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April 4, 2026, 4:03 p.m.
A book about Odesa by a nineteenth-century Cambridge professor was presented at the Bookstore-Café
This article also available in English1
PHOTO: Intent
The brochure "From Mykolaiv to Odesa and from Odesa to the Inland Empire" by nineteenth-century professor Edward Clarke was presented in Odesa's "Bookstore-Café" on March 3.
The book is a part of the collections of the Hrushevsky Odesa Regional Universal Scientific Library and is, in turn, a part of a larger work, Travel Notes in Russia, Tartary, and Turkey. The brochure is a part of the series "Odesa through the eyes of strangers". These are not just traveler's notes. It is a description of Odesa, which almost did not exist in its usual form.
It is a Ukrainian translation of fragments of the famous work of the English traveler, scholar, and professor at Cambridge University, Edward Daniel Clarke. The publication contains his observations during a trip to the south of Ukraine, including descriptions of Odesa and the surrounding region in the late 1830s.
"A city in its infancy, already arousing wonder, admiration, and many questions," Clarke described Odesa in his notes.
Edward Daniel Clark was an English mineralogist and traveler. He traveled to the Middle East and Europe, including eastern and southern Ukraine and the Cuban Mississippi. In his memoirs, he provided interesting information about the life of Ukrainian peasants. He compared Ukrainian villages to those he had seen in Europe and contrasted them with Russian ones.
"The first settlement we saw was called Lokova Sloboda. All the houses there were whitewashed with lime, just like in our Velzia: this procedure is performed every year with great care. In others, there was such exemplary cleanliness that a traveler could imagine that he had been transported from Russia to Holland. Their rooms, even the ceilings and roof beams, are regularly washed. Their tables and benches shine from constant washing and rubbing, reminding us of the interiors of cottages in Norway. The yards, stables, outbuildings, and everything that belonged to them demonstrated neatness and testified to the hard work of the inhabitants. In the kitchens, instead of the darkness and smoky atmosphere of Russian huts, we saw brightness and cleanliness everywhere," the traveler wrote.
An illustrative case occurred with the travelers at an admiral's reception in Mykolaiv, where they were introduced as English lords. When the British replied that they had no titles, they stopped talking to them and brought them empty plates.
