| Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent: Abridged Edition Revised Edition Contributor(s): Von Humboldt, Alexander (Author), Wilson, Jason (Abridged by), Wilson, Jason (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0140445536 ISBN-13: 9780140445534 Publisher: Penguin Group OUR PRICE: $16.20 Product Type: Paperback Published: May 1996 Annotation: Alexander von Humboldt became a wholly new kind of nineteenth-century hero - the scientist-explorer - and in Personal Narrative he invented a new literary genre, the travelogue. Between 1799 and 1804 he explored the tropical Spanish Americas, by his death in 1859 he had won international fame. He was the first European to discuss, draw and speculate on Aztec art, the first to observe reverse polarity in magnetism, the first to propagate the notion of seismic waves, the first to discover why America is called America. A true Romantic, an admirer of Rousseau and close friend of Goethe, Humboldt was a passionate observer, never a colonial despoiler, and his writings made a profound impact upon the course of Victorian science. This volume contains a fascinating selection from Humboldt's original 1,997 pages of Personal Narrative, in the first English translation to appear since 1851. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Travel | Essays & Travelogues - Biography & Autobiography | Adventurers & Explorers - History | Latin America - South America |
| Dewey: 918 |
| LCCN: 96150402 |
| Series: Penguin Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.98" H x 5.12" W x 7.9" (0.68 lbs) 400 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: One of the greatest nineteenth-century scientist-explorers, Alexander von Humboldt traversed the tropical Spanish Americas between 1799 and 1804. By the time of his death in 1859, he had won international fame for his scientific discoveries, his observations of Native American peoples and his detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna of the 'new continent'. The first to draw and speculate on Aztec art, to observe reverse polarity in magnetism and to discover why America is called America, his writings profoundly influenced the course of Victorian culture, causing Darwin to reflect: 'He alone gives any notion of the feelings which are raised in the mind on first entering the Tropics.' For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |