Into the Silence
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers
4.3
Wade Davis
The definitive story of the British adventurers who survived the trenches of World War I and went on to risk their lives climbing Mount Everest. On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Everest’s North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain’s finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a twenty-two-year-old Oxford scholar with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned. Drawing on more than a decade of prodigious research, bestselling author and explorer Wade Davis vividly re-creates the heroic efforts of Mallory and his fellow climbers, setting their significant achievements in sweeping historical context: from Britain’s nineteen-century imperial ambitions to the war that shaped Mallory’s generation. Theirs was a country broken, and the Everest expeditions emerged as a powerful symbol of national redemption and hope. In Davis’s rich exploration, he creates a timeless portrait of these remarkable men and their extraordinary times.
AD
Buy now:
More Details:
Author
Wade Davis
Pages
672
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published Date
2011-10-18
ISBN
0307700569 9780307700568
Ratings
Google: 3.5
Community ReviewsSee all
"Incredibly dense with information, in-depth research, intricate contextualisation, and character studies — it took me well over a year to make my way through it, but it was a breathtaking journey. The writing is limpid and engaging, and the study of how the experiences and ramifications of the Great War drove the march for Everest (for better and for worse) was fascinating. I particularly appreciated the attention paid to the complexity of the men involved in the early attempts of Everest — and to the colonial and often (extremely) racist views and behaviours that made their attempts on Everest possible."
rungemaille
