Far Off

In Short

Written for young readers to replace dangerous fairy tales with instructive facts, this 1852 geographical survey conducts a grand tour of Asia and Australia. Favell Lee Mortimer leads children from the sacred ruins of Syria and the courts of China through the caste systems of India and the wilderness of Siberia, ending in the Australian outback. Along the way, narrative vignettes highlight local customs, physical landscapes, dietary oddities, and Christian missionary work. The book survives as a vivid, revealing artifact of Victorian Protestant worldview—equal parts earnest educational effort, vivid storytelling, and unabashed cultural condescension.

The Story

The book opens with an explicit crusade against fictional romances, urging parents to cultivate in children a healthy appetite for real-world facts. Mortimer begins her tour in the Middle East, grounding her geography in biblical history. She guides readers through the snowy peaks of Lebanon and the ancient streets of Damascus, describing its famous red roses, courtyard marble, and soothing bathhouses alongside memories of the Apostle Paul. Passing into Turkey in Asia, she laments that former Christian churches have been converted into mosques, noting how worshippers leave their red slippers at the door while maintaining a form of prayer she deems insincere. Moving higher into Armenia, she pauses at Mount Ararat to imagine Noah’s family stepping onto a green, freshly washed earth.

Continuing eastward, the narrative explores China, detailing its social hierarchy and unique daily customs. Mortimer describes long banquets served in small basins, the use of chop-sticks, and the harvesting of bird-nest soup alongside delicate tea production. She observes the strictness of Chinese discipline—where mandarins use bamboo strokes and heavy wooden neck collars on offenders—and highlights how children are taught extreme filial piety, even offering their own flesh to mosquitoes to spare their parents.

From China, the tour enters India, focusing on the rigid structure of caste. Mortimer contrasts the high status of Brahmins, whose foot-washing water is treated as medicine, with the miserable condition of out-caste pariahs. She recounts graphic stories of parental neglect, evil-spirit offerings, and child sales during famines, balancing these grim pictures with accounts of Christian mission schools that rescue and instruct young orphans.

The narrative then shifts north into Circassia, praising its woodland parliament where warriors hang their weapons on tree boughs and honor bravery, soft speech, and hospitality. Crossing into the Russian Empire, Mortimer tracks converted Tartars relocating to Sarepta and the Volga, before describing the bitter cold of Siberia, where Yakuts ride oxen beneath windows made of unmelting ice and political exiles are marched off to mines.

Moving south through Ceylon—where tamed elephants build mountain roads and Buddha’s supposed tooth rests in a golden temple—and Japan, with its grim traditions of ceremonial suicide, the book reaches its final destination: Australia. Mortimer presents the vast continent as a near-empty wilderness lacking great rivers. The narrative closes with the grueling expedition of Mr. Eyre and Mr. Baxter, who survive long stretches without water by squeezing tree roots and gathering dew, forced at last to dry cured horse meat to avoid total starvation in the desert.

How It Unfolds

The mandate for facts The author sets out her goal in the preface, arguing that children’s minds must be rescued from foolish fairy tales and filled instead with real accountings of distant lands and true events.

Sacred lands of Syria Travelers climb the crags of Lebanon to rest under ancient cedars and enter Damascus to explore its fragrant rose gardens, enclosed courtyards, and refreshing marble baths.

Churches turned to mosques The tour visits Turkey in Asia, examining old Christian structures scraped of their wall paintings by Turkish conquerors, while warning English children against taking their own churches for granted.

Life along the Yellow River In China, readers observe rich men eating bird-nest soup with chop-sticks, poor families substituting fern leaves for tea, and prisoners standing chained to walls in massive wooden collars.

The weight of caste In India, the narrative details the extreme deference paid to Brahmins and describes the harsh fate of infants hung in baskets to appease evil spirits, contrasted with children taken in by missionaries.

Councils in the forest The book travels to Circassia, showing how leaders assemble under green trees to debate without formal houses, prizing sharp swords, sweet speeches, and plentiful tables above all else.

Exiles and frozen rivers Crossing Siberia, the narrative follows banished Russians marching to remote mines, while Tartar converts move their tents and herds across frozen waters to live near Christian companions.

Traversing the Australian outback The volume concludes on the dry plains of Australia, detailing how European explorers dig wells, sponge up morning dew, and preserve horse flesh in salt water to survive the arid terrain.

The People

Favell Lee Mortimer The author functions as an omnipresent guide. She wants to steer young readers away from novel-reading and direct their attention toward real-world geography and Christian evangelism.

Esther A eight-year-old Jewish girl living in Jerusalem. She sits outside the city gates with an English teacher, singing hymns about Jesus Christ and finding comfort in the doctrine of redemption.

Um-wen A eight-year-old Chinese boy featured in a traditional moral tale. Desiring to protect his impoverished parents from insect bites, he uncovers his own skin so mosquitoes will feed on him instead.

Sodnom A Tartar who becomes a Christian convert. He reads the Testament aloud to his family in their tent, inspires twenty-two neighbors to join his faith, and leads his people on a long journey to Sarepta.

Mr. Eyre and Mr. Baxter English explorers trekking across the dry interior of Australia. They endure extreme thirst alongside their native companions, striving to keep their weakened party alive by any means available.

In Its Own Voice

"The child is fond of sitting by her friend, and of hearing about the Son of David."

Esther, a young Jewess living near the gates of Jerusalem, spends her afternoon singing Christian hymns with an English teacher on Mount Sion.

"The Chinese are very quiet and orderly; and no wonder, because they are afraid of the great bamboo stick."

In discussing the administration of justice in China, the author explains how public punishment enforces strict social order across cities and towns.

"There are three things which mark a great man; a sharp sword, a sweet tongue, and forty tables."

A Circassian proverb describes the ideal virtues of a leader, emphasizing military bravery, persuasive speech, and generous hospitality to guests.

What It's Really About

Beneath its simple geographical framework, the book serves as a moral and religious polemic aimed at young Victorian minds. Mortimer’s core argument is that geography is not merely a matter of rivers, mountains, and trade, but a map of spiritual light and darkness. The book constantly contrasts Christian benevolence with what it frames as the cruelty, ignorance, or superstition of non-Christian societies. It presents worldly travel as an opportunity for missionary intervention, urging children to value their own religious privileges while feeling pity for distant populations. Ultimately, the text seeks to replace romantic fiction with a vivid, faith-driven engagement with the wider world.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers will find Far Off a fascinating, if frequently uncomfortable, window into nineteenth-century British attitudes. Mortimer writes with undeniable narrative economy and physical detail, turning complex cultural landscapes into memorable, bite-sized pictures for young minds. The prose moves briskly, offering vivid descriptions of Syrian bathhouses, Chinese tea harvests, and Australian desert survival.

However, readers must be prepared for the overt bias that permeates every chapter. Mortimer views non-Western cultures through an unyielding lens of imperial and religious superiority, routinely labeling non-Christian practices as foolish or wicked. The interest of the book today lies precisely in this tension: it is both a lively historical educational text and an unvarnished record of Victorian cultural assumptions. For historians, educators, and curious readers, it offers a raw look at how foreign lands were framed for the children who would grow up to run an empire.