The Voyage of the Beagle is the title most commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1839 as his Journal and Remarks, bringing him considerable fame and respect. This was the third volume of The Narrative of the Voyages of H.M. Ships Adventure and Beagle, the other volumes of which, were written or edited by the commanders of the ships. Journal and Remarks covers Darwin's part in the second survey expedition of the ship...

At The Center of Martin Chuzzlewit -- the novel Angus Wilson called "one of the most sheerly exciting of all Dickens stories"--Is Martin himself, very old, very rich, very much on his guard. What he suspects (with good reason) is that every one of Iris close and distant relations. now converging in droves on the country inn where they believe he is dying, will stop at nothing to become the inheritor of Iris great fortune. Having unjustly disinherited...

The Nobel Prize–winning author explores his homeland in "this monumental work, a literary hybrid" of cultural history, literary nonfiction, and travelogue (Publishers Weekly). In 1979, José Saramago decided to write a book called Journey to Portugal-and dedicated himself to obtaining the fullest meaning of his title. More than merely journeying in or through his native country, he wanted to achieve a deep encounter with it, foregoing the...

A profile of Antarctica and its indigenous life traces the history of regional exploration and the science currently being conducted there while explaining how Antarctica reveals key insights into the planet's environmental future.

Arising out of Naipaul's lifelong obsession and passion for a country that is at once his and totally alien, India: A Million Mutinies Now relates the stories of many of the people he met traveling there more than fifty years ago. He explores how they have been steered by the innumerable frictions present in Indian society - the contradictions and compromises of religious faith, the whim and chaos of random political forces. This book represents Naipaul's...

In 1914, with the well-wishes of the Brazilian government, Theodore Roosevelt, ex-president of the United States; his son, Kermit; and Colonel Rondon travel to South America on a quest to course the River of Doubt. While in Brazil, Theodore is also tasked with a "zoogeographic reconnaissance" of the local wilderness for the archives of the Natural History Museum of New York. In addition to the perils of the incredibly difficult and dangerous terrain,...

When Pico Iyer decided to go to Kyoto and live in a monastery, he did so to learn about Zen Buddhism from the inside, to get to know Kyoto, one of the loveliest old cities in the world, and to find out something about Japanese culture today—not the world of businessmen and production lines, but the traditional world of changing seasons and the silence of temples, of the images woven through literature, of the lunar Japan that still lives on behind...

An American journalist living in Beijing offers an odyssey through twenty-first-century China as seen through the eyes of a handful of ordinary people.