New Year in Cuba: Mary Gardner Lowell's Travel Diary, 1831-1832

Rating:
Summary: Recounts the journey of a twenty-nine year old wife
Review: Ably edited for a contemporary readership by Karen Robert, New Year In Cuba: Mary Gardner Lowell's Travel Diary, 1831-1832 recounts the journey of a twenty-nine year old wife, her young son, and her husband on a journey to the island nation of Cuba. Mary Gardner Lowell's astute observations are peppered with gossip, humor, criticism, scandal, and stories of arrogance and danger. New Year In Cuba is highly recommended as being an engaging and vivid transport through time and space in a yesteryear travelogue adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Rare document, wonderful writer
Review: I first read this journal in its original format: a handwritten, early-19th-century document now kept in the archives at the Massachusetts Historical Society. I loved it on the first reading--Lowell is an articulate, insightful writer who recorded this journey for her friends and family back home in Boston. (Just as we take snapshots of a trip, 19th-century travelers wrote journals.) Now we can all read it without making a trip to the research library in Boston.

A well-educated, well-read woman, Lowell drew on a wealth of knowledge and considerable skill as a writer, but she was also somewhat more irreverent than she should have been, according to the conventions of the time. She took note of the local gossip, the scandalous histories of some of her hosts, and the harsh treatment of slaves on the sugar plantations. It makes for an engrossing read.

Professor Robert's introduction provides the historical context for the journal, covering the Boston background as well as the Cuban information.