It was published in 1871, shortly after a decade in which Whymper, son of a London wood engraver, became famous for his climbs in the Swiss Alps and their surroundings, including repeated attempts to become the first to ascend the Matterhorn.
The book ticks my twin interests of travel and history, although there is certainly no military history.
Nevertheless Whymper was an accomplished writer and is good at explaining the intricacies of mountaineering, in what many regard as the pursuit's golden years, without getting bogged down in technical detail that only a fanatic would enjoy.
I bought my copy, which is a faithful 1981 American reproduction, for £1.99 at an Oxfam in Darlington, County Durham, and I blush to think I almost gave it a miss because the small typeface looked rather unpromising.
The book is lavishly illustrated with apparently accurate drawings that capture something of the excitement and danger - occasionally fatal - of those times.
 |
| I am not surprised to find mountaineering historian Jeremy Bernstein call the book "simply in a class by itself" |
No comments:
Post a Comment