The Malay Archipelago (Penguin Pocket Classics No. 4)

Author: Alfred Russel Wallace

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $22.99 AUD
  • : 9780241261873
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : Penguin Classics
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  • : 0.402
  • : March 2016
  • : 181mm X 111mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 14.99
  • : May 2016
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Alfred Russel Wallace
  • : Pocket Penguins
  • : Paperback
  • : 616
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  • : en
  • : 915.980422
  • :
  • :
  • : 752
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Barcode 9780241261873
9780241261873

Description

'I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head'

Alfred Russel Wallace left to explore the islands of southeast Asia an obscure naturalist; he returned eight years later an acclaimed scientist and co-discoverer of the theory of evolution. This is his vivid, exhilarating and heroic account of his travels across the entire Malay world, from Singapore to the western edges of New Guinea. With exploratory zeal and lyrical brilliance, he describes battling through jungles, enduring seasickness and fever, meeting head hunters, marvelling at birds of paradise and collecting countless new species, as he made discoveries that changed our view of the world.


A new series of twenty distinctive, unforgettable Penguin Classics in a beautiful new design and pocket-sized format, with coloured jackets echoing Penguin's original covers.

Author description

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was one of the most important and likeable British scientists of the 19th century. A field researcher of genius, he spent many years in Brazil and southeast Asia, identifying many new species and, independently of Darwin, before developing - in parallel to Darwin - the theory of evolution through natural selection. He effectively created the whole field of 'bio-geography', with the great split between Eurasian and Australasian flora and fauna, which runs through the Malay archipelago, now named the Wallace Line. His research on warning colouration and speciation continues to shape modern research. During his travels in southeast Asia he collected an estimated quarter of a million specimens.