In 1893 Mary Kingsley, then 30, ventured into what is now Gabon, West Africa, ``a region notorious for its deadly climate and diseases, its alarming wildlife, and its cannibals.'' The British wayfarer was enthralled and penned Travels in West Africa . This classic led American doctoral student and pentathlete Alexander to embark on a similar odyssey, retracing Kingsley's steps. Armed with Kingsley's book and maps, her own background research, and a store of determination, the author trekked through bamboo forests and villages of mud huts, encountering incurious natives and serene missionaries. Juxtaposing the colorful details of her days with the writings of a vast cast of explorers from a century before, Alexander weaves a verbal tapestry that tells of her deepening affection for the Gabonese and growing admiration for the exploits of her 19th-century forebear. In superimposing motorboats, hydrofoils and other modernisms upon Kingsley's less ``civilized'' adventure, Alexander may come up short in her desire to ``make contact with the past,'' but the record of her attempt will fascinate. (Jan.)
One Dry Season: In the Footsteps of Mary Kingsley
With richly evocative images and wonderfully entertaining anecdotes, Caroline Alexander transports you to the dense interior of equatorial Gabon. In One Dry Season, she chronicles her adventures as she makes her way alone through dangerously primitive territory. When she first read of Victorian explorer Mary Kingsley's travels in the French colony of Gabon, Alexander knew she had to experience the present-day nation for herself. Soon she is retracing Kingsley's route¿struggling through tangled vines in humid rain forests, chugging up the churning OgoouE River in a packed steamer, and fending off gigantic cockroaches. The country she discovers is a challenging mixture of Africa's exotic past and its practical present. A splendid storyteller, Caroline Alexander introduces you to the colorful new friends she made along the trail including a shy mission nun, a half-mad French woman, and a village chief who treated her as an errant teenaged daughter. Lisette Lecat's expert narration brings out all the excitement of today's Africa.
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One Dry Season: In the Footsteps of Mary Kingsley
With richly evocative images and wonderfully entertaining anecdotes, Caroline Alexander transports you to the dense interior of equatorial Gabon. In One Dry Season, she chronicles her adventures as she makes her way alone through dangerously primitive territory. When she first read of Victorian explorer Mary Kingsley's travels in the French colony of Gabon, Alexander knew she had to experience the present-day nation for herself. Soon she is retracing Kingsley's route¿struggling through tangled vines in humid rain forests, chugging up the churning OgoouE River in a packed steamer, and fending off gigantic cockroaches. The country she discovers is a challenging mixture of Africa's exotic past and its practical present. A splendid storyteller, Caroline Alexander introduces you to the colorful new friends she made along the trail including a shy mission nun, a half-mad French woman, and a village chief who treated her as an errant teenaged daughter. Lisette Lecat's expert narration brings out all the excitement of today's Africa.
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One Dry Season: In the Footsteps of Mary Kingsley
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170998739 |
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Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
Publication date: | 09/21/2012 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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