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A big, magnificent, adventurous book – so vividly written and daringly researched – a geographical pilgrimage and an intellectual epic! Brilliant, surprising, and thought-provoking . . . a major achievement
RICHARD HOLMES, author of The Age of Wonder and Coleridge
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A truly wonderful book . . . Andrea Wulf has told the tale with such brio, such understanding, such depth. The physical journeyings, all around South America when it was virtually terra incognita, are as exciting as the journeys of Humboldt’s mind into astronomy, literature, philosophy and every known branch of science. This is one of the most exciting intellectual biographies I have ever read, up there with Lewes’s Goethe and Ray Monk’s Wittgenstein
A N Wilson
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Andrea Wulf’s marvellous book should put this captivating eighteenth century German scientist, traveller and opinion-shaper back at the heart of the way we look at the world . . . irresistible and consistently absorbing life of a man whose discoveries have shaped the way we see
MIRANDA SEYMOUR, author of Noble Endeavours: A History of England and Germany
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Andrea Wulf is a writer of rare sensibilities and passionate fascinations. I always trust her to take me on unforgettable journeys through amazing histories of botanical exploration and scientific unfolding. Her work is wonderful, her language sublime, her intelligence unflagging
ELIZABETH GILBERT, author of The Signature of All Things and Eat, Pray, Love
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Engrossing . . . Wulf successfully combines biography with an intoxicating history of his times
Kirkus
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Extraordinary, and often still sadly relevant too
Wanderlust
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The phrase ‘lost hero of science’ in the subtitle of [Wulf’s] book is no exaggeration . . . A big book about a big subject, written with scholarship and enthusiasm
Irish Examiner
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In her coruscating account, historian Andrea Wulf reveals an indefatigable adept of close observation with a gift for the long view
Nature
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[A] gripping study . . . No one who reads this brilliant book is likely to forget Humboldt
New Scientist
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This book sets out to restore Humboldt to his rightful place in the pantheon of natural scientists. In the process Wulf does a great deal more. This meticulously researched work – part biography, part cabinet of curiosity – takes us on an exhilarating armchair voyage through some of the world’s least hospitable regions
Mail on Sunday
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Thrilling . . . It is impossible to read The Invention of Nature without contracting Humboldt fever. Wulf makes Humboldtians of us all . . . At times The Invention of Nature reads like pulp explorer fiction . . . She has gone to near-Humboldtian lengths to research her book
New York Review of Books
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Engrossing . . . Andrea Wulf magnificently recreates Humboldt’s dazzling, complex personality and the scope of his writing
Wall Street Journal
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A rollicking adventure story . . . a fascinating history of ideas, in which Wulf leads us expertly along a series of colourful threads that emanate from the great tapestry of Humboldt’s life and work . . . What really fascinated me about The Invention of Nature is how relevant Humboldt’s ideas are today . . . Arriving in South America, Darwin took his first steps in the tropical forest and exclaimed: “I formerly admired Humboldt, I now almost adore him”. Readers of Wulf’s marvellous new book may feel the same way
Financial Times
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Wulf’s telling of his life reads like a Who’s Who of his age . . . in its mission to rescue Humboldt’s reputation from the crevasse he and many other German writers and scientists fell into after the Second World War, it succeeds
Independent on Sunday
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Wulf’s biography is a magnificent work of resurrection, beautifully researched, elegantly written, a thrilling intellectual odyssey
Sunday Times
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Wulf’s brilliant biography traces [Humboldt’s] daring travels in South America and across the Andes, his sojourns in Berlin, Paris and London, and the intellectual circles he moved in
Sunday Express
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Andrea Wulf is clearly as passionate about this remarkable man as his peers and successors were, and she does an impressive job of capturing the scale and scope of Humboldt’s substantial achievements
Press Association
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In a superb biography, Andrea Wulf makes an inspired case for Alexander von Humboldt to be considered the greatest scientist of the 19th century . . . Ecologists today, Ms Wulf argues, are Humboldtians at heart. With the immense challenge of grasping the global consequences of climate change, Humboldt’s interdisciplinary approach is more relevant than ever
The Economist
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We all know who Darwin was because he came up with that memorable line about us all being descended from apes, but, as he himself would readily have admitted, the great man would never have arrived at his great theory had it not been for the very considerable influence of Alexander von Humboldt . . . Given the magnitude of his influence, why Humboldt isn’t a household name today is a mystery . . . On the evidence of this wonderful book, however, he should be hastily added to every school syllabus in the land
Scotsman
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Darwin pronounced him the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived, but the brilliant German Alexander von Humboldt left no groundbreaking theory or world-changing book. Wulf sets out to restore his diminished reputation, and has given us the most complete portrait of one of the world’s most complete naturalists
Mark Cocker, The Spectator, Books of the Year
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Wulf’s narrative relates Humboldt’s life and ideas at a good pace and with a strong eye for the details which will attract the reader’s attention
TLS
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Wulf imbues Humboldt’s adventures there with something of the spirit of Tintin, relishing the jungles, mountains and dangerous animals at every turn . . . [she] has an unfailing ability to spot an interesting quotation or a curious situation. She is very good on the cities where Humboldt lived and the rival atmospheres of Paris and Berlin . . . a superior celebration of an adorable figure
Guardian
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This ambitious book restores Humboldt to his rightful place in the pantheon of scientific history. The best chapters describe his exciting travels
Lady
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Humboldt’s vision became the inspiration for Darwin and a whole generation of American Romantics, including Thoreau and Poe. Humboldt, like Einstein, breathed life into Kant’s transcendental unity. We still live in the world they imagined, even if few of us comprehend it
Telegraph
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Wulf writes about complicated topics with lucidity and vitality. The Invention of Nature is a book of ideas, which repays careful reading. The intuitive yet systematising genius, courage and charm of Humboldt also make this a most inspiring book
The Times
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Andrea Wulf’s superb biography is a re-evaluation of a great lost scientist whose thinking strongly affected the way we now conceptualise nature . . . His extensive travels mean his biography is also an adventure story, and Wulf combines scrapes and the science to great effect
Independent
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Read Andrea Wulf’s gripping biography and you will be wowed by him too. If Humboldt doesn’t win prizes I’ll eat my party hat
New Scientist, Books of the Year
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An absolutely stupendous biography
A.N. Wilson, Evening Standard, Books of the Year
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Evocative descriptions of his expeditions . . . delightful stories . . . Wulf’s stories of wilderness adventure and academic exchange flow easily, and her affection for von Humboldt is contagious
Publishers Weekly, Books of the Year
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Wulf offers a highly readable account of the German scientist’s monumental journey in the Americas
100 Notable Books of 2015, New York Times
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Engaging and accomplished
Sunday Times
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Explorer, polymath, friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Jefferson and Simon Bolívar, Alexander von Humboldt was one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His ideas are as relevant today as they ever were
The Economist, Books of the Year
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The real achievement of this wonderful biography is that it is as much a rattling good read as it is an explicit attempt to revive Humboldt’s reputation . . . [Wulf] offers us the most complete picture of one of most complete naturalists who has ever lived
New Statesman
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Stimulating biography . . . The Invention of Nature elegantly captures a cosmopolitan who straddled the Enlightenment and Romanticism
Country Life
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Colourful and engaging
Sunday Telegraph
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Explorer, polymath, friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Jefferson and Simon Bolívar, Alexander von Humboldt was one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His ideas are as relevant today as they ever were
The Economist
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Like Humboldt himself, The Invention of Nature, is scholarly but extremely good fun
The Times, Books of the Year
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Wulf does [Humbolt] full justice, bringing his extraordinary and colourful life to a new generation. Based on enormous research, it is the first real biography of this great figure in English and it provides much fascinating detail without overloading the narrative. I can’t recommend it highly enough
Morning Star
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Wulf takes English speaking readers on a fulsome tour of Humboldt and those he influenced . . . She has travelled in Humboldt’s footsteps and made good use of original German evidence. I have much enjoyed my eco-tour through the planet world in her company
Financial Times
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In this illuminating, vivid biography, historian and writer Andrea Wulf reveals a great explorer a century or more ahead of his time . . . a cracking read
BBC Wildlife Magazine
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A pleasure to read . . . Buckle up and prepare yourself for Andrea Wulf’s hugely enjoyable voyage of discovery . . . [a] rip-roaring yarn
Ecologist
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Full of vivid renditions of his feats, the narrow mountain paths he trod, the rapid rivers in which he almost drowned, and the exotic ailments from which he suffered . . . much more than an adventure story . . . well-informed and astute . . . among the most attractive features of The Invention of Nature is Wulf’s infectious admiration for her subject
London Review of Books
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Masterly
Daily Mail
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A superior celebration of an adorable figure
Guardian
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The decisive factor for the winning book was that it excited and gripped us as judges the most. The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf is a thrilling adventure story as much as a science book about a polymath who had an extraordinary impact on our contemporary understanding of nature. It is a book you will find yourself talking endlessly about with friends in the pub
Bill Bryson, chairman of the judges for the Royal Society Prize 2016
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Humboldt may not be well known today but he remains very much of our time: his work tackled many of today’s big issues like climate change and biodiversity loss and the interconnectedness of nature. Moreover, he was a polymath who was curious about everything and was a superb communicator. His interdisciplinary approach puts paid to the ridiculous notion that science and the arts are separate entities. We should be taking our cues from Humboldt – be curious and be informed by science on the big issues
Brian Cox
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When I read The Invention of Nature, long before it was nominated for the Royal Society prize, it was obvious that it was a contender for major honors. It was deeply researched and reported; it told a fine and little known story; it connected the personal to a big idea, and the past to a very pressing present-day concern
The Atlantic
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Concise, well-written and extensively researched book . . . vivid, atmospheric and engrossing, a beautiful portrait
Tribune
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[A] gripping account of Alexander von Humboldt’s synthesis of the science of the natural world
Guardian 'Favourite reads of 2016 as chosen by scientists'
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In this meticulously researched and beautifully written biography, Andrea Wulf skilfully rescues Alexander von Humboldt from his undeserved obscurity as she chronicles his long and fascinating life
Forbes.com, 10 Best Popular Science Books of 2016
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Deep scholarship and entertaining writing style. The Invention of Nature is highly recommended
ICON
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Historians of science have long recognized the naturalist and traveller Alexander von Humboldt as a pivotal figure in the history of science, but for too long he has been undervalued in the English-speaking world. This beautifully written biography effectively conveys his significance to a wide audience, in an animated and adventurous narrative that echoes the liveliness of Humboldt’s own writings. The award of the Dingle Prize particularly recognizes Andrea Wulf’s mastery of the vast range of history of science scholarship on Humboldt and her command of original sources in multiple languages. Timely and significant-particularly given current attacks on climate change science – this is scientific biography at its best
Winner of the 2017 Dingle Prize
