In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Seville, Spain in search of valuable spices; he brought along a fleet of five ships and more than two hundred men. When the expedition returned home three years later, the fleet was reduced to one ship and only eighteen men; Magellan himself had been killed during the journey. However, the group had found the spices it had sought - and a way to circumnavigate the globe. Laurence Bergreen brings this historic journey to life in Over the Edge of the World; it is at once a travelogue of a remarkable journey into unknown territory, an examination of the European worldview as it moved from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and the chronicle of a desperate grab for commercial and political power. Magellan's voyage was filled with violence, death and danger, but it ultimately changed the way explorers would navigate the oceans, along with many long-held assumptions about the world. Laurence Bergreen is the author of many books, including Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life, Capone: The Man and the Era, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin, and Voyage to Mars: NASA's Search for Life Beyond Earth. A graduate of Harvard University, he lives in New York City. 'It's all here in wondrous detail ... A first-rate historical page turner.' - New York Times Book Review

A marvelous piece of scholarship

Autorentext

Laurence Bergreen is the bestselling author of Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe and In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire. His other books include Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492–1504; Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu; and Voyage to Mars: NASA’s Search for Life Beyond Earth. A graduate of Harvard, Bergreen lives in Manhattan.

Klappentext

In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan, armed with five ships and about 260 men, set sail from Spain in search of a water route to the West Indies. Despite suffering starvation, disease, torture, and death, they discovered the passageway known today as the Strait of Magellan. In the masterful telling of award-winning historian Laurence Bergreen, one of the most epic voyages of the age of exploration comes to life.

Zusammenfassung

“A first-rate historical page turner.” —New York Times Book Review

The acclaimed and bestselling account of Ferdinand Magellan’s historic 60,000-mile ocean voyage.

Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe during the Age of Discovery was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World Updated Edition, prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of maritime history and discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself.

Now updated to include a new introduction commemorating the 500th anniversary of Magellan’s voyage.

This riveting work of narrative history reveals:

• First Circumnavigation: The astonishing true story of the three-year, 60,000-mile odyssey that proved the world was round—a journey of mutiny, violence, and unbelievable hardship.
• A Gripping True Adventure: Discover the sex, storms, and starvation that plagued the 260 sailors who set out from Spain, and the dark secrets of the handful of gaunt survivors who returned.
• The Age of Sail: Drawn from candid, firsthand accounts, this majestic tale brings the sixteenth-century world of discovery to life, changing history and navigation forever.
• Historical Biography: A fascinating portrait of Ferdinand Magellan, the driven, visionary, and brutal captain who became a man without a country to complete his quest.