Lizzie: A Victorian Lady's Amazon Adventure

Married to the manager of a rubber company, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Hessel described their travels through the Amazon in letters to her family in England from 1896 until her death in 1899. The correspondence was first seen by Brown, Lizzie's great-niece, in the late 1970s; with the help of her close friend Rose, she began to research the life of her remarkable relative. Morrison, a British author and filmmaker (River Journies, became involved because of his knowledge of the Amazon areas where Lizzie lived. Their collaboration has produced a gripping book. The atypical Victorian woman accompanied her husband Fritz to his post with the Orton Rubber Company, which meant journeys through wild, dangerous territory in South America, which is graphically illustrated in period and modern photos, including several arresting shots in color. But Lizzie's lively, uninhibited, uncomplaining reports are more vivid than any illustration. They form an appealing self-portrait of an intelligent, strong-willed woman enjoying foreign adventures, rather than regarding herself in the conventional Victorian light of a woman isolated and excluded from male concerns. (July 20)