Ethel Brailliana/Brilliana Harley (c1867- 1940), later Mrs. Alec Tweedie, was the British author of the travel books A Girl's Ride in Iceland (1889), A Winter Jaunt to Norway (1894), Through Finland in Carts (1897), Mexico as I Saw it (1901), Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman's Life (1912) and America as I Saw it; or, America Revisited (1913), amongst others. She was one of the first professional women travel writers.

Finland and Europe was first published in 1982. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In 1808 the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Swedish kingdom since the thirteenth century, was invaded and in 1809 annexed by Russia -- events which took place within the context of the Napoleonic wars but whose significance was obscure to most Finns and to the outside world as well. During the nineteenth century Finnish national identity grew and Finland began to play a role in European politics. This book traces the course of Finnish involvement in European affairs from the time when it became an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire down to the First World War. Juhani Paasivirta's analysis is centered upon eleven international crises, including the Russian annexation of Finland, the fall of Napoleon, two revolutions in Poland, the revolutions of 1848, the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, the Russo-Turkish and Russo-Japanese wars, and the outbreak of the First World War. Paasivirta writes from two vantage points: he records the reactions to these events in Finland, across a broad social and economic spectrum, and the attitudes towards the 'Finnish situation' in Sweden, England, France, and Germany. Finland's relationship with Russia, and her necessarily realistic regard for the security of the Russian Empire were important matters faced by Finnish leaders; Paasivirta shows how this delicate relation collapsed, making way for a course that led to Finnish independence in 1917.

Other questions of both general and critical interest, such as vestimentary display in its guise as exhibitionary colonialist language are also raised."--Jacket.

In the American mind, Finland is often swept up in the general group of Nordic countries, little known and seldom gaining prominence on its own. But as Jonathan Clements shows in An Armchair Traveller’s History of Finland, it has a long and fascinating history, one that offers oddities and excitements galore: from prehistoric herders to medieval lords, Christian martyrs and Viking kings, and the war heroes who held off the Soviet Union against long odds. Clements travels the length of the country as he tells these stories, along the way offering accounts of Finland’s public artworks, literary giants, legends and folktales, and famous figures. The result is the perfect introduction to Finland for armchair and actual travelers alike.

Travel literature has always been associated with the construction of utopias which were founded on the idea of unknown lands. During their journeys in foreign lands, British travellers tended to formulate various critical opinions based on their background knowledge of the country visited. Their attempts to interpret other nations were often misinterpretations of the peoples in question as the Other. At the close of the eighteenth century, when Grand Tourism started to fade away and travelling became a mainstream activity for the middle-class Briton, travel writers attempted to identify with.