Unlike the globetrotter and revolutionary Georg Forster (1754-1794), Forster as an author and theoretician of perception and description is altogether less well-known. The volume brings together studies on various categories of Forster's work examined for the light they cast on the question of the acquisition of 'reality' by way of 'experience', 'intelligence', 'ideas', 'images' and 'total impressions' and taking place in the tensions obtaining between perception and the construction of possibility. Concrete text analysis and a determination of the effects intended by the author and the methods he employed as a 'social writer' present Forster in a new light.