La Expedicion Orinoco-Amazonas, 1948-1950

by Alain Gheerbrant

Genres: Nonfiction

346 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Alain Gheerbrant (27 December 1920 – 21 February 2013) was a French writer, editor, poet and explorer, noted for his expedition inside the basins of Amazonian rivers.
From 1948 to 1950, Alain Gheerbrant led the Orinoco-Amazon expedition. He travelled through the basin of both rivers for two years and wrote of his travels in L'Expédition Orénoque-Amazone (1952). He is considered the first Westerner who had peaceful contact with the Yanomami Indians and also the first to cross the Parima Mountains between 1948 and 1950. In 1952, he directed a documentary film called Des hommes qu'on appelle sauvages.

He has produced numerous reports all over the world and published Dictionnaire des symboles in 1982, a collaborative work with Jean Chevalier, an encyclopaedia of cultural anthropology about the symbolism of myths and folklore, which was republished 19 times between 1982 and 1997. He has authored an illustrated pocket book for the "Découvertes Gallimard" collection, called L'Amazone, un géant blessé (1988), which has been translated into eleven languages, including English. In 1995, he released his memoir entitled La Transversale.

Reviews

[Ashley Vaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good example of why I seek out old, prosaic books with nothing but title and author on the cover. It is a French book, written in French and translated to English (the version I read) but doesn’t seem to lack the impact that translated books often can. The text, whilst being a factual account of the author’s expedition in the Orinoco-Amazon in the late 1940s, reads very much like an exciting adventure story. It definitely fits the ‘page-turner’ category as it was, at times, unputdownable. The adventure of a lifetime described in glorious detail by a famed adventurer of his day, he is no less an adroit writer and comes across as a man who is brave, intrepid, and humble. The down side was the intrench racism that was prevalent in Western society at the time of writing. It describes some of the indigenous people groups that the explorers encountered on the expedition of South America in less-than-human terms, and to the postmodern reader could come across as quite derogatory. That said, the relationships the team built up with the indigenous people suggests that they genuinely felt affection for them and viewed them as equals. In spite of some slightly unsavoury phraseology that would not be used today, it does a lot of good. A great read.

[Kris Kaleta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Indiana Jones-style travel through the late 1940s. Gheerbrant and co being - quite literally - eaten alive by piranhas, imprisoned in Venezuela, taken through the death ride on rivers of the South America ...

If you are a reader who enjoys a good non-fiction, and travels, r.e.a.d. t.h.i.s p.i.e.c.e.

[Saj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kauniisti kirjoitettu, eläväinen ja jännittävä ihan oikean tutkimusmatkan kuvaus. Retkikunnan sinnikkyys vastoinkäymisten, kielimuurien ja paiseiden keskellä puhuttelee ja liikuttaakin. On hyvä pitää mielessä, että tämä on myös aikansa tuotos ja se tulee joissakin asioissa selvästi näkyviin. Tämä kirja on elämys!

[Eduardo Martínez Sáez · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'une des dernières expéditions "à l'ancienne" vers les terres inconnues de l'équinoxe; pleine de petites aventures au cœur d'une vraie odyssée, très humaines, et de réflexions intéressantes sur les peuples rencontrés par les explorateurs.