Guide to Reprints


Book Description




A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint)


Book Description

Excerpt from A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, Vol. 1 of 2 Other considerations, as time and cost, are, Of course, involved in this question. The choice between Daha beeyah and steamer is like the choice between travel ling with post-horses and travelling by rail. The one is expensive, leisurely, and delightful; the other is swift, less expensive, and less luxurious. Those who are con tent to snatch but a glimpse of the Nile will doubtless prefer the steamer. I may add that the whole cost of the Phila3 - food, dragoman's wages, boat-hire, cata raet, everything included except wine - was about 10 per day. With regard to temperature, we found it cool - even cold, sometimes - in December and January; mild in February; very warm in March and April. The climate of Nubia is simply perfect. It never rains; and once past the limit Of the tropic, there is no morning or evening chill upon the air. Yet even in Nubia, and especially along the forty miles that divide aboo-simbel from Wady Halfeh, it is cold when the wind blows strongly from the north. I had hoped to add here a little table of average temperatures, compiled from notes taken by a fellow-traveller who carefully registered the variations of the thermometer from day to day. But the Idle Man has only too well carried out the promise Of his sobriquet; and I am still without the necessary data. 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.







Mark Twain's Literary Resources


Book Description

Dr. Alan Gribben, a foremost Twain scholar, made waves in 1980 with the publication of Mark Twain's Library, a study that exposed for the first time the breadth of Twain's reading and influences. Prior to Gribben's work, much of Twain's reading history was assumed lost, but through dogged searching Gribben was able to source much of Twain's library. Mark Twain's Literary Resources is a much-expanded examination of Twain's library and readings. Volume I included Gribben's reflections on the work involved in cataloging Twain's reading and analysis of Twain's influences and opinions. This volume, long awaited, is an in-depth and comprehensive accounting of Twain's literary history. Each work read or owned by Twain is listed, along with information pertaining to editions, locations, and more. Gribben also includes scholarly annotations that explain the significance of many works, making this volume of Mark Twain's Literary Resources one of the most important additions to our understanding of America's greatest author.







Through a Land of Extremes


Book Description

* Teresa and St. George Littledale were an unlikely British couple who explored Central Asia in the 1890s with their fox terrier. * The Littledale's were very well known in their time for their extensive travels and exceptional adventures but have been almost completely forgotten; this is the first book about their fascinating story. * St. George Littledale received the Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society but Teresa was overlooked. For thirty years, St. George Littledale and his wife Teresa mounted expeditions in North America and Asia. Through a Land of Extremes gives a taste for a bygone time of travel into uncharted, unknown territory, when adventurers lived by a combination of wit, charm, and luck. Of independent means, the Littledales began in the American Rockies, Yellowstone, and Alaska. These trips were followed by expeditions in the late 1880s in the Caucasus, the Pamirs, Russian Central Asia, and Mongolia. Their greatest exploit was a 14-month journey to Tibet in 1895. They were attempting to reach the Forbidden City of Lhasa, the great unmet goal of Central Asian explorers. In order to minimize their chances of being discovered before they neared their goal, St. George selected a route across the desolate, uninhabited Tibetan Plateau. At a 19,000-foot pass, they were finally blocked by 150 armed Tibetans. The Tibetans allowed them to continue over the pass to a suitable stopping place. The Littledales had come within 49 miles of Lhasa, closer than any other foreigners since 1846. This title is part of our LEGENDS AND LORE series. Click here > to learn more.




The Literary World


Book Description




The Outlook


Book Description




The Nile


Book Description

From Herodotus's day to the present political upheavals, the steady flow of the Nile has been Egypt's heartbeat. It has shaped its geography, controlled its economy and moulded its civilisation. The same stretch of water which conveyed Pharaonic battleships, Ptolemaic grain ships, Roman troop-carriers and Victorian steamers today carries modern-day tourists past bankside settlements in which rural life – fishing, farming, flooding – continues much as it has for millennia. At this most critical juncture in the country's history, foremost Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson takes us on a journey up the Nile, north from Lake Victoria, from Cataract to Cataract, past the Aswan Dam, to the delta. The country is a palimpsest, every age has left its trace: as we pass the Nilometer on the island of Elephantine which since the days of the Pharaohs has measured the height of Nile floodwaters to predict the following season's agricultural yield and set the parameters for the entire Egyptian economy, the wonders of Giza which bear the scars of assault by nineteenth-century archaeologists and the modern-day unbridled urban expansion of Cairo – and in Egypt's earliest art (prehistoric images of fish-traps carved into cliffs) and the Arab Spring (fought on the bridges of Cairo) – the Nile is our guide to understanding the past and present of this unique, chaotic, vital, conservative yet rapidly changing land.