Half Hours in the Far East

First published in 1888, with this edition published in 1899, this book is part of a series of books by The Half Hour Library. This book Half Hours in the Far East is subtitled Among the People and Wonders of India.

It is a series of books aimed at young adult readers - say teen aged, and as such the writing is simple, with simplistic descriptions of all facets of life in India. For me the writing is far less interesting than the excellent illustrations - which are probably engravings, but may just be pen and ink. They feature a full page illustration on every 6 or so pages, and smaller illustrations on 2 of the intervening pages - ie a lot of illustrations. The full page illustrations generally show scenes from Indian life and culture, whereas the smaller illustrations show portraits of peoples, pictures of all sorts of flora and fauna, boats, people in traditional dress, etc etc - they really are detailed and cover all aspects of Indian life.

If anything this is a snapshot of (a British interpretation) of life in various cities of India in the late 19th Century. The book is written in the first person (in this case “We did this... we saw that... we were surprised that...) although, interestingly the author is unnamed.

The cover and spine are handsome, the illustrations are excellent, the writing so, so.
4 stars from my perspective.