Category Archives: Europe

Africa, America, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Oceans, Pacific, The New World

Nellie Bly: Around the World in 72 Days (1890)

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“I want to go around the world! I want to go around in eighty days or less. I think I can beat Phileas Fogg’s record. May I try it?”

When investigative reporter Nellie Bly approached her editor in 1889, he was not excited about the idea at all. But, in the end, she did travel around the world.

On her adventure, she met Jules Verne – whose story had inspired her – and many, many others. The result is this book.

The endeavor became an international story almost overnight, and Nellie, whose real name was Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, became a celebrity herself.

Her travel around the world in a record-setting 72 days is the most remembered of her feats today, but she was a pioneer in several other fields, too. For instance, Bly practically invented investigative journalism, when she lived undercover in a mental institution and uncovered horrible conditions to the public.

Around the World in Seventy-Two Days is not only a testament to the will of an extraordinary person, who became a role model for girls around the world. It is also very well written and entertaining indeed.

Download Around the World in Seventy Two Days as PDF for free here:

Nellie-bly-Around-the-World-in-Seventy-Two-Days-pdf

 

Arctic, Europe

Journey To Iceland

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Journey to Iceland with the subtitle – And Travels in Sweden and Norway was published in English in 1852. The Author is the amazing female explorer Ida Laura Pfeiffer, born in Austria. She was maybe the first female explorer and she was quite famous for her travel books, describing amazing expeditions to Southeast Asia, the Americas, Middle East, and Africa. She travelled around the world twice alone. This book is interesting to me because it is one of a very few old travel books that describe my own backyard, the Nordic and Scandinavian countries. She describes Denmark as a country that cares of the poor, no beggars in the streets as seen in every other Europen capital. Fun fact: Pfeiffer is referenced as “Madam Pfeiffer” in Thoreau’s book, Walden.

Download the Public Domain PDF e-book, Journey to Iceland here (376 pages/17MB):

 Journey to Iceland

Africa, America, Antarctic, Asia, Australia, Europe, Inuit, The New World

The Gift

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The Gift – Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies is the anthropological classic on economy, society and sociology by the french sociologist Marcel Mauss. The book investigates the gift as predecessor for modern societies economies by comparing habits from a range of traditional societies all over the world. Marcel Mauss describes how the people of Polynesia used gifts as a donation of authority and circulation of wealth and tributes. He compares the habits between eskimo tribes from North-East Siberia and West Alaska shows how gifts are the foundation for everything from marriage, war and peace and even religion in the form of sacrifices to the Gods. Marcel Mauss  concludes: “In any society it is in the nature of the gift in the end to being its own reward.”

From the book:

“I have never found a man so generous and hospitable that he would not receive a present, nor one so liberal with his money that he would dislike a reward if he could get one. Friends should rejoice each others’ hearts with gifts of weapons and raiment, that is clear from one’s own experience. That friendship lasts longest—if there is a chance of its being a success—in which friends both give and receive gifts. A man ought to be a friend to his friend and repay gift with gift. People should meet smiles with smiles and lies with treachery.”

Download The Gift here (136 pages/6MB):

 The Gift

America, Arctic, Europe, Inuit, Oceans, The New World, Thule

The Voyages of the Norsemen to America

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THE VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA is an impressive historical presentation of the travels by the Vikings to America. The book was written by the dane William Hovgaard and published in English in 1914. His aim was to collect all the historical facts and evidences from various sources, and up to today Voyages of Norsemen is the authoritative compilation of historical descriptions of the travels of the Vikings to Iceland, Greenland and Vinland. The book is richly illustrated with maps and photos from expeditions to places where the Norsemen according to the sagas have been. William Hovgaard has many interesting points and for instance he draws similarities between popular folk games played by Norsemen in Iceland and Inuit games, and thereby supports written sources about Viking travels to remote parts of Greenland and Canada. The book goes into details of the following Viking voyages to America:

List of Viking voyages to America:

  • Bjarni’s Voyage (985 or 986)
  • Leif’s Return Voyage from Norway (1000)
  • Leif’s Voyage of Exploration to Vinland (1001)
  • Thorvald’s Voyage
  • Thorstein’s Voyage
  • Karlsefni’ s Expedition

Download the free PDF e-book here (408 pages/28MB):

 Voyages of Norsemen

Europe, Middle East

The Heart of Arabia – A Record of Travel & Exploration Vol I+II

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The Heart of Arabia – A Record of Travel & Exploration Vol I+II (1923) is an exceptionally well-written and beautifully illustrated reflection on the travels and experiences of Harry St John Philby, also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah.

The author was a most unorthodox representative of Great Britain in Arabia – and for quite some time also the only British representative there.

He was the first Westerner who traversed Arabia from East to West, held a deep respect for the Arabian culture and learned himself Arabic. In time, he even adopted the Muslim faith and became close friends with and advisor to Ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia.

At the same time, however, Philby remained British to the core and maintained his British home. He was a remarkable adventurer, a man of the world, and a mapmaker extraordinaire. He was also in some ways a driven man, who often saw the world in black and white.

Harry St John Philby is mostly forgotten today or – if remembered – it is as the father of the infamous Soviet spy, Kim Philby. That is actually quite sad, as Philby Sr. is a much more interesting character, and his book is well worth reading.

It is a large file, primarily due to the many illustrations and the 814 pages. So make some coffee while downloading or have patience a minute or two 🙂

Download The Heart of Arabia – A Record of Travel & Exploration Vol I+II (67,2 MB / 814 pages)

 The Heart of Arabia vol I+II

Africa, Asia, Europe

Winston Churchill: My Early Life

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SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL was a resolute Prime Minister of Great Britain during the Second World War. Furthermore, he inspired millions of Europeans to “keep buggering on” when all seemed lost in the epic struggle with Nazi-Germany.

He was also an adventurer by heart, who spent his youth participating in conflicts in India, Sudan, Afghanistan and South Africa. He escaped captivity from a Boer prison camp – and accounted for his many adventures in numerous articles.

Based on the wartime experiences of his youth, Churchill even suggested that it would be a pretty great idea if he could watch the first waves of the amphibious assault of D-Day from the warship HMS Belfast. The generals and admirals declined the PMs request – politely but with no room for misunderstanding what so ever..

Being a storyteller by heart, Sir Winston was also a prolific writer. He was even awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”

Churchill authored a great many books. He genuinely enjoyed the process of writing (most of the time, at least). More importantly, however, the generous fees helped finance a lifestyle which, even at the worst of times, could never be considered anything less than stately.

Many of his books are strictly speaking quite a bit longer and more detailed than necessary. Not so with “My Early Life,” which you can read by clicking on the link below. It is relatively short and tells the story of Churchill’s childhood and youth. It also collects a lot of his most memorable experiences from The Second Boer War, Sudan and India.

My Early Life is generally considered one of Churchill’s best books – and it is undoubtedly one of his most amusing and entertaining works!

Download the free PDF e-book here:

 My Early Life – A Roving Commission

Europe, Oceans, The New World, Uncategorized

Treasure Island

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Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is – even though fictional – perhaps the most famous story about high adventure, pirates, betrayal, and gold. Lots, lots & lots of gold!

Countless kids and adults have dreamt themselves away to the epic story where young Jim Hawkins joins a grand expedition to discover the untold riches buried by the late Captain Flint. But all is not exactly as it seems – and the one-legged cook, Long John Silver, has other plans than to make sure the crew is well fed…

Download Read Treasure Island for free at Greatest Adventurers as PDF or MOBI-format for Kindle by clicking below.

Yo-ho-ho – and a bottle of rum!

Treasure Island PDF

Treasure Island mobi

 

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER
If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:
—So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

America, Australia, Europe

Best Railway Stories edited by L. T. C. Rolt

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Best Railway Stories edited by L. T. C. Rolt. Heres a goodie for adventurous boys and girls at all ages. Dramatic stories from the heydays of railroads. This fascinating collection of stories captures its essence superbly and is as colourful, as lively, and as varied as the railways themselves. Death, mystery and disaster rise through the steam of the stories by – to name a handful – Dickens, Conan Doyle, Freeman Wills Croft and Robert Aickman and comedy, politics and fanaticism rattle through those by ‘Q’, Raymond Williams and Doug Welch.
L. T. C. Rolt- and there is no one better qualified to do so-has put together an anthology to keep the traveller awake from Euston to Inverness, or a man from his own pillow far into the night.

Download Best Railway Stories here (10,2 MB/254 pages):

Best Railway Stories

Europe, Science

And there was Light

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In this book the story is told of adventures and discoveries in astronomy from the star-gazing astrologers of Babylon and China to the astrophysicists of today. Until about 1500 A.D. the Greeks were foremost in the field of cosmic speculation. Then came Copernicus, who set out to correct Ptolemy’s erring calendar; next Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer, who perfected new instruments and mapped the skies with new refinements; then the

Jesuit astronomer-missionaries to China, and Bruno, the philosopher-astrologer; then Kepler, a neurotic who plotted the orbits of the planets with astonishing accuracy, but still believed in astrology; and then Galileo, whose revolutionary theories involved him in troubles,, with the Church. Later still came Newton and the revolution of modern astrophysics. Download the free PDF e-book here:

And There Was Light

Balloon, Europe, Flying, Montgolfier

Wonderful Balloon Ascents by F. Marion

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Wonderful Balloon Ascents or The Conquest of the Skies by F. Marion is a history on balloons and Balloon Voyages published in 1870 at the height of the European balloon craze. The book is richly illustrated with copperplate picture depicting popular attempts to ascend that drew thousands of spectators. We have eyewitness reports from the first successful flight the by brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier in 1783. The book describes the entire history of ballooning from the first known ancient experiments to the technical ideas, safety concerns, navigation and the possible future of balloons used in warfare. Download the free PDF e-book here (11MB/248 pages):

Wonderful Balloon Ascents