Re-examining nineteenth-century Eastscontributes novel approaches to gendered and gendering fictions and travel writing in and of the cultural-geographical-ideological contexts surrounding nineteenth-century Easts. It examines underexplored stories of travel and narratives of encounter to reconsider the western allure of travelling to the Easts – from the Balkans to the Middle and Far East, through a range of diverse critical approaches. It discusses writers – travellers, novelists, and short-story writers – who authored texts based on their varied experiences in eastern lands. It also analyses how views of eastern places became a rich source of material for identity formations related to Empire but also discussions about masculinity and femininity at ‘home’.