The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan, and the bird of paradise : a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature

CLASSIC TRAVEL WRITING. Of all the extraordinary Victorian travelogues, The Malay Archipelago has a fair claim to be the greatest - both as a beautiful, alarming, vivid and gripping account of some eight years' travel across the entire Malay world - from Singapore to the western edges of New Guinea - and as the record of a great mind. As Wallace, often under conditions of terrible hardship and sickness, battles through jungles, lives with headhunters, and collects beetles, butterflies and birds-of-paradise, he makes discoveries about the workings of biology that have shaped our view of the world ever since. "Alfred Russel Wallace left to explore the islands of South-East Asia an obscure naturalist; he returned eight years later an acclaimed scientist and co-discoverer of the theory of evolution. This is his vivid, exhilarating and heroic account of his travels across the entire Malay world, from Singapore to the western edges of New Guinea ... he describes battling through jungles, enduring seasicknessd and fever, meeting head hunters, marvelling at birds of paradise and collecting countless new species as he made discoveries that changed our view of the world"--Publisher's description. Of all the Victorian travelogues, this book offers an account of some eight years' travel across the entire Malay world - from Singapore to the western edges of New Guinea - and as the record of a great mind.