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Mountains of the Mind [Kindle Edition]

Robert Macfarlane (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews) |
Digital List Price: £7.71 What's this?
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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind is the most interesting of the crop of books published to mark the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest. Macfarlane is both a mountaineer and a scholar. Consequently we get more than just a chronicle of climbs. He interweaves accounts of his own adventurous ascents with those of pioneers such as George Mallory, and in with an erudite discussion of how mountains became such a preoccupation for the modern western imagination.

The book is organised around a series of features of mountaineering--glaciers, summits, unknown ranges--and each chapter explores the scientific, artistic and cultural discoveries and fashions that accompanied exploration. The contributions of assorted geologists, romantic poets, landscape artists, entrepreneurs, gallant amateurs and military cartographers are described with perceptive clarity. The book climaxes with an account of Mallory's fateful ascent on Everest in 1924, one of the most famous instances of an obsessive pursuit. Macfarlane is well-placed to describe it since it is one he shares.

MacFarlane's own stories of perilous treks and assaults in the Alps, the Cairngorms and the Tian Shan mountains between China and Kazakhstan are compelling. Readers who enjoyed Francis Spufford's masterly I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination will enjoy Mountains of the Mind. This is a slighter volume than Spufford's and it loses in depth what it gains in range, but for an insight into the moody, male world of mountaineering past and present it is invaluable. --Miles Taylor

Review

'Macfarlane writes very well - he loves the mountains as much as anyone - very personal - everyone should read it' Trail 'The most exhilarating history of mountaineering - less the tale of how mountains got climbed than the story of why they became objects of such fascination to us - a riveting read' Jeremy Paxman, Guardian Summer Reads 'Of all the books published to mark the 50th anniversary of climbing Mount Everest, Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind stands out as by far the most intelligent and interesting - he can be as poetic as he is plucky' Economist
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I came on line to write an independent review of this brilliant book, but then I saw the review by the reader from Fort William, and it made me rethink what I was going to say. First of all, it's important to say that this is top-class book; a totally new kind of writing about mountains. Second off, it's not just a book about mountains, but about how history works, why people behave the way they do towards different types of landscapes, how we think the world into being, and what issues like guilt, love and betrayal mean when looked at in historical and not just individual terms. in many ways, this is a book of philosophy and poetry, rather than a history of mountaineering, which is perhaps why some people - including the reviewer from Fort William - have been disappointed. It's obvious that Macfarlne isn't a top-drawer climber; he never says that he is in the book, and anyone who knows anything about serious mountaineering could tell he's not. So there's no secret, or misdescription there. The point is, I think, that eveyrone who goes to the mountains goes to them because, in some sense, they love the way they look, and so this book does answer the big WHY question.

This is all a bit jumbled. But, in conclusion: this is a very special book, in the tradition of writers like Bruce Chatwin and Barry Lopez in the way it works simultaneously with adventures and ideas, and in the way it thinks about the wild, physical world. READ IT if you love history, language or, indeed, mountains.

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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
A real tour de force 18 Nov 2003
Format:Hardcover
This IS one of the most absorbing books I have read for a long time. What is it with our fascination with mountains?

Macfarlane traces western man's fascination with mountains, charting the history of mountains and of the men and women who sought to conquer them. The book is worth the cost alone for the description of Mallory's three expeditions to Everest, here portrayed as a love affair that completes take over his life with disastrous consequences.

But this is more than just a history. This is an examination of fascination and obsession, a journey through the mountains of the imagination.

For anyone who walks or climbs in mountains this book is as Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust: a history of walking.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
An eye opening read 4 Feb 2009
By M. Glen
Format:Paperback
If you really want to understand why some are prepared to risk everything for nothing, then read this book. If you get weary of repetition, then don't read this book.

MacFarlane does a good job of bringing us to a closer understanding of the mind and motivation of those few who are prepared to take life threatening risks in pursuit of their goals. He uses well chosen words and descriptions throughout, without becoming overbearing.

However, I do feel that the book is rather drawn out and much the same could have been conveyed in a shorter read. If you're unsure, don't let this put you off - just be prepared.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Eminently re-readable
I was rummaging in my book shelves for something different and read this again in one sitting... The first time I read it was on a 2 week trek in the Himalayas and found it to be a... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Madrigal
An Enjoyable History of the Mountains
I stumbled across this book and the excellent reviews from other customers made me decide to purchase and i am so glad that i did. Read more
Published 17 months ago by King Eric
Mountains of the Mind
Another gem from Robert MacFarlane. He does not dwell on all the geeky techo stuff associated with mountaineering, but introduces the conscientiousness of life before mountains... Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. COLLEY
Enjoyable, but could have been taken further
This book has had largely positive reviews and I echo most of the positive comments. Indeed I would add that the content is compelling and my attention was held to the end as I... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. Michael Lumsden
Wonderful
Educative, fulfilling, thought-provoking, this was an utterly absorbing read - written by someone intimately close to his subject. Highly recommended, this book stays with you.
Published 23 months ago by Perry Burgess
Enthralling, Enlightening, Entertaining
Though published 7 years ago, at the time I felt the author adopted an academic lecturing style, but recent media commentary prompted me to re-read Robert Macfarlane's `Mountains... Read more
Published on 7 April 2010 by D. Elliott
Superb: thoughtful, poetic and personal. Read it!
I loved this book.

I love mountains (which helped) but even so, this really is a tour de force. Robert Macfarlane has a beautiful and light written style. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2010 by Helen Watson
A Thinking Book
Mountains of the Mind is the best book I have read on the impact of Mountains on human thinking. Its historical and geological concepts are extremely rewarding reading. Get it!!
Published on 13 Jan 2010 by M. Clarke
Great here, almost boring there...
The title is straightforward: this book is real brilliant at times and gets almost boring now and then. Read more
Published on 22 Nov 2009 by Pete Denali
Felt dizzy just by reading.
Ah, the mountains, the lofty heights, the stories and myths, the heroes and the unfortunate. The vertigo and the exhiliration, the coldness of the ice and warmth of the beer... Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2009 by Andreas Wilhelm
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our responses to them are for the most part culturally devised. That is to say, when we look at a landscape, we do not see what is there, but largely what we think is there. We attribute qualities to a landscape which it does not intrinsically possess  savageness, for example, or bleakness  and we value it accordingly. &quote;
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Climb if you will, he wrote, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end. &quote;
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In 1842, J. M. W. Turner, whom Ruskin venerated, had completed one of his finest canvases, Snow Storm: Steamboat off a Harbours Mouth Making Signals in Shallow Water, and Going by the Lead. There &quote;
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