Brazilian Sketches

A classic portrait of an unforgettable country from one of Britain’s best loved writers

Following a period of illness, Rudyard Kipling followed his doctor’s advice and took off, with his wife, on a long sea voyage from Southampton to Brazil. While in South America he wrote seven gripping travelogues, published to great acclaim by newspapers in London and the USA.

As Brazil hosts the Olympics, yet experiences intense political turmoil, this timely profile speaks to the history and character of this colourful nation. From Carnival in Rio, to a snake farm in São Paulo, to century-old coffee plantations, it is an extraordinary journey recorded by one of our greatest writers.

Brazilian Sketches stands at the beginning of a grand tradition of travel writing, a forerunner to the works of Colin Thubron, Paul Theroux and Bruce Chatwin. Its collected articles were never published in book form during Kipling’s lifetime but were collected in one volume in 1940 by a New York publisher. This is the first time they have been made available as a standalone ebook.