The Naturalist on the River s Henry Walter Bates 9781475091915 Books
Download As PDF : The Naturalist on the River s Henry Walter Bates 9781475091915 Books
This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare s finesse to Oscar Wilde s wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim s Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.
The Naturalist on the River s Henry Walter Bates 9781475091915 Books
This was one of the most boring and unpleasant first-person narratives I've ever read. It took me so long to read. I found myself stopping continually and asking, "Who the heck cares?!" By rights, I should have stopped and given up after the first 100 pages.This is really a 400 page Natural History journal article. The author only rarely manages to break out of his scientific coldness and detachment or his Victorian snottiness. He continually uses Latin names for flora and fauna and he also continually uses specialized local and Indian names without the benefit of a glossary at the back. He continually passes judgement on the people in the places he visits, criticizing them for being ignorant, lazy and hopelessly backward.
A few pages from the end, one of the author's neighbors gets into the habit, starting in the morning, of getting drunk on a mixture of booze and grated ginger that excites him almost to madness. This neighbor then stands across the street from the snooty Englishman's house and raves about foreigners while gesticulating threateningly. Reading this caused me to be seized by fits of hysterical laughter. The author is so nasty and unlikable.
If you're a student of zoology or botany or Victorian mores, then you might be able to get more enjoyment out of this than I did. If you're looking for a travel narrative, however, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Oh, and there's a small, but continual, amounts of typos in the text. But the binding is very good quality.
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Tags : The Naturalist on the River Amazons [Henry Walter Bates] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past,Henry Walter Bates,The Naturalist on the River Amazons,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1475091915,Literature & Fiction General,FICTION Classics
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The Naturalist on the River s Henry Walter Bates 9781475091915 Books Reviews
This is an enjoyable account of the travels of a nineteenth century naturalist in the . It is a book in the same vein as Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" and Humboldt's "Personal Narrative", and it paints a vivid picture of the wildlife and the people of the region. Bates sometimes shows the patronising prejudice of a "civilised" European towards the native peoples, but at other times he shows that he can be reasonably tolerant in his attitudes.
Bates describes his years in the as "eleven of the best years of my life". But the book also shows that they were years in which he faced dangers, disease and hardship. Bates travelled out to South America in 1848 with Alfred Russel Wallace, and the dangers of such expeditions are shown by the fact that Wallace's younger brother died of yellow fever in South America and by the fact that, while he was returning to England, Wallace's ship sank and he lost most of the specimens he had collected, with Wallace and the crew being rescued after spending ten days in an open boat.
Bates is also linked to Wallace, and to Darwin, in relation to the theory of evolution by natural selection. In 1858, while in the Far East, Wallace came up with the idea of natural selection independently of Darwin (although Darwin had first developed the idea in 1838). And Bates returned to England in 1859, the year that Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" was published.
When Bates read Darwin's book he was immediately convinced by it and he realised that something he had seen himself was a perfect example of natural selection. Bates had seen that some species of butterflies mimicked others in their appearance. The ones that were being mimicked avoided being eaten by being foul-smelling or noxious to predators. Although the mimics were not themselves foul or noxious, they avoided predation by evolving through natural selection to look like the foul-smelling species.
Darwin praised the paper that Bates published on what later came to be known as "Batesian mimicry", and he encouraged Bates to publish "The Naturalist on the River s", which Darwin described as "the best work of Natural History Travels ever published in England."
Bates's conversion to Darwinism is evident in this book, which was first published in 1863. He writes of "the slow adaptation of the Fauna to a forest-clad country throughout an immense lapse of geological time." He says that "nature appears not to invent organs at once for the functions to which they are now adapted, but avails herself, here of one already-existing structure or instinct, there of another, according as they are handy when need for their further modification arises." And, with reference to the wings of butterflies, he writes that "on these expanded membranes Nature writes, as on a tablet, the story of the modifications of species..."
An excellent book.
Phil Webster.
(England)
This was one of the most boring and unpleasant first-person narratives I've ever read. It took me so long to read. I found myself stopping continually and asking, "Who the heck cares?!" By rights, I should have stopped and given up after the first 100 pages.
This is really a 400 page Natural History journal article. The author only rarely manages to break out of his scientific coldness and detachment or his Victorian snottiness. He continually uses Latin names for flora and fauna and he also continually uses specialized local and Indian names without the benefit of a glossary at the back. He continually passes judgement on the people in the places he visits, criticizing them for being ignorant, lazy and hopelessly backward.
A few pages from the end, one of the author's neighbors gets into the habit, starting in the morning, of getting drunk on a mixture of booze and grated ginger that excites him almost to madness. This neighbor then stands across the street from the snooty Englishman's house and raves about foreigners while gesticulating threateningly. Reading this caused me to be seized by fits of hysterical laughter. The author is so nasty and unlikable.
If you're a student of zoology or botany or Victorian mores, then you might be able to get more enjoyment out of this than I did. If you're looking for a travel narrative, however, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Oh, and there's a small, but continual, amounts of typos in the text. But the binding is very good quality.
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