Mountains of the Mind, Robert Macfarlane
Mountains of the Mind, Robert Macfarlane
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Mountains of the Mind
Adventures in Reaching the Summit

Author: Robert Macfarlane

Narrator: James A. Gillies

Unabridged: 9 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/18/2019


Synopsis

The basis for the new documentary film, Mountain: A Breathtaking Voyage into the Extreme.

Combining accounts of legendary mountain ascents with vivid descriptions of his own forays into wild, high landscapes, Robert Macfarlane reveals how the mystery of the world's highest places has come to grip the Western imagination—and perennially draws legions of adventurers up the most perilous slopes.

His story begins three centuries ago, when mountains were feared as the forbidding abodes of dragons and other mysterious beasts. In the mid-1700s the attentions of both science and poetry sparked a passion for mountains; Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lord Byron extolled the sublime experiences to be had on high; and by 1924 the death on Mount Everest of an Englishman named George Mallory came to symbolize the heroic ideals of his day. Macfarlane also reflects on fear, risk, and the shattering beauty of ice and snow, the competition and contemplation of the climb, and the strange alternate reality of high altitude, magically enveloping us in the allure of mountains at every level.

About Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane is the author of bestselling, prizewinning books about nature, place, and people, including Mountains of the Mind, The Old Ways, Landmarks, and (with Jackie Morris) The Lost Words. In 2017 he was awarded the E. M. Forster Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Cambridge, England, where he is a fellow of Cambridge University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah

This book was so enchanting. It felt like being brought into another world with a fascinating multi-faceted guide, who was a mountaineer, scholar, nature-lover, avid reader and, most importantly, a poet. I couldn’t believe he was so young when he wrote the book. His use of language to bring me into......more

Yet another beautiful read by Robert Macfarlane!!! ⛰️ Working my way through his list of books is one of my life's greatest pleasures! He has a way of writing about nature and wildlife that is completely breathtaking! ⛰️ The way he describes mountaineering and the fascination behind it was indeed fasc......more

This is the human paradox of altitude: that it both exalts the individual mind and erases it. It is surprising how enchanted I become each time I open a text by Macfarlane. There’s a sidelong sense where it shouldn’t work for me. The angles are excessively acute. Yet I marvel and even when I don’t,......more