Latitude Zero: Tales of the Equator - Softcover

Gianni Guadalupi; Antony Shugaar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786709014 ISBN 13: 9780786709014

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2001

Synopsis

It extends 24,000 miles, farther and longer than any other measure on earth. Yet the equator is a wholly imaginary construct, a human idea that has fascinated and challenged explorers for three thousand years—from the ancient Egyptian spice traders in search of the legendary land of Punt, to the fifteenth-century Portuguese who sought a route to the Indies, to the expeditions of Victorian naturalist Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands, off the Pacific coast of South America, at latitude zero. The equator—its location not only on the globe but also in the minds and exploits of navigators, travelers, poets, and dreamers since the dawn of civilization—is the magical thread on which the eminent Italian historian Gianni Guadalupi strings some of humankind’s most intriguing lore and most amazing adventures in this original and riveting intellectual history. The mysterious source of the Nile and the enigma of the Congo’s swell, the perils of the Doldrums (“the living death in life” in Coleridge’s phrase) and the vicissitudes of El Nino, the quest for the lost Eden and the search for Eldorado, all fall within the compass of Guadalupi’s extraordinary volume. So do the names of Columbus, Magellan, Don Lope de Aguirre, Sinbad the Sailor, Henry Stanley, Charles-Marie de la Condamine, and Dante Alighieri, who placed Purgatory on an island athwart the equator.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Several years ago, U.S. fighter pilots testing computer-guided navigation were surprised when the autopilot system flipped their planes as they passed over the Equator and into negative latitude. Of course, it was negative only according to the general belief that "the history of the world has almost always been written from a point of view situated around forty-five degrees latitude [i.e., the Northern Hemisphere]." Guadalupi (coauthor of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places) and Shugaar (translator of Niccolo's Smile) hope to unveil what has fascinated and often frightened explorers as they traveled along the equator, the longest line on Earth. The authors center their histories and themes on three places along Latitude Zero: South America and the Spanish search for mythic El Dorado; Africa and the geographical exploration of the Nile and Congo river systems; the South Pacific and seafaring adventure. Their project is more a revisitation of a worthy subject than a narrative of new discovery. The names, places and histories are familiar (Sir Walter Raleigh and his failed trip to find the city of gold; Stanley and Livingston tromping through the African hinterland; Magellan's incomplete circumnavigation of the globe; the eruption of Krakatoa). More discouraging is their desire to uncover tales of the equator while operating under historically Western European assumptions. (Their insistence on referring to Africa as the "Dark Continent" particularly lacks irony.) Although it doesn't demonstrate rigorous scholarship, this book is nevertheless well written and entertaining a good chronicle of adventure and attempted conquest. Illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"The history of the world has almost always been written from a point of view situated around forty-five degrees north latitude," posits the author. Aiming to rectify this imbalance, Guadalupi has researched and retold tales of adventure, misadventure, and exploration that took place in proximity to the 24,000-mile imaginary line drawn across the girth of the earth. Some stories--Magellan's great voyage and Burton and Speke's search for the origin of the Nile, for instance--are well known, but the exploits of others--Francisco de Orellana (the "Unfortunate Conquistador"), Elisa von Wagner (the "Nude Baroness"), or James Brooke (the "White Raja")--will be less familiar or completely unknown to most readers. Brief but crowded with detail, these engagingly written stories are perfect jumping-off points for armchair adventurers or perhaps journey enough for commuting conquistadors. Guadalupi offers a wry view of the unintended mayhem wrought by the European interlopers, but because they wrote most of his source material, we may wait longer for a true shift in perspective. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0786709014
• ISBN 13: 9780786709014
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288