Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors

by Edward E. Leslie

Overview

Here are the most remarkable stories imaginable of maroons, castaways, and other survivors from the 1500s to the present - their moral dilemmas, their personalities, and their influence on society, literature, and art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780395911501
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/15/1998
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edward E. Leslie is the author of The Devil Knows How to Ride, a biography of the Civil War raider William Quantrill. He lives in Massillion, Ohio.

Editorial Reviews

"Leslie creates a keen psychological study as well as a paean to the courage, resourcefulness, and perseverance of the human body and mind" Publishers Weekly —

From the Publisher

With painstaking research, riveting detail and elegant prose, freelance writer Leslie here creates a keen psychological study as well as a paean to the courage, resourcefulness and perseverance of the human body and mind. This is a hefty chronicle of true stories, from the 1500s to the present day, about survivors of shipwrecks, maroonings and plane crashes, lost in every sort of climate and environment, struggling against animals, humanssavage and civilizedand the forces of nature. There is Peter Carder, who sailed in the 16th century with Drake, was castaway once and twice marooned, ingratiated himself with Brazilian cannibals and outwitted his Portuguese enemies. Leslie insightfully describes the real ``Robinson Crusoe,'' Alexander Selkirk, a sailing master who quarreled with his captain and was stranded for four years on an island paradise off the coast of Chile in the early 1700s. The account of Marguerite de la Roque, a 16th century French woman who was betrayed as an adulterer by her adventurer cousin on an Atlantic voyage and then left to die, pregnant, on an island off the coast of Canada with her servant and her lover, is affecting. But for sheer thrills and inspiration, readers will be fascinated by the tale of the ill-planned and ill-fated Stefansson Polar expedition of 1913. Illustrated. (August)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Desperate Journeys, a collection of survival stories from Western culture ranging from 16th-century shipwrecks to 20th-century plane crashes, presents a hodgepodge of data about the human condition. Some are fascinating like the true tale of Selkirk, a shipwrecked Scot, which formed the basis for Robinson Caruso. But John Knowles's story about "survival" in the north woods killing game with his bare hands, detailed in serialized tabloid accounts, have a huckster quality. Yet his fame inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs to create Tarzan. The author lacks the ability to endow his collection with the meaningful insight into human nature. The recording's most outstanding section consists of quotes from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's own classic account of his Libyan plane crash. Reader Patrick Cullen, like the author, turns in a competent if uninspired performance. Only buy if your patrons like disasters.--James Dudley, Westhampton Beach, NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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