The Life, Travels and Books of Alexander Von Humboldt (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Life, Travels and Books of Alexander Von Humboldt

There are several biographies of Humboldt, French, German, and English, but none of any importance, except Professor Klencke's. Klencke had an excellent opportunity to make a good book, for much of his material was obtained from Humboldt himself, but he failed to do so. He seemed to have no idea of writing, beyond its being a means of conveying facts. His facts are reliable, but bunglingly arranged, without order or method. He says the same thing over and over again, and entirely lacks the chief requisite of a biographer - the art of making his subject attractive. Still, he is reliable, and the author has made considerable use of his work, especially in Book I.

The first five chapters of Book II. are taken from Humboldt's "Voyage aux Régions Equinoxiales." As these chapters cover an important epoch in Humboldt's life, it was thought advisable to let him tell his own story, and this has accordingly been done, wherever it was practicable, the relation being changed from the first person to the third - from autobiography to narrative.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.