Mariana Starke
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"An important transitional figure from the idiosyncratic style of the Grand Tour travelogues to the more informative and impersonal guidebook was Mariana Starke. Her 1824 book Information and Directions for Travellers on the Continent served as an essential companion for British travelers to the Continent in the early 19th century. She recognized that with the growing numbers of Britons traveling abroad after 1815 the majority of her readers would now be in family groups and on a budget. She therefore included for the first time a wealth of advice on luggage, obtaining passports, the precise cost of food and accommodation in each city and even advice on the care of invalid family members. She also devised a system of !!! exclamation mark ratings, a forerunner of today's star ratings. Her books, published by John Murray, served as a template for later guides." --Sholem Stein "This learned gentleman believed that his innkeeper charged him abnormal prices for everything, and he would never pay for the most trifling article without looking up its price in Mrs. Starke’s Travels, a book which has reached its twentieth edition, because it gives the prudent Englishman the price of a turkey, an apple, a glass of milk, and so forth." --The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal |
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Mariana Starke (1761/2-1838) was an English author. She is best known for Information and Directions for Travellers on the Continent (1824), her ground-breaking travel guide of France and Italy which served as an essential companion for British travellers to the Continent in the early nineteenth century. She also wrote plays and poetry early in her career but was discouraged by harsh reviews. She was unmarried but sometimes referred to as Mrs. Starke.
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Works
Plays
- The British Orphan (unpublished; produced privately in 1791)
- The Sword of Peace; or, a Voyage of Love (produced in London in 1788; Etext)
- The Widow of Malabar. A tragedy in three acts (adaptation from La Veuve de Malabar by Le Mierre; produced in London in 1790)
- The Tournament, a tragedy; imitated from the celebrated German drama, entitled Agnes Bernauer (produced in 1800)
Poetry
- The Poor Soldier; an American tale: founded on a recent fact. Attributed; two editions: London: Printed for J. Walter, 1789
- The Beauties of Carlo Maria Maggi, paraphrased: to which are added Sonnets, by Mariana Starke Exeter: Printed for the author, by S. Woolmer ... and sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, London ; by Upham, and also by Barratt, Bath, 1811
Travel writing
- Letters from Italy, between the years 1792 and 1798 containing a view of the Revolutions in that country (2 vols. London, 1800)
- Travels on the Continent (1820)
- Information and Directions for Travellers on the Continent (1824; expanded and republished as Travels in Europe for the use of Travellers on the Continent and likewise in the Island of Sicily, to which is added an account of the Remains of Ancient Italy in 1832) (658 p; 2 maps)
- Various translations of the above and pirated editions; last edition issued was in 1839
See also
