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The latest in our series of travel writings by major late-eighteenth and nineteenth century poets, Alphonse de Lamartine's 'Travels in the Near East' is now available for browsing and download here.

Lamartine (1790-1869) author, poet, and statesman was a major representative of the French Romantic movement in poetry, and a traveller and historian of note. In 1835, he published this journal of his 1832-33 travels in the Near East, Voyage en Orient, during the course of which travels his ten-year old daughter Julia had died. His journal is particularly interesting in its accounts of Lebanon and Syria (as then was), including Jerusalem.

Our new translation is of Books I to III of Voyage en Orient, as originally published, covering Lamartine’s travels. Book IV containing other material, of a literary, social and political nature, which he associated with his travel notes has been omitted, along with some other minor, extraneous content.

You may view a map of all locations on Lamartine’s route in Travels in the Near East, provided by uMap (open map in new tab).

Parts IV to X of our translation contain contemporary illustrations by David Roberts (British, 1796 – 1864), courtesy of various institutions.

This enhanced translation has been designed to offer maximum compatibility with current search engines. Among other modifications, the proper names of people and places, and the titles given to works of art, have been fully researched, modernised, and expanded; comments in parentheses have been added here and there to provide a reference, or clarify meaning; and minor typographic or factual errors, for example incorrect attributions and dates, in the original text, have been eliminated from this new translation.