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Title: Explorers extraordinary by John Keay ISBN: 0-87477-397-0 Publisher: Distributed by St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 1986 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $7.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: Extraordinary Explorers...With An Asterisk
Comment: What's the reason for an asterisk? Well, this book is about 7 explorers. However, it turns out that one of them, Louis de Rougemont, made up all of his exploits and was eventually exposed as a fraud....and another one, A. Henry Savage Landor, mixed fantasy and reality together to such an extent that it is difficult to know what happened and what didn't. So, about 1/3 of the book concerns "events" more suited for exposition in a novel. Fortunately, Mr. Keay writes so well....with tongue-in-cheek humor and sympathy and psychological insight...that the other 5 chapters are well- worth your time. Here's what's on the menu (pun intended, since cannibals are present in this book...): John MacGregor, who was an evangelist/explorer who went everywhere by canoe. His canoe was a remarkable craft- it only displaced 3 inches of water. MacGregor "sailed" through the Suez Canal, before it was completed. He was also a very entertaining chap on the lecture circuit back home in England; Captain John Cochrane- who aimed to walk around the world. However, he was a very romantic fellow and subject to "love at first sight." Alas, whilst walking through Siberia he fell in love with a 14 year old Kamchatkan girl. He wound up marrying her, and his walking days were over; Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt- a German botanist who set out to learn everything he could about the flora of Australia, and who disappeared without a trace into the Outback; Mary Kingsley- the "proper English spinster" who fell in love with Africa. She learned to eat snake, and one time- while accepting some hospitality from cannibals- she noticed a strange smell. She traced the smell to a small bag hidden in the roof joists of her hut. The bag contained "...a human hand, three big toes, four eyes, two ears, and other portions of the human frame."; Isabelle Eberhardt- a waif-like woman who dressed like a man and who fell in love with the Sahara....and who eventually found the love of her life in the Sahara. Because Landor and de Rougemont were "phony" explorers, I didn't find this book to be good as Mr. Keay's "Eccentric Travellers," whose subjects were all "the genuine article." However, as mentioned above, Mr. Keay is an excellent writer, and I found the authentic exploits detailed in this book to be very interesting as well as exciting.