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Three centuries ago, mountains were considered forbidding and forbidden--the abodes of dragons and other ill-tempered grotesque beasts. But with the growing recognition that the Earth's surface had not been created once and for all but was slowly evolving, mountains came to be seen as the unexplored text of the Earth's story--a terrain that scientists, adventurers, naturalists, and, finally, travelers began to explore. In Mountains of the Mind, Robert Macfarlane blends cultural history, meditation, and memoir to show how early geologists helped transform our perceptions of the wild, chaotic landscapes; how the allure of height increasingly drew fearless climbers, culminating in the romantic figure of George Mallory, the passionate Englishman who died on Mount Everest in 1924; and how the elemental beauty of snow and ice coalesced into an aesthetic of the sublime.Mountains of the Mind is at once an enthralling work of history, an intimate account of Macfarlane's own experiences, and a beautifully written meditation on how memory, landscape, imagination, and the landscape of mountains are joined together in our minds and under our feet.From the Hardcover edition.
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Mountains of the Mind
2009, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
eBook
in English
030753863X 9780307538635
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Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit
July 13, 2004, Vintage
in English
0375714065 9780375714061
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Why do so many feel compelled to risk their lives climbing mountains? During the climbing season, one person a day dies in the Alps, and more people die climbing in this season in Scotland than they do on the roads. "Mountains of the Mind" pursues a fascinating investigation into our emotional and imaginative responses to mountains, and how these have changed over the last few centuries. It is rich with literary and historical references, and punctuated by beautifully written descriptions of the author's own climbing experiences. There are chapters on glaciers, geology, the pursuit of fear, the desire to explore the unknown, and the desire to get to the summit, and the book ends with a gripping account of Mallory's attempt on Everest. "Mountains of the Mind" is a beautifully written synthesis of climbing memoir and cultural history.
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August 4, 2013 | Edited by VacuumBot | Updated format 'E-book' to 'eBook' |
April 2, 2013 | Edited by VacuumBot | Updated format 'eBook' to 'E-book'; Removed author from Edition (author found in Work) |
April 27, 2011 | Edited by OCLC Bot | Added OCLC numbers. |
June 23, 2010 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from marc_overdrive MARC record |