Inside the Hermit Kingdom

Based on a diary detailing a 900-mile journey by sedan chair through southern Korea in the 1880s—written by one of the few Westerners at the time who could speak Korean—Inside the Hermit Kingdom is an account like no other. It gives readers a rare glimpse of the kingdom of Choson in its pristine condition, before the intrusion of the outside world. Navy ensign George Foulk made a 900-mile journey through southern Korea during which he kept a detailed record of everything he observed and experienced. This travel diary, part of the George Clayton Foulk collection in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has been almost entirely overlooked by scholars and yet is of inestimable value. First, it is an account of a trip no Westerner had ever undertaken before or would ever experience again: a long-distance sedan chair journey in the manner of a Choson-dynasty government official. Containing his private thoughts, penned in the heat of the moment, Foulk's diary is immediate, raw, and honest, laying bare his experience. It gives readers is a superbly descriptive and perceptive record of Korea. Inside the Hermit Kingdom stands unique as a firsthand account of the kingdom of Choson in its pristine condition, before the intrusion of the outside world.