Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book is pretty much everything you'd want from a scientific/explorer biography. It has adventure (Humboldt, we learn, was the most experienced mountaineer of his time), deep personal narrative (largely from excerpts of his own letters and notes), details about his scientific discoveries, and -- bonus -- an analysis of both corresponding contemporary scientific thought AND contemporary *art*. We learn, for example, that one of Humboldt's friends was the poet Goethe, and that his, Humboldt's, insatiable curiosity about the natural world cannot be separated from his more aesthetic feelings about this world. The book follows a chronological pattern, beginning with Humboldt's childhood; but it swiftly progresses to his first journey to South America. Readers looking for action, who want to get right to what started to make Humboldt so amazing, will not be disappointed with this relatively quick glance at his early years in Germany. The book is also loaded with grayscale images corresponding to Humboldt's travels, making pleasing breaks from pages and pages of text. My only complaint on this front is that the captions do not generally make it clear whether these images are contemporary. One of the best features, I think, is the relatively objective quality of Wulf's narration. Two examples here on this: First, these early scientists often gleefully experimented on animals, and Humboldt was definitely no exception. But we get no PETA-like frowns from Wulf -- she only relays what Humboldt was, in fact, doing, and how *he* felt about it. Second, there are certain details about Humboldt's life that point towards his being either asexual or homosexual. Wulf provides these details not only with Humboldt's own remarks (towards his male scientific partners and friends in letters, for example), but also through others' contemporary observations about his character. Yet pleasingly, she does not really insinuate that he was anything at all; she does not say he was "probably" this or that. Instead, Wulf allows readers to make their own judgments if they should wish. (i.e. Maybe he was in love with his work?) This relative objectivity is a mark of good, or even great biography that will outlast decades -- all the clues, but not really any overt -- and importantly, unprovable -- interpretations. Readers who enjoy science, literature, and outdoor adventure books should at least take a look at the previews of The Invention of Nature, for it's all of those genres rolled into one very good, very engaging read. With every new destination that Wulf chronicles here, I was excited to learn what Humboldt would see, do, and learn next.