19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
An Actor's Tour is an account of the 1879 Asia-Pacific travels of German-American actor Daniel E. Bandmann (1840-1905). Editor Barnard Gisby provides the flowery prose style of the preface, with accompanying quotes from Shakespeare's plays, which acknowledges Bandmann's profession as a well-known actor and theatre company director. Gisby portrays Bandmann as a humble traveller, noting that global tours are no longer limited to the upper classes. Bandmann's text is a first-person narration of his grand theatrical tour round the world in a troupe. It provides an account of his travels through Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Singapore and Hawaii. It describes the theatres, his performances, and includes an account of the ethnography and customs of the natives he encounters. The work is revised numerous times in several editions.
