Travels In New Zealand (Two-Volume Set)
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Acceptable
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Ex-library with usual markings
Few works capture the raw, uncharted spirit of nineteenth-century New Zealand with the precision and wonder of Ernst Dieffenbach's landmark two-volume account. A scientist, physician, and naturalist employed by the New Zealand Company, Dieffenbach arrived in the islands in 1839 and embarked on a series of extraordinary journeys — including the first recorded European ascent of Mount Taranaki — meticulously documenting the land's geology, flora, fauna, and the customs of the indigenous Māori people. Travels in New Zealand stands as both a scientific record and a vivid narrative of first contact, chronicling a world on the cusp of irreversible transformation. Dieffenbach's prose carries the dual authority of a rigorous empiricist and an engaged observer, presenting landscapes of volcanic majesty alongside frank and sympathetic accounts of Māori society at a pivotal moment in New Zealand's history. This Capper Press reprint makes these essential volumes accessible once more, ensuring that one of the foundational texts of New Zealand exploration retains its rightful place in the historical canon. For anyone passionate about Pacific history, colonial-era natural history, or the literature of exploration, this two-volume set poses a question that lingers long after the final page: what is truly lost when a world is witnessed for the very last time?
Author: Dieffenbach
Format: Hardback
Published: 1974, Capper Press
Genre: Travel & exploration
Condition remarks:
Book: Acceptable
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Ex-library with usual markings
Few works capture the raw, uncharted spirit of nineteenth-century New Zealand with the precision and wonder of Ernst Dieffenbach's landmark two-volume account. A scientist, physician, and naturalist employed by the New Zealand Company, Dieffenbach arrived in the islands in 1839 and embarked on a series of extraordinary journeys — including the first recorded European ascent of Mount Taranaki — meticulously documenting the land's geology, flora, fauna, and the customs of the indigenous Māori people. Travels in New Zealand stands as both a scientific record and a vivid narrative of first contact, chronicling a world on the cusp of irreversible transformation. Dieffenbach's prose carries the dual authority of a rigorous empiricist and an engaged observer, presenting landscapes of volcanic majesty alongside frank and sympathetic accounts of Māori society at a pivotal moment in New Zealand's history. This Capper Press reprint makes these essential volumes accessible once more, ensuring that one of the foundational texts of New Zealand exploration retains its rightful place in the historical canon. For anyone passionate about Pacific history, colonial-era natural history, or the literature of exploration, this two-volume set poses a question that lingers long after the final page: what is truly lost when a world is witnessed for the very last time?