Women experience and portray travel differently Gender matters irreducibly and complexly. Building on recent scholarship in womens travel writing these provocative essays not only affirm the impact of gender but also cast womens journeys against coordinates such as race class culture religion economics politics and history. The books scope is unique Women travelers extend in time from Victorian memsahibs to contemporary road girls and topics range from Anna Leonowenss slanted portrayal of Siam later popularized in the movie The King and I to current feminist descripting of the maleroadbuddy genre. The extensive array of writers examined includes Nancy Prince Frances Trollope Cameron Tuttle Lady Mary Montagu Catherine Oddie Kate Karko Frances Caldern de la Barca Rosamond Lawrence Zilpha Elaw Alexandra DavidNel Amelia Edwards Erica Lopez Paule Marshall Bharati Mukherjee and Marilynne Robinson.