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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 910.92 EAN: 9780060936389 ISBN: 006093638X Label: Harper Perennial Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 512 Publication Date: November 01, 2004 Publisher: Harper Perennial Release Date: November 02, 2004 Studio: Harper Perennial Editorial Review: Product Description: Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World, prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Utterly readable, I was held in thrall....I was afraid this book would lack detail since it depicted events 500 years ago, but there was a passenger who, fortunately, became a primary source, and kept the narrative interesting. The opening scene of the book, with the ghostly ship arriving back in Spain, grabs the reader's attention, then there is a long discussion of Magellan's efforts to get the expedition funded and underway. After wading through this moderately interesting segment, the story really picks up once the armada sails. From ... Read More Rating:  - Discovering the world, kings fighting, men surviving, women chattelA truly terrifying and detailed eyewitness account of Magellan's voyage westward around the world by sea. It is not hard to get sucked in by Magellan's political persistence, and his entire crew's efforts at survival as they stepped off land they knew to a waterworld larger, deeper, and yet more inhabited than anyone knew. No modern reader can understand what it meant in the 16th century to board a ship to a world where entire continents and oceans were unknown, and longitude was uncalculatable. It ... Read More Rating: - fascinating historyThis is a fascinating read, full of details (politics of the time, how ships operate, torture, sexual mores of various tribes around the world, etc.). The story of the first voyage around the world is so amazingly dramatic one would say "too far fetched" if it were fiction. Every page is so rich with detail that you want to just slow down as you read. The only slight flaw is that the characters do not come quite as alive as I would have liked. But everything else about this book is so good, it's well ... Read More Rating: - very exciting - couldn't put it downthis is one of the most exciting adventure/discovery books i've ever read. it was a page-turner from beginning to end. Rating: - One of the better bios I've read recentlyI'm on an explorer kick these days, so I've read a lot of bios of them. (Check my list, "Books About Explorers," for more recommendations.) This is (narrowly) my favorite of the lot. Bergreen's a terrific writer, and Magellan's voyage never lacked for drama. It's carefully researched and fun to read. |
