The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt
by Andrea Wulf, Lillian Melcher (Illustrator)
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"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Invention of Nature, comes a breathtakingly illustrated and brilliantly evocative recounting of Alexander Von Humboldt's five year expedition in South America. Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, but his most revolutionary idea was a radical vision of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not show more exist for the use of humankind alone. His theories and ideas were profoundly influenced by a five-year exploration of South America. Now Andrea Wulf partners with artist Lillian Melcher to bring this daring expedition to life, complete with excerpts from Humboldt's own diaries, atlases, and publications. She gives us an intimate portrait of the man who predicted human-induced climate change, fashioned poetic narrative out of scientific observation, and influenced iconic figures such as Simón Bolívar, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, and John Muir. This gorgeous account of the expedition not only shows how Humboldt honed his groundbreaking understanding of the natural world but also illuminates the man and his passions"-- show lessTags
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Member Reviews
The irony of the first line, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexander von Humboldt, and I'm the most famous scientist and explorer in the world." is that I have never heard of Alexander von Humboldt and had to check that this wasn't fiction.
Having verified he was real, I found myself at times getting drawn into this recounting of his five-year mission to explore a portion of the Spanish Empire in northern South America and Mexico from 1799-1804. He was quite the character with his obsessiveness, giant ego, and tendency to exaggerate.
Unfortunately, the writing and the art kept distracting and detracting. The dialogue was often inane. Giant blocks of text pop up constantly. Word balloons and text are at times poorly placed, stopping show more the flow of the tale as you decipher the proper reading order. The art is mostly collage with images of document pages in foreign languages scattered behind everything on many pages drawing more attention than they should as I wished I could be reading them instead. And the amateurish awkwardness of Melcher's art stands out in stark contrast to the oil paintings and sampled images used as backgrounds and accents.
It's a borderline 2-star book for me, but I'll go with 3 simply because I feel I learned so much. show less
Having verified he was real, I found myself at times getting drawn into this recounting of his five-year mission to explore a portion of the Spanish Empire in northern South America and Mexico from 1799-1804. He was quite the character with his obsessiveness, giant ego, and tendency to exaggerate.
Unfortunately, the writing and the art kept distracting and detracting. The dialogue was often inane. Giant blocks of text pop up constantly. Word balloons and text are at times poorly placed, stopping show more the flow of the tale as you decipher the proper reading order. The art is mostly collage with images of document pages in foreign languages scattered behind everything on many pages drawing more attention than they should as I wished I could be reading them instead. And the amateurish awkwardness of Melcher's art stands out in stark contrast to the oil paintings and sampled images used as backgrounds and accents.
It's a borderline 2-star book for me, but I'll go with 3 simply because I feel I learned so much. show less
Ein minimalistischer Zeichenstil, der aber gut ausgeführt ist und einigen Witz beinhaltet.
Die Story an sich stark verkürzt, beinhaltet aber viele unterhaltsame Details.
Die Story an sich stark verkürzt, beinhaltet aber viele unterhaltsame Details.
This was excellent and, to my mind, would make a great companion to Andrea Wulf's superb biography, [b:The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World|23995249|The Invention of Nature Alexander von Humboldt's New World|Andrea Wulf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1452449264s/23995249.jpg|43595986]. I truly want to own this.
The artwork is beautifully done and I liked the inclusion of pages of notes and drawings from Humboldt's own notebooks layered into the background of the illustrations.
The artwork is beautifully done and I liked the inclusion of pages of notes and drawings from Humboldt's own notebooks layered into the background of the illustrations.
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199 works; 101 members
Author Information
13+ Works 5,271 Members
Andrea Wulf is an English historian and writer, born in New Delhi, India in 1972. She studied design at the Royal College of Art. She is a public speaker and has lectured in the UK and USA. Her books include This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History; Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the show more Shaping of the American Nation; and Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens. Her award winning book, The Brother Gardeners, received a CBHL Annual Literature Award in 2010. The Invention of Nature: How Alexander Von Humboldt Revolutionized Our World, received the 2015 Costa Book Award in the biography category, and the 2016 Royal Society Science Book Prize for 'outstanding popular science books' written for a non-specialist audience. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt
- People/Characters
- Alexander von Humboldt; Aimé Bonpland; José de la Cruz; Vicente Emparán; Carl Linnaeus; Wilhelm von Humboldt (show all 29); Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Simón Bolívar; John Muir (naturalist); John Evelyn; Jean-Baptiste Colbert; Benjamin Franklin; Aristotle; René Descartes; Francis Bacon; Charles Darwin [Charles Robert: 1809-1882]; Jose Celestino Mutis; Carlos de Montúfar; Jose Ignacio Checa; Manuel Tolsá; Napoleon Bonaparte; William Bartram; Caspar Wistar; Charles Willson Peale; Alexander Wilson; Thomas Jefferson; James Madison; Dolley Madison; Albert Gallatin
- Important places
- Berlin, Germany; La Coruña, Spain; Graciosa, Canary Islands, Spain; Cumana, New Andalusia Province, Spanish Empire; Spanish Empire; Guácharo Cave (show all 25); Caracas, Venezuela; Calabozo, Province of Caracas, Spanish Empire; Orinoco River; South America; Angostura, Guyana Province, Spanish Empire; Havana, Cuba; Cartagena, Colombia; Bogotá, Colombia; Quito, Ecuador; Antisana (volcano), Ecuador (volcano); Pichincha (volcano), Ecuador (volcano); Chimborazo (volcano), Ecuador (volcano); Amazon River; Andes Mountains; Lima, Peru; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Mexico City, Mexico; Guanajuato, Mexico; Jorullo (volcano), Mexico (volcano)
- Important events
- Louisiana Purchase
- First words
- Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexander von Humboldt, and I'm the most famous scientist and explorer in the world.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)My daring adventures, my discoveries, my ideas of nature as a web of life...and my prescient warnings about the destruction of nature...has it all been forgotten?
Was it really all for nothing? - Original language
- English
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Statistics
- Members
- 186
- Popularity
- 176,082
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.15)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 2
