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| The Oxford Book of Exploration (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse) | 
 enlarge | Creator: Robin Hanbury-tenison
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $30.01
Buy New: $7.29
You Save: $22.72 (76%)
Buy New/Used from $1.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  (1 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1214602
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 578
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0192805568
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.9
EAN: 9780192805560
ASIN: 0192805568
Publication Date: April 28, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This is a comprehensive anthology of the writings of explorers through the ages, now fully revised and updated. The ultimate in travel writing, these are the words of those who changed the world through their pioneering search for new lands, new peoples, and new experiences.
The book takes us to Asia with Vasco da Gama and Wilfred Thesiger, to the Americas with Sir Francis Drake and Meriweather Lewis, to Africa with Dr David Livingstone and Mary Kingsley, to the Pacific with Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook, to the Poles with Robert Peary and Captain Scott, and beyond the Earth with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
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| Customer Reviews:
A little bit of everything April 8, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
People have been exploring the world for about a millennium now, and this book covers most of that spectrum. The editor has compiled excerpts from various accounts of explorers who journeyed over various parts of the globe, and arranged them by the continent that the person explored. Within each section dealing with a continent, things are sorted chronologically. Some explorers appear in more than one section: James Cook, for instance, appears three times: in the sections on North America, the Pacific and Australia, and Antarctica. The excerpts the author has chosen are interesting or illuminating, for the most part. Cook's death, for instance, is recounted, and of course you get both Amundsen's account of his reaching the South Pole, and Scott's heroic attempt to beat him, which famously resulted in his death along with all of his men. Some of the accounts are downright funny: one English female explorer praises her skirt, which protected her derriere from some spikes in an African game pit.
The excerpts provided tend to be, in most instances, one or two pages in length. They give you a sense of what occurred and the attitude of the individuals involved, without being overly lengthy or involved. I generally thought the editor did a good job of selecting what to include: I can't think of anyone significant who's been missed. I read these excerpts one or two at a sitting over several years: this isn't the sort of book you sit down and read cover to cover. That being said, it is an interesting compilation, and I enjoyed it.
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