I picked this book up at both the right and wrong time. Right, because it provided welcome respite from the decidedly mediocre writing I had at the time been obliged to read (work-related), and wrong, because it provided too welcome a distraction from that same uninspiring work-related writing. Beca

A book that is as much fun to read as Voyage of the Beagle. The revolutionary ideas of Wallace and Darwin about the evolution of species were presented jointly, but only after Wallace had asked Darwin's opinion of his own exposition of the proposition. This book gives an account of the several years

This has been permanently shelved for the time being. A brief note: from what I read, one of the more interesting aspects were the pure imperial aspects and different attitudes of the time. This man was, in as much as we could say of that era, a naturalist. Yet, the way he enacted this was more or l

For 8 years, from 1854 to 1862, Alfred Russel Wallace journeyed to the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indies) and the island of New Guinea, travelling over 14.000 miles.

But the 2 volumes he wrote about h

3,5 stars!
a nice insight on natural and sociological condition of Indonesia (and the sorrounding area) in the late 1800s.

The Malay Archipelago by Victorian English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was first published in 1869 and dedicated to Charles Darwin. Wallace is perhaps most famous for postulating the view, without specific reliance on Darwin’s theory, that life evolves. The Malay Archipelago was an instant and