SOURCE: Batten, Charles L., Jr. “Introduction” and “Toward a Definition of Eighteenth-Century Travel Literature.” In Pleasurable Instruction: Form and Convention in Eighteenth-Century Travel Literature, pp. 1-8; 24-46. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1978.

In the following essays, Batten asserts that the great popularity of travel narratives in the eighteenth-century was due to their blending of imaginative literary content with descriptive information about the world at large. Batten also attempts to define the genre of eighteenth-century travel narrative, suggesting that it is characterized by a combination of autobiographical and scientific elements.

One of the most distinguishing features in the literary history of our age and country, is the passion of the public for voyages and travels.

—English Editor, Moritz's Travels (1795)

“There are no books which I more delight in than in travels,” confessed Joseph Addison writing for the Tatler in 1710. Although Englishmen had been describing their voyages and journeys...