ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the variety of truths and untruths in Sackville-West's travel text and their role in her creation of a modernist travelogue. Sackville-West's passenger plays with, and explicitly negotiates, the question of truth in travel writing. Honesty might be expected by the reader, but the reader is rarely in a position to judge whether the writer has told the absolute truth about their travels. In her opening chapter, Sackville-West explores questions of honesty and truth in the creation and reception of others travel accounts. Sackville-West significantly chooses here the phrase 'the indisputable effect of truth', not 'indisputable truth'. Curzon's Persia and the Persian Question had stressed the importance of the country as a buffer against possible Russian expansionism and took an imperial attitude towards the country, even if not explicitly advocating colonial acquisition. Sackville-West both offers some insights and supports her belief that 'Travel is the most private of pleasures'.
