The Malay Archipelago

Alfred Russel Wallace, Dr Andrew Berry

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English

Penguin
19 November 2014

Classic fiction (pre c 1945); Mathematics & Sciences

The story of how one man travelled some 14,000 miles, collected 250,000 specimens and changed the face of science

'I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head'

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.

By: Alfred Russel Wallace
Edited by: Dr Andrew Berry
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 31mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9780141394404
ISBN 10: 0141394404
Pages: 736
Publication Date: 19 November 2014
Audience: General/trade , General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was one of the most important and likeable British scientists of the 19th century. A field researcher of genius, he spent many years in Brazil and southeast Asia, identifying many new species and, independently of Darwin, before developing - in parallel to Darwin - the theory of evolution through natural selection. He effectively created the whole field of 'bio-geography', with the great split between Eurasian and Australasian flora and fauna, which runs through the Malay archipelago, now named the Wallace Line. His research on warning colouration and speciation continues to shape modern research.