The Annotated Malay Archipelago

Wallace, Alfred Russel

ISBN 10: 997169820X / ISBN 13: 9789971698201

Edité par NUS Press, 2014

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. N° de réf. du vendeur G997169820XI4N00

Synopsis :

Wallace's Malay Archipelago is a classic account of the travels of a Victorian naturalist through island Southeast Asia. It has been loved by readers ever since its publication in 1869. Despite numerous modern reprints with appreciative introductions, this is the first - and long overdue - annotated edition in English.

This edition explains, updates and corrects the original text with an historical introduction and hundreds of explanatory notes. Wallace left hundreds of people, places, publications and species unidentified. He referred to most species only with the scientific name current at the time. Whenever available, the common names for species have been provided, and scientific names updated. The content of the book has never been thoroughly analysed and compared against other contemporary sources. It turns out that the book contains many errors. This includes not just incorrect dates and place names but some of the most remarkable anecdotes; for example, the dramatic claim that tigers "kill on an average a Chinaman every day" in Singapore or that a Dutch Governor General committed suicide by leaping from a waterfall on Celebes.

By correcting the text of the Malay Archipelago against Wallace's letters and notebooks and other contemporary sources and by enriching it with modern identifications this edition reveals Wallace's work as never before.

À propos des auteurs: Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist, as well as a prolific author.

John van Wyhe is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences and a fellow of Tembusu College at National University of Singapore.

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : The Annotated Malay Archipelago
Éditeur : NUS Press
Date d'édition : 2014
Reliure : Paperback
Etat : Very Good
Etat de la jaquette : No Jacket