersburgh and explains the results of her fundraising to improve the conditions of the lepers.
It remains an interesting book overall, with incredible - and dreadful - stories, worth reading if you are like me fascinated by the remote part of Siberia. A female philanthropist version of Michel Strogoff
She describes her journey starting from St Petersburg, then Moscow, then a few miles away from Moscow where the train line finishes and she has to take the sledge for 3,000 miles to reach Irkutsk on lake Baikal, then an extra 2,000 miles (partly by boat) to reach Yakutsk.
The story and the suffering she met are incredible : bumpy rides, filthy shelter to stop, travelling in dreadful conditions, mosquitoes, bears, fire, cold during the beginning of her journey (in February, the journey lasted 10 months). At every stop, before Yakutsk, she was welcome by the officials, visited all the prisons (and assess how awful or comfy they are) to give copies of the gospel to relieve the convicts sufferings. Then, once in the heart of Siberia, she tells the wretched life of the lepers she meets, very often outcasts from their communities in solitary huts to survive - or to die slowly - struggling for food and warmth.
The story was great, the style a little less. It was purely descriptive, a bit like a survey, and every empathy that could come from the book was tarnished by some kind of religious address to god (the lady is a sister of Mercy and only a solid faith could have pushed her to undertake such a journey and endure such sufferings).
I also like the last chapters less where she is back to St Petersburgh and explains the results of her fundraising to improve the conditions of the lepers.
It remains an interesting book overall, with incredible - and dreadful - stories, worth reading if you are like me fascinated by the remote part of Siberia. A female philanthropist version of Michel Strogoff
April 2, 2019
I say finished but I didn’t read all the appendix as there’s only so many letters saying what a great a person the author is that I can take. There’s something very strange about this book, an English Victorian lady goes to Siberia to help lepers despite the fact there were some poor people in England she could have helped and that she speaks no Russian. It’s hard to judge from this point in the future but I wonder what she actually achieved apart from a lot of committees. It’s written in a very simple almost naive way with a lot of religion thrown in. I did enjoy the intrepid explorer aspects of it and the information about Siberia, and it’s interesting as a historical piece but there’s a lot to annoy a reader too.
October 15, 2019
Upped this from an initial 3 stars, because this was an intriguing glimpse into crazed Victorian philanthropic exploring (if that's a thing?), completely committed and serious, shot through with some appealing humour, and with a fair bit of memorable, harrowing description. There are a few too many places where it drags (most of the Appendix can be skimmed, if read at all) - but that's harsh because it's writing for a purpose and expresses that purposes, and its time, really well.
August 1, 2015
Me ha gustado aunque ha habido momentos en los que se me ha hecho pesado y repetitivo. Tiene el interés de que es un libro autobiográfico, por lo que no puedes más que admirar la tenacidad, valor y fortaleza de esta enfermera victoriana que, con inquebrantable fe, recorre miles de kilómetros en las peores condiciones, para llevar consuelo a los leprosos de Siberia.
Leprosos que viven en una condiciones absolutamente inhumanas, abandonados a su triste suerte por todos. La descripción de las condiciones de vida de esas personas ha sido lo más duro de leer (rayando la repugnancia en ocasiones), por eso tiene más mérito lo que logró el viaje de Marsden.
Hay momentos que son divertidos, como sus ímprobos esfuerzos para subir o bajar del trineo absolutamente forrada de ropa de abrigo.
Y es impagable la arrogancia tan británica en sus comentarios sobre los defectos de los rusos -en cualquier área de su vida, incluyendo a la sofisticada aristocracia de San petersburgo- que se resolverían con sólo adoptar las costumbres inglesas.
Me ha gustado mucho lo que cuenta, aunque no tanto el estilo. Por supuesto es un informe, no una novela; y ella no era escritora. No obstante, hay partes que se hacen pesadas, y sólo por saber si su viaje culminaría con éxito, terminé el libro
Leprosos que viven en una condiciones absolutamente inhumanas, abandonados a su triste suerte por todos. La descripción de las condiciones de vida de esas personas ha sido lo más duro de leer (rayando la repugnancia en ocasiones), por eso tiene más mérito lo que logró el viaje de Marsden.
Hay momentos que son divertidos, como sus ímprobos esfuerzos para subir o bajar del trineo absolutamente forrada de ropa de abrigo.
Y es impagable la arrogancia tan británica en sus comentarios sobre los defectos de los rusos -en cualquier área de su vida, incluyendo a la sofisticada aristocracia de San petersburgo- que se resolverían con sólo adoptar las costumbres inglesas.
Me ha gustado mucho lo que cuenta, aunque no tanto el estilo. Por supuesto es un informe, no una novela; y ella no era escritora. No obstante, hay partes que se hacen pesadas, y sólo por saber si su viaje culminaría con éxito, terminé el libro
January 8, 2008
Kate Marsden was the real deal, and this book is hardcore. She does ride horses and pull sledges. She does travel through Siberia to minister to outcast lepers. The title is accurate. A very interesting account of the Czarist far east.
December 4, 2015
This book is about a missionary trip the author took in about 1891 to assess the conditions of and raise funds for lepers in Siberia.
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August 20, 201050c score today - op shop
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