Overview

For intensity of geographical exploration and wealth of first-rate adventure writing by intrepid men and women, the 19th century stands alone. This definitive collection contains thirty-five stories from the most compelling odysseys of the century. The excerpts are as varied as the voyages themselves ? some humorous and lighthearted, others desperate and thrilling ? but all are examples of adventure, and adventure writing, at the highest level. Several long-forgotten classics are reprinted here for the first time in one hundred years.

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9780393010541

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Reviews

Dense, comprehensive collection of 32 pieces on travel through the 19th century's formidable wilds. We chose the stories that most stirred our blood, admits editor Whybrow, who defines the golden age of exploration as running from the Napoleonic Wars' end in 1815 to the beginning of WWI. She organizes this anthology into three thematic sections: Voyages of Discovery (straightforward exploration), Personal Odysseys (travel for livelihood or an individual mission), and Lifelong Quests (adventuring as a way of life). A sense of naive expansionism prevails in Voyages of Discovery. Meriwether Lewis recalls viewing Montana's great waterfalls ( second to but one in the known world ) and harvesting their plentiful fish and game; William Wills provides grist for post-colonialist argument as he expresses bemusement toward the blacks (aborigines) who repeatedly aided his party during the harsh journey across Australia on which he ultimately starved to death. In contrast, Personal Odysseys provides intriguing interior viewpoints, often related to now-vanished avocations. Frank Bullen's bracing seafaring tale depicts the terror of two years on the whaling ship Cachalot; eccentric John Voss is contentedly alone as he circumnavigates the globe in his modified canoe Tilikum. In Lifelong Quests we find foreshadowings of today's extreme travel devotees in stories like that of Mary Kingsley, arguably the first Victorian woman to traverse West Africa (where she ultimately died from fever at age 38). Other thinker-adventurers whose writings add depth and texture here include George Kennan on Siberia, Mark Twain's account of accidental pyromania from Roughing It, Robert Louis Stevenson's humorous Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes, Henry David Thoreau's In the Maine Woods, and legendary mountaineer Edward Whymper on his ascent of the Matterhorn. Readers willing to contend with often elliptical 19th-century prose will be rewarded by multiple evocations of a challenging and untamed world. (Kirkus Reviews)

This is an absolute treasure of a book. Subtitled 'Great adventure writing from the Golden Age of exploration, 1800-1900', it promises excitement and revelation, and doesn't disappoint. The collection of 32 pieces includes some of the finest first-person accounts written in a century when the world seemed a far more exotic and mysterious place than it does today, and when explorers really did have to be intrepid. Long before back-up teams and radio communication, men and women of a certain class set out with little but determination to see them through. For them, survival owed as much to enterprise, courage and good luck as it did to foresight. Remarkably, they not only coped with setbacks such as avalanches and man-eating natives but even found time to write about their exploits at the same time. And in the way of 19th-century writers, they didn't spare any of the details. The collection includes a chilling (in every sense of the word) account of Fridtjof Nansen's expedition across the frozen Arctic wastes, details of feminist writer Mary Mummery's harrowing first visit to the Alps, and Mary Kingsley's graphic tale of a solo journey through the jungles of West Africa. Stories also come from the Rockies, Australia, Siberia and even Mecca. If a disproportionate number of the articles relate to North America, that is because the book's editor Helen Whybrow lives in Vermont and views her country's pioneers with an affectionate and romantic eye. That apart, there is no doubting the talent on parade here. The writers include Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Darwin. Some of their accounts have been out of print for more than 100 years and were thought lost until Whybrow tracked them down. Her intrepid hunt has provided us with glimpses of a world long lost, along with stiff upper lips and unyielding backbones. The book is in three sections - Voyages of Discovery, Personal Odysseys and Lifelong Quests. Some of the excerpts are humorous, others sheer ripping yarns. In all cases there is plenty of enjoyment for those who love adventure described in a good old-fashioned way. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Helen Whybrow lives in Waitsfield, Vermont. Her other collections include Our Land, Ourselves: Readings on People and Place.

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