Impossible Journeys

by Mathew Lyons, Neil Gower (Illustrator)

Before the modern age, the world was an unknown and mysterious place, and only the intrepid, the foolhardy or the mad would undertake a voyage of exploration. Impossible Journeys tells the stories of 24 of these journeys spanning 600 years from the Middle Ages to the Victorian era, which ‘whether in the planning, the execution or the outcome, were implausible or unlikely, if not wholly impossible’. Some were attempts to reach places that did not exist, such as Walter Ralegh’s search for El Dorado; others were reports from the realm of fantasy, like that of the mapmaker who confidently located Paradise ‘forty miles from Ceylon’. Among the travellers we meet are the medieval monk who set out to locate the North Pole; the Papal envoy who claimed to have seen the Queen of Sheba; the Tudor crew forced to resort to cannibalism; and the young girl marooned off the coast of Newfoundland who survived by shooting polar bears.

Described by the author as a cross between The Canterbury Tales and Touching the Void, these tales encompass heroism, cowardice and foolhardiness, success and failure, drunken visions, tall tales and genuine world-changing discoveries. Andrée’s trip to the North Pole ended in tragedy, yet his voyage, and all the others included here, widened the horizons of the world, and continue to thrill us today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel

248 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories drawn from 600 years of history, which are loosely described in the introduction as a collection of stories which encompass:
- attempted journeys to places that did not in fact exist;
- claims to have visited or seen such places;
- journeys it is no longer possible to make; and
- journeys that, whether in the planning, the execution, or the outcome, were implausible or unlikely, if not wholly impossible.

Which is quite a selection to wrangle.

The stories (24 of them) are all titled as to whose tale they are - The Friar's Tale, The Cannibal's Tale, The Amazons' Tales, the Merchants Tale, the Dancer's Tale, etc, etc, and each stories is either one persons story or various stories related to the topic.

As is typical for these collection style books, the stories are fairly hit and miss. The shorter ones appeal, although the longest (Ralegh and his search for Eldorado) is one of the better. Some were just too harder work - especially for me the first one (The Walker's Tale - Coryat's walk from Somerset to India) was a terrible starting story - overlong and lacking interest - in my view.

Overall though, readable and quirky, for the most part, with some skip-able chapters!

3 stars.

[Ambrogio · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some truly memorable and beautiful passages in this anti-travel-guide: Lyons is interested in failed journeys, hopeless voyages, and impossible quests. His background as a Tudor specialist shows, in the more detailed essays on Raleigh etc. The book became a little tiring in its whimsical tone and should have been edited more tightly (the font in my edition was tiny, suggesting that Lyons was over-length!). Still, for these caveats this is an enjoyable and very informative book and exceptionally creative.

[Ian Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lot of fun. Mr Lyons presents a range of expeditions from throughout history and talks about how they achieved something that could not be achieved today: a journey into unknown lands. It’s a hoot. The explorers are presented as bold and visionary but Lyons also presents their shortcomings and how they were unprepared. He’s often sympathetic to his subjects - it’s only his footnotes that betray a modern sensibility - and describes their ambitions honestly, giving them credit where it is due but not pulling the rug out from under them unless they truly deserve it.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sarcastic tone of the book makes it amusing, but also makes it hard to understand the scale of the journeys being attempted, or to take seriously the periods of history described. While it seems some major ignorance and incompetence went into these journeys, clearly enough people at the time believed in these possibilities for such voyages to be attempted. While the writing style was entertaining, it made understanding the mindset of the people involved hard.

[Alex Barrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of brief snapshots and stories from the miscalculations, misdeeds, exaggerations and downright lies of early explorers from the early Middle Ages through the discovery of Australia. Some entertaining, some tragic, some a bit odd. Probably a book to pick up on occasion and read one story from than plod through in one sitting.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever and informative, but all rather a mixture. Enjoyable read, but nothing too profound.

[John Haake · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wife and I read this book together. We took it in pieces, reading a chapter or two between other books. For us, I think that was the best way to enjoy the book.

My two favorite chaptersL

1) actual historical story of looking for the Northwest Passage via the Gulf of California (yep, hidden right behind the Baja Penninsula).

2) The quest for El Dorado. Having read several books of adventure travel on the Orenoco River, I was fascinated by the account of Sir Walter Raleigh and his vast underestimation of how difficult his situation would be up that river -- and from my reading it is pretty clear that that difficulty hasn't changed much right up to the 1980s.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little gem of a book. Lyons has created a collection of mistakes, lost causes, delusions, and misdirected attempts to find new continents, passages to India, cities of gold, and all the other fantasies of the age of exploration. You won't find Columbus here; relatively speaking, he was successful. Instead, you get the lost, the wandering, the mad, and the confused. It's a strangely affecting and diverting set of tales.

[Lisal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I gave up on this in the end. Maybe I'll continue to read a chapter here and there over time. The overall design was too fragmentary to sustain interest. It seemed odd that the tales were not arranged in chronological order, but rather jumped around in time. Perhaps there was some logical progression that I didn't appreciate, but the apparent absence of one made the going that much harder and less engaging. Still, nice idea for a book.

[Kevin Treweeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a mad mad mad mad world