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Product Description
Product Description
This book is a reproduction of a volume found in the collection of the University of Michigan Library. It is produced from digital images created through the Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The digital images for this book were cleaned and prepared for printing through automatic processes. Despite the cleaning process, occasional flaws may still be present that were part of the original work itself, or introduced during digitization.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a facsinating book about John Loyd Stevens exploration of the ancient Mayan cities hidden in the jungle of the Yucatan. I found it very readable, especially when you consider it was written 100 years ago. Catherwood's engravings of the ruins are an excellent glimps of what these ancient treasures looked liked at time of discovery. I also recomend: "A Tourist in the Yucatan" a mystery/thriller set in modern day Yucatan.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This series of books has been in print for over 150 years! If that doesn't impress you, then Frederick Catherwood's drawings will. The writing is a little archaic by today's standards, but the tale is important history.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
65 of 68 people found the following review helpful
Stephens, "et al..." a disappointment
14 Dec 2001
Format:Paperback
(Is there a way to give it no stars?)
A great disappointment to fans of Stephens and Catherwood. If you're looking for the real thing - this isn't it.
More properly titled:
"Karl Akerman's Unfortunate Abridgment of Stephens' and Catherwood's Incidents of Travel in Yucatan," this 286 page compilation is abridged, elided, and largely meaningless for anyone wishing to get the look and feel of the 600 pages of the two original volumes brilliantly written and illustrated by John Lloyd Stephens And Frederick Catherwood.
This book barely resembles the two original books, as it's missing a tremendous amount of historically styled and interesting text - and around 100 of Catherwood's exquisite drawings.
Go hunt down the Dover two volume edition - gladly pay the price - and settle in for a stunning read that hasn't been repurposed as an overview for the modern casual traveler to the Yucatan.
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Gutted by Ackerman
4 May 2005
Format:Paperback
Now here's a publishing phenomenon. Stephens publishes his first book on the Maya and it is hailed by Edgar Allen Poe, among others, as "perhaps the most interesting book of travel ever published". His second book on the Maya, the one for sale on this page, was called "better than its brother" by William Hickling Prescott. 153 years slip by, and a new edition of "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan" is published by none other than Smithsonian Books.
I made the mistake of assuming the new edition, coming from Smithsonian Books, would be of high quality. How wrong I was.
Mr. Ackerman, in his own words, has reduced the text of this classic "by two thirds, but aims to preserve the spirit and essence of the original work". That's right, this "editor" cuts out 67% of one of the greatest works of literature in history, and has the impudence and effrontery to say he aims to preserve the book's spirit and essence. Then, taking the concept of hubris to a new level, he puts his name on the cover under that of the author--as though he had actually added something.
He has added nothing, only subtracted. Besides the 67% of the text, he also removed the name of Frederick Catherwood, who did the marvelous drawings, from the cover.
In the introduction, there is not the slightest hint of shame for the gut job, which he describes: "I have eliminated Stephens' description of the journeys to and from the region...I have tightened Stephens' prose, eliminated the detailed measurements of buildings and mounds, and excised long historical digressions and anecdotes...I have not used ellipses to indicate compression..."
With all the eliminations and excisions and hackings, Ackerman elects to leave in place misspellings because they "reveal Stephens' character and time". Let me get this straight. Historical digressions and anecdotes, admired by the likes of Poe and Prescott, must be cut. But misspellings must be preserved to reveal character and time? What sort of a wacky caricature of a scholar did the Smithsonian Scholarly Book Fund give a grant to?
I have tried to fathom why a person with an interest in archaeology and history and literature would maim a book in this fashion, but I'm at a loss. One would expect this sort of thing if Spielberg were making a biopic about Stephens. Then, the cuts would be necessary to fit the story into a 90-minute slot while keeping enough space for a sassy love interest and a talking jaguar. But this is a fantastic book that eight generations of readers from around the world have loved in its entirety.
Where is the Dover edition?
I made the mistake of assuming the new edition, coming from Smithsonian Books, would be of high quality. How wrong I was.
Mr. Ackerman, in his own words, has reduced the text of this classic "by two thirds, but aims to preserve the spirit and essence of the original work". That's right, this "editor" cuts out 67% of one of the greatest works of literature in history, and has the impudence and effrontery to say he aims to preserve the book's spirit and essence. Then, taking the concept of hubris to a new level, he puts his name on the cover under that of the author--as though he had actually added something.
He has added nothing, only subtracted. Besides the 67% of the text, he also removed the name of Frederick Catherwood, who did the marvelous drawings, from the cover.
In the introduction, there is not the slightest hint of shame for the gut job, which he describes: "I have eliminated Stephens' description of the journeys to and from the region...I have tightened Stephens' prose, eliminated the detailed measurements of buildings and mounds, and excised long historical digressions and anecdotes...I have not used ellipses to indicate compression..."
With all the eliminations and excisions and hackings, Ackerman elects to leave in place misspellings because they "reveal Stephens' character and time". Let me get this straight. Historical digressions and anecdotes, admired by the likes of Poe and Prescott, must be cut. But misspellings must be preserved to reveal character and time? What sort of a wacky caricature of a scholar did the Smithsonian Scholarly Book Fund give a grant to?
I have tried to fathom why a person with an interest in archaeology and history and literature would maim a book in this fashion, but I'm at a loss. One would expect this sort of thing if Spielberg were making a biopic about Stephens. Then, the cuts would be necessary to fit the story into a 90-minute slot while keeping enough space for a sassy love interest and a talking jaguar. But this is a fantastic book that eight generations of readers from around the world have loved in its entirety.
Where is the Dover edition?
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Dover Edition Much Better
29 May 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The two volume Dover edition is much much better. This is watered down, and doesn't contain the important details that make it so interesting. It has very few of the illustrations found in the two volume set. This was a big let down. I bought this thinking it was similar to the Dover addition which a friend of mine owned.
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