A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD - 2 VOL. SET (COMPLETE)

George Forster, edited by Nicholas Thomas et al

ISBN 10: 0824820916 / ISBN 13: 9780824820916

Edité par University of Hawaii Press, Hawaii, 2000

A propos de cet article

8 x 10 in. Paper boards. First printing with complete number line on copyright page. Condition is VERY GOOD+ ; covers very clean, no shelf wear. Bindings tight. Text spotless. DJ are VERY GOOD ; clean, a touch rubbed, minor edge wear. Naut. Stax.

N° de réf. du vendeur 55396

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD - 2 VOL. SET (COMPLETE)
• Éditeur: University of Hawaii Press, Hawaii
• Date de parution: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0824820916
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780824820916
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition, First Printing.
• État de l'article: Very good +
• État de la jaquette: very good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Nautical

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

George Forster's A Voyage Round the World presents a wealth of geographic, scientific, and ethnographic knowledge uncovered by Cook's second journey of exploration in the Pacific (1772-1775). Accompanying his father, the ship's naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster, on the voyage, George proved a knowledgeable and adept observer. The lively, elegant prose and critical detail of his account, based loosely on his father's journal, make it one of the finest works of eighteenth-century travel literature and an account of prime importance in the history of European contact with Pacific peoples. The Forsters' publications reveal the sophistication and enthusiasm they brought to their observation of Polynesian peoples as well as a sensitivity to the moral ambiguities of contact.

The two volumes of George Forster's work include substantially richer descriptions of encounters with island inhabitants than either his father's classic work (Observations Made during a Voyage round the World, UH Press, 1996) or Cook's official narrative, and its confident, even visionary, style incorporates a good deal of polemic, particularly in its criticism of the treatment of islanders by Cook's crew. In addition to the range and depth of its anthropological considerations, it provides a thrilling account of life aboard one of Cook's vessels.

In its author's German translation, this work becomes a classic of natural history writing, but its original English version has long been neglected by anglophone scholars. This new scholarly edition makes this important book readily available for the first time since its initial publication more than two centuries ago. But it also presents the work in fresh terms, making it more accessible and relevant to a contemporary audience. The valuable introduction and annotations draw on the wide range of anthropological and ethnohistorical scholarship published since the 1960s and contextualize the book in relation to both the cultures of Oceania documented by the Forsters and the history of European voyaging in the Pacific. Appendixes include a translation of the introduction to the German edition and the polemical pamphlets by George Forster and the ship's astronomer William Wales, in which some of the book's more controversial claims were debated.

A Voyage Round the World brings the disciplines of history and anthropology to bear on Cook's voyages in an illuminating and readable fashion. This edition will help complete the corpus of basic documents on Cook's voyages--a crucial resource for researchers in cultural, Pacific, and maritime history; archaeologists, anthropologists, and art historians; and most recently for scholars engaged in revisionist interpretations of eighteenth-century exploration and colonization.

À propos de l?auteur

Nicholas Thomas is Professor of Historical Anthropology and Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. His most recent book is Voyagers: the settlement of the Pacific (2020). He co-curated the major 2018 exhibition Oceania at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, with Peter Brunt.