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SELKIRK'S ISLAND

SELKIRK'S ISLAND

SELKIRK'S ISLAND
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SELKIRK'S ISLAND

by SOUHAMI, Diana

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
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ISBN 10
0753813343
ISBN 13
9780753813348
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About This Item

Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2001. 2001. Softcover. 8vo softcover 239pp index, b/w illus. very good . Selkirk was a pirate and a buccaneer who sailed on the South Seas on looting expeditions for gold and treasure. In 1703 he joined an expedition whose object was to plunder French and Spanish ships. Conditions on the ship were appalling; scurvy, dysentery and typhus flourished and most of the crew died or went mad. Eventually they reached the island of Juan Fernandez 400 miles off the coast of Chile where Selkirk opted to maroon himself. Suddenly solitude and silence were imposed and his only relationship was to the island and to himself. He learnt to kill goats with cudgels and use their skins for coats and shoes. He hollowed out a canoe and circumnavigated the island. He wished there were a woman on the island, but perhaps he used the goats he had tamed for his sexual satisfaction. Gradually he found that company was not essential and that he was the Governor of this island, afraid of nothing it contained. .

Synopsis

Piracy and betrayal frame the epic story of solitary endurance that inspired Daniel Defoe's classic novel. Who was the real Robinson Crusoe? And what did he really experience during his solitary stay on a remote island in the Pacific? Diana Souhami's revelatory account of Alexander Selkirk's adventures on the high seas and dry land leads us to the answers to both these questions, and explores the reality behind the romance of privateering on the high seas. Born to a poor Scottish family, Selkirk signed on with an ill-fated quest to sack the famous Manila galleon, one of the richest prizes on the southern seas. After a series of misfortunes and disagreements among the crew, Selkirk was put ashore on an island three hundred miles west of South America, where he spent four years learning to survive with little more than his bare hands. Acclaimed biographer Diana Souhami evokes all the strangeness and wonder of his story and interprets the haze created by three centuries of literature and legend. The result is a brilliantly lucid and lyrical recovery and discovery of a forgotten man and his unforgettable experience.

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Details

Bookseller
Dial a Book AU (AU)
Bookseller's Inventory #
60339
Title
SELKIRK'S ISLAND
Author
SOUHAMI, Diana
Format/Binding
Softcover
Book Condition
Used
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10
0753813343
ISBN 13
9780753813348
Publisher
Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2001
Place of Publication
London
Date Published
2001
Keywords
juan fernandez chile voyages william dampier

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Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
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Narrabeen, New South Wales

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