The Alps: A Human History from Hannibal to Heidi and Beyond

by Stephen O'Shea Narrated by Robert Fass

Overview

For centuries the Alps have seen the march of armies, the flow of pilgrims and Crusaders, the feats of mountaineers and the dreams of engineers-and some 14 million people live among their peaks today. In The Alps, Stephen O'Shea takes readers up and down these majestic mountains, journeying through their 500-mile arc across France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. Along the way, he explores the reality behind Hannibal and his elephants' famous crossing in 218 BCE; he reveals how the Alps have profoundly influenced culture from Frankenstein to Heidi to The Sound of Music; and he visits the spot where Arthur Conan Doyle staged Sherlock Holmes's death scene, the bloody site of the Italians' retreat in World War I, and Hitler's notorious vacation house, the Eagle's Nest. Throughout, O'Shea records his adventures with the watch makers, salt miners, cable-car operators, and yodelers who define the Alps today.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Liesl Schillinger

…[an] entertaining, turbocharged race among the high mountain passes of six alpine countries…

Nature

"[A] sardonic, science-rich travelogue."

NPR - Heller McAlpin

"O’Shea’s quirky travelogue delivers an avalanche of entertaining facts and history."

Newsday - Matthew Price

"[O’Shea] is an amiable guide to the riches of this vast mountain range—culinary, linguistic, literary, cultural and geologic."

Liesl Schillinger

"An entertaining, turbocharged race among the high mountain passes of six alpine countries."

Providence Journal - Tony Lewis

"Fascinating, funny, and hugely informative… The Alps delivers one stunner after the other, accompanied by the kind of witty, informative banter that enhances our journey."

Times Literary Supplement - Jonathan Steinberg

"Splendid. . . . A great pleasure to read."

BBC - Jane Ciabattari

"Enthralling…breezy and informative."

Ross King

"I would follow Stephen O’Shea anywhere he travels, and this book is a real adventure, both geographically and intellectually—an eloquent and engaging exploration that shows how and why these dizzy peaks have for centuries been at the forefront of the European cultural imagination."

Minneapolis StarTribune - Kim Ode

"A delight.… O’Shea is an engaging writer."

Passport

"The combination of a contemporary first-person travelogue… and a time-tripping riffle through Alpine history’s greatest hits provides an ideal mix."

Nature Lib

"[A] sardonic, science-rich travelogue."

Kirkus Reviews

2016-11-02
A tour through the Alps reveals history, geology, anthropology, and local customs.As he frequently remarks, journalist and travel writer O'Shea (The Friar of Carcassonne: Revolt Against the Inquisition in the Last Days of the Cathars, 2011, etc.) is afraid of heights. Nevertheless, he decided to brave breathtakingly steep inclines and hairpin turns to investigate the dramatic political and cultural history of the French, German, Austrian, and Italian Alps. Traveling west to east, O'Shea drove a "souped-up" Renault Mégane Sport, a "muscle car" distinctive enough to attract attention in Geneva, where he began his journey. The French Alps, he notes, gave birth to Romanticism: Rousseau ("Switzerland's most famous son") set his sensational novel about Abelard and Heloise along the shores of Lake Geneva, and Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein there. Besides abundant literary references throughout his ebullient narrative, the author traces the mountains' role in war and conquest: Hannibal, Napoleon, and Hitler all make appearances. In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he visited a museum documenting the Nazi-dominated Winter Olympics of 1936. He also chronicles his visit to Heidiland, a cheesy theme park cashing in on the popularity of Joanna Spyri's children's book; discovers that the famed Saint Bernard rescue dogs did not carry kegs of brandy; relates famous mountaineers' "heart-stopping tales of danger courted and overcome"; and offers chilling descriptions of the "arduous and sinuous" routes he traversed. After being shrouded by fog, he saw "a horrific vista of yawning emptiness"; sheer cliffs and looming mountains "stretch to the heavens, gray rock and white snow in a stirring melodrama of nature." He stopped in quaint villages, where he ate local specialties, all recounted in detail. O'Shea occasionally punctuates his otherwise brisk narrative with jarring imagery: he sees the Matterhorn "sheathed in clouds, like a burlesque dancer teasing the tourists staring up at it"; and he insists on describing bikers in reference to national cuisine: "a bratwurst of German bikers," "a soufflé" of French. This spirited jaunt into the peaks of Europe may inspire readers to pack their bags.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170127559
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	02/21/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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