000 03395cam a22003258a 4500
001 026628
005 20231009193238.0
008 080310s2004 nyu b 001 0beng
010 _a 2003026902
020 _a9780738208084
040 _aDLC
_cDLC
_dDLC
043 _asa-----
_as-ec---
_ae-fr---
082 0 0 _aLAS 92 GOD
100 1 _aWhitaker, Robert
245 1 4 _aThe mapmaker's wife :
_ba true tale of love, murder, and survival in the Amazon
_c/ Robert Whitaker
250 _a1st ed
260 _aNew York
_b: Basic Books
_c, 2004.
300 _a352 p.
_b: ill., maps.
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 _aA Sunday in 1769 -- Not quite round -- A daughter of Peru -- The mapmakers -- Voyage to Quito -- Measuring the baseline -- High-altitude science -- Death in the afternoon -- Marriage in Quito -- Down the Amazon -- A continent apart -- Lost on the Bobonaza -- Into the jungle -- Deliverance -- Saint Amand.
520 3 _a"At the heart of this sweeping tale of adventure, discovery and exploration is one woman's extraordinary journey, inspired by her love for a man she had not seen in 20 years. In 1769, Isabel Grameson - an upper-class Peruvian woman who had lived all her life close to home - set out across the Andes, and down the length of the Amazon in order to rejoin her husband in French Guiana. Her 3,000-mile trek through untamed wilderness was one that no woman (and few men) had made before." "Isabel's story unfolds against the first scientific expedition to the New World, which began in 1735, when a team of French mapmakers set out to answer the great scientific question of the day: What was the precise size and shape of the Earth?" "Like Lewis and Clark's exploration of the American West, their incredible mission, which took the better part of ten years, revealed the mysteries of a little known continent to a world hungry for knowledge. The mapmakers recorded new plant and animal species and documented, for the first time, the brutal treatment of the native populations by Spanish and Portuguese colonists. Scaling the Peruvian Andes, they also faced untold danger - wild cats, voracious insects, poisonous snakes, vampire bats - while madness, disease, and death took their toll. However, one of the expedition members - the youngest, Jean Godin - fell in love with Isabel and in 1741, they were married." "As the expedition drew to a close, Jean planned to bring his wife and young family back to France. To ensure the way was open and safe, he traveled ahead, alone. But when he reached French Guiana, disaster struck, and he and Isabel found themselves stranded on opposite ends of the continent, victims of a tangled web of international politics." "Drawing on the original writings of the French mapmakers and Peruvian authorities, as well as his own retracing of Isabel's epic trek, Robert Whitaker weaves a tale rich in history, scientific achievement and romance."--BOOK JACKET.
600 1 0 _aGodin des Odonais, Isabelle de Grandmasion
_d(, b. 1728?)
_x-Travel
_z-Amazon River Region.
600 1 0 _aGodin des Odonais, Jean, 1712-1792
610 2 0 _aMission g,eod,esique (France
650 _aScientific expeditions
_z-Ecuador
_x-History
_y-18th century
651 4 _aAmazon River Region
_x-Description and travel
651 0 _aEcuador
_x-Biography.
651 4 _aFrance
_x-Biography
942 _cLAS
999 _c266574
_d266574