Inside the Hermit Kingdom: The 1884 Korea Travel Journal of George Clayton Foulk

by Samuel Hawley

Overview

Navy ensign George Foulk made a 900-mile journey through southern Korea during which he kept a detailed record of everything he observed and experienced. This travel diary, part of the George Clayton Foulk collection in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has been almost entirely overlooked by scholars and yet is of inestimable value. First, it is an account of a trip no Westerner had ever undertaken before or would ever experience again: a long-distance sedan chair journey in the manner of a Choson-dynasty government official. Containing his private thoughts, penned in the heat of the moment, Foulk's diary is immediate, raw, and honest, laying bare his experience. It gives readers is a superbly descriptive and perceptive record of Korea. Inside the Hermit Kingdom stands unique as a firsthand account of the kingdom of Choson in its pristine condition, before the intrusion of the outside world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739120965
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	11/29/2007
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	6.29(w) x 9.03(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

Samuel J. Hawley is assistant professor of practical English at Yonsei University.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 The 1884 Korea Travel Diary of George Clayton Foulk