In Patagonia / Bruce Chatwin
by Chatwin, Bruce (1940-1989)
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 0224014196
- ISBN 13
- 9780224014199
- Seller
-
Galway, Ireland
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London : Jonathan Cape, 1977. 1st edition. 1st printing.. Hardcover. Near fine cloth copy in a very good, somewhat edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust wrapper with minor loss, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong Review: A scrap of hairy skin once sent home by cousin Charley Millward the Sailor - part of an extinct Giant Sloth - takes Bruce Chatwin On an inquiring journey through Patagonia, land of last refuge and lingering mystery at the tip of South America. An impromptu traveler, he looks in on Welsh colonists with pottery pugs on the mantle and an elderly German who toasts Mad (""In my home? No!"") King Ludwig; meets a young pianist who asks ""complicated questions"" about Liszt; looks up the French pretender to the lost throne of Araucania (a forebear learned of the untamed Araucanian Indians through Voltaire); picks up a would-be miner from Haight-Ashbury; and repeatedly crosses Butch Cassidy's exile trail. The encounters and anecdotes, laconically recounted - Chatwin is a clear, direct, wry observer - lengthen into informed speculations on the origin of The Ancient Mariner and the ancestry of Caliban. Chatwin, like the reconnoitering Naipaul, also catches the political drift - of, for one, a 1920-21 Anarchist rebellion led by a ""lanky, red-headed Gallician, with the. . . squinting blue eyes that go with Celtic vagueness and fanaticism"" who graduated from prop boy for an acting troupe. But it is when he crosses over into Tierra del Fuego - The Land of Fire - that the account really grabs hold. On hand are an Englishwoman traveling the world with one light suitcase and one long dress (""You never know where you'll end up"") in pursuit of her passion for flowering shrubs, shades of Darwin and Poe and the wild Fuegians who appalled them both, and cousin Charley himself - his shipwreck, his picaresque tales, and his cave of skin and bones where ""the extinct beast merged with the living beast and the beast of the imagination."" An elliptical, insinuating quest and highly imaginative travel writing. Physical description[4], 204 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., 1 map. ; 23 cm. Notes; Map on lining papers. Subjects; Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) - Description and travel - 1951-Argentina. Patagonia. Description & travel - Personal observations.
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Details
- Bookseller
- MW Books Ltd. (IE)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 231395
- Title
- In Patagonia / Bruce Chatwin
- Author
- Chatwin, Bruce (1940-1989)
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st edition. 1st printing.
- ISBN 10
- 0224014196
- ISBN 13
- 9780224014199
- Publisher
- London : Jonathan Cape
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1977
Terms of Sale
MW Books Ltd.
Returns accepted within 10 days of receipt if you are unsatisfied with either our description of, or the book itself.
About the Seller
MW Books Ltd.
Biblio member since 2005
Galway
About MW Books Ltd.
MW Books is an academic and antiquarian bookshop with a large stock in core areas such as Early Travel & Exploration, Nineteenth Century Literature, Early Political Economy, Labour and Social History, and Asian and Colonial History. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions or comments regarding any item listed.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...