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Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration | 
 enlarge | Creator: Fergus Fleming
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $6.40
You Save: $9.60 (60%)
New (31) Used (17) from $4.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 93945
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0802142729
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780802142726
ASIN: 0802142729
Publication Date: June 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New Book. Paperback.
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Product Description
On John Franklin's 1820 expedition to find the North-West Passage, Michel Teroahaute cannibalized two team members and was preparing a third when he was caught and killed. When Rene la Salle set off for the Mississippi Delta in 1684, he missed the target by five hundred miles, but on landing immediately built a prison for those who fell asleep on watch. Consummate storyteller Fergus Fleming brings together these and forty-three other gripping stories in Off the Map.
Spanning three ages of exploration, it is a uniquely accessible and supremely entertaining history of adventure and endeavor. Off the Map recounts episodes both classic and forgotten: the "classics" are brought to life in more vivid colors than ever before; the lesser-known stories offer accounts of feats that are no less heroic or extraordinary but have long lain hidden in the undergrowth of history. From the Renaissance golden age of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan to the twentieth-century heroics of polar explorers such as Peary, Scott, and Amundsen, this is an unforgettable journey into the annals of adventure.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
off the map April 24, 2008
This is a very good book to me. Short concise tales of many different explorers. Has led me to other books about individual explorers that I found more to my interest that i wanted to learn about more indepthly, if that is a word.
 I'm returning this one September 17, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Everyone hates negative reviews, but if you give a negative review a negative rating -- and there's more than one disappointed reader here -- don't say no one warned you. Fleming is a guy who has figured out that anyone can write books; for a discussion of this "democratizing" phenomenon, see Andrew Keen's just-published "Cult of the Amateur." What Fleming has NOT figured out is that there was no money available for pure science -- let alone "the spirit of pure adventure" he so relishes -- in the 16th century, period. Expeditions HAD to be profitable. He beats the dead horse of Greed without once stopping to ask himself, "Is there something I don't know about the world of my ancestors?"
The first five stories were dull recapitulations of journeys I happen to know something about, in which he repeats myths that were disproved long ago. What lay ahead of me were stories about adventurers I did NOT know much about, and I wasn't in the mood for poorly written fiction. I was actually in the rarest of moods -- to go through all the trouble and expense of returning a book I only paid $12 for!
Author Discloses Agenda September 15, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The author's selection of great travel/exploration/endurance stories is disappointing. Why leave out Raleigh, Lief Eriksson (or any of the Norsemen for that matter), or many others. The author is sloppy with his narration, and discloses a penchant for left-wing viewpoints. But the biggest disappointment is the repetitive nature of the accounts. There are so many arctic/antarcitic exploration narratives, they all blur together. One can't even distinguish the truly important ones from the completely insignificant ones in the memory after finishing the book. A more judicious choice of inclusion would have made the book more worthwhile. And not leaving out profoundly important discovery stories at the expense of including completely obscure and idiosyncratic stories. Doing the latter is okay if you're doing a book on obscure travel stories, but it is too much to include them all with major discoveries. All in all, the author is indulging himself at the expense of the reader.
 Perfect for the history buff January 7, 2007
For a blend of history and true-life stories of survival and adventure, try the classics told in OFF THE MAP: TALES OF ENDURANCE AND EXPLORATION. Fergus Fleming is a narrative historian with many books to his name: OFF THE MAP uses high drama, a touch of humor, and lively themes to bring to life the journeys and sometimes the harrowing experiences of explorers from early to modern times. Perfect for the history buff who enjoys the action and high drama of true-life drama paired with the insights of historical fact and biography.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
The best book about world explorers that you can find. October 16, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Off the Map is a wonderfll book. It is basically a summary of world exploration from Marco Polo in 1271 to Umberto Nobile in 1928. There are separate chapters about each explorer, all arranged in chronological order with each chapter about 10-20 pages each. The chapter lengths are just right in that they are not too long, but also not lacking for detailed information. Each chapter also has a map that illustrates where the particular explorer travelled, which was extremely helpful. There are also 3 separate sections of illustrations and photos which helps give a visual picture of the explorers.
Overall, this book is packed with information and is written in such a way that each chapter is told like a story and each story takes you back in time to a different era. If you are intertested in world exploration or world history, then this book is a must read. I enjoyed it very much.
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