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Naturalists in Paradise: Wallace, Bates and Spruce in the Amazon
The thrilling stories of the three pioneering English naturalists’ explorations and discoveries in the world’s richest ecosystem One hundred and fifty years ago, the young naturalists Alfred Wallace, Henry Walter Bates, and Richard Spruce were on a journey. Their destination, Amazonia―the world’s largest tropical forest with the greatest river system and richest ecosystem―was then an almost-undiscovered environment to Western explorers and scientists.
In Naturalists in Paradise , Amazon expert John Hemming weaves the riveting stories of these three men’s experiences in the Amazon and assesses their valuable research that drastically changed our conception of the natural world. Each of the three naturalists is famous for a particular Wallace is credited, along with Charles Darwin, for developing the theory of evolution; Bates uncovered the phenomenon of protective mimicry among insects; and Spruce transported the quinine-bearing Cinchona tree to India, saving countless lives from malaria. Drawing on the letters and books of the three naturalists, Hemming reaches beyond the well-known narratives, offering unrivaled insight into the often lawless frontier life in South America as seen through the lives of the great pioneers of modern anthropology, tribal linguistics, archaeology, and every branch of natural science. 70 illustrations, 20 in color
In Naturalists in Paradise , Amazon expert John Hemming weaves the riveting stories of these three men’s experiences in the Amazon and assesses their valuable research that drastically changed our conception of the natural world. Each of the three naturalists is famous for a particular Wallace is credited, along with Charles Darwin, for developing the theory of evolution; Bates uncovered the phenomenon of protective mimicry among insects; and Spruce transported the quinine-bearing Cinchona tree to India, saving countless lives from malaria. Drawing on the letters and books of the three naturalists, Hemming reaches beyond the well-known narratives, offering unrivaled insight into the often lawless frontier life in South America as seen through the lives of the great pioneers of modern anthropology, tribal linguistics, archaeology, and every branch of natural science. 70 illustrations, 20 in color
368 pages, Hardcover
First published March 10, 2015
About the author
John Hemming
66 books51 followersDr. John Hemming, CMG is one of the world's experts on Brazilian Indians, the Amazon environment, the Incas, Peruvian archaeology, The Royal Geographical Society, and the history of exploration generally. He is also Chairman of Hemming Group Ltd., a company that publishes trade magazines and organises trade exhibitions and conferences.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 17, 2016
If any book is going to take you down a river of discovery, it’s "Naturalists in Paradise; Wallace, Bates and Spruce in the Amazon," by explorer John Hemming, former director of the Royal Geographical Society.
When I first opened this book, I felt a little trepidation. I was intrigued by the topic of Victorian naturalists on the Amazon, but at first glance, the book seemed as dense as jungle undergrowth. But like an explorer on the Amazon, I plunged forward on this journey and ended up pleasantly surprised. I didn’t need a machete to get through it after all. Yes, an editor’s red pen should have split a few hundred paragraphs into shorter ones, but I found the writing quite good.
Hemming, a world authority on the Amazon, clearly loves these three naturalists, Alfred Russel Wallace, Henry Walter Bates and Richard Spruce. As I got into the book, I began to understand each as human beings with distinct personalities, strengths and foibles.
As the men explored the Amazon and some of its many tributaries, I followed them on the book’s map. The book describes their adventures and discoveries without bogging the lay reader down with scientific data. Hemming is very good at looking at the broader picture and the context of the time they lived in.
If you are interested in this topic, you will finish this book with new insight. I had to come to terms with the fact that collecting and studying specimens during that time usually meant killing the creature or cutting down the magnificent tree. I think the book could have addressed this issue better for most readers who do not have the scientist’s pragmatic perspective.
The only moment was when the book quoted Spruce: “It was long before I could overcome a feeling of compunction at having to destroy a magnificent tree merely for the sake of gathering its flowers.” Hemming went on to write, “He finally overcame his qualms about this vandalism by reasoning that it was in the interest of science … “
To help readers understand, the book needed words like those of my amateur naturalist brother: “These earlier naturalists were never ever less intended than the most ecologically sensitive and life-intended naturalists of the 21st century. For all the sacrifice of these individual specimens, we now have the knowledge to fight for the survival of the thousands of yet unknown species as well as the inevitable survival of our own species.”
When I first opened this book, I felt a little trepidation. I was intrigued by the topic of Victorian naturalists on the Amazon, but at first glance, the book seemed as dense as jungle undergrowth. But like an explorer on the Amazon, I plunged forward on this journey and ended up pleasantly surprised. I didn’t need a machete to get through it after all. Yes, an editor’s red pen should have split a few hundred paragraphs into shorter ones, but I found the writing quite good.
Hemming, a world authority on the Amazon, clearly loves these three naturalists, Alfred Russel Wallace, Henry Walter Bates and Richard Spruce. As I got into the book, I began to understand each as human beings with distinct personalities, strengths and foibles.
As the men explored the Amazon and some of its many tributaries, I followed them on the book’s map. The book describes their adventures and discoveries without bogging the lay reader down with scientific data. Hemming is very good at looking at the broader picture and the context of the time they lived in.
If you are interested in this topic, you will finish this book with new insight. I had to come to terms with the fact that collecting and studying specimens during that time usually meant killing the creature or cutting down the magnificent tree. I think the book could have addressed this issue better for most readers who do not have the scientist’s pragmatic perspective.
The only moment was when the book quoted Spruce: “It was long before I could overcome a feeling of compunction at having to destroy a magnificent tree merely for the sake of gathering its flowers.” Hemming went on to write, “He finally overcame his qualms about this vandalism by reasoning that it was in the interest of science … “
To help readers understand, the book needed words like those of my amateur naturalist brother: “These earlier naturalists were never ever less intended than the most ecologically sensitive and life-intended naturalists of the 21st century. For all the sacrifice of these individual specimens, we now have the knowledge to fight for the survival of the thousands of yet unknown species as well as the inevitable survival of our own species.”
Did Not Finish
November 3, 2018I'm very sad to have to move this to the DNF shelf, as the subject is everything I love about Amazonian exploration and nature. But I just can't with the dry as a desert style of summarizing. It lacks ANY thrill or sense of adventure. The only thing it's inspired me to do is to search out the naturalists' journals and read their experiences first hand, rather than this attempt to compile them into a not-so-cohesive 350-page-summary.
February 18, 2017
A fantastic, detailed history of these three naturalists who came from England to the Amazon in the mid-1800s to explore, collect specimens and learn about this vast, mostly unexplored area. One of the founders of biogeography, Alfred Wallace later came upon the same theory that Darwin did about natural selection. Bates specialized in insects, and Spruce, botany. All were remarkably courageous, went through many hardships, including malaria, and made major contributions to biological science. The day-to-day issues of eating, finding shelter, getting around and staying safe in this wild place provided constant adventures. Finally, you get a travelogue of what life was like in Amazon cities like Belem, Santarem and Manaus -- and how much they all change during the years these naturalists visited them.
January 25, 2026
The awe and adoration the author has for the three naturalists is lost in in many long, often too detailed episodes of their travel descriptions. I experienced the book as mostly tenacious with here and there some glimpses of adventures, discovery and autobiography. In comparison to books like the invention of nature, I did not enjoy this read.
2 stars, because I appreciated the structure (even when it appears a bit interwoven, the authors tries to keep the timelines of each individual naturalist apart), and the account of how all three returned to London and all events connected to them after their return.
2 stars, because I appreciated the structure (even when it appears a bit interwoven, the authors tries to keep the timelines of each individual naturalist apart), and the account of how all three returned to London and all events connected to them after their return.
August 23, 2019
Although this book was not an easy read and I kept confusing the naturalists and where they were, this book provided a fabulous window into the lives of 19th century explorers and the settlers and Indians whom they encountered. South American has been pretty far from the center of my radar screen, and this book gave me an excellent introduction to a portion of the 19th century history along the Amazon and the tributaries. The book could have profitted from providing some maps, but even without them it was a grand read.
May 21, 2018
This is a book I read just before a trip down the Amazon. It made me more excited to go and also a little apprehensive. I can’t wait to see what they saw and hope it is still there but hope I can avoid the diseases and constant rainfall. I enjoyed the book but didn’t need all of the Latin names as at times I didn’t know if they were talking about butterflies or orchids. I really put you right there on the Amazon.
May 7, 2018
Fascinating for its tales of hardships endured, and also it's contributions to Darwin's theory of evolution.
January 24, 2021
I am interested in reading the book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2016
Really more like 3.5 stars
This somehow should have been better than it was. The story itself was interesting: in the 1850s, three self-educated Englishmen went to the Amazon area to collect and record new species of bird, plant, insect, etc. For a long time, Portugal had tried to close off Brazil to foreigners in order to protect their resources. And these three guys (Wallace, Bates, Spruce) were fabulously successful, at least scientifically if not financially. They catalogued thousands of species unknown to Western science. They were eventually colleagues of Darwin, providing piles of evidence toward evolution.
And yet... somehow the book doesn't quite work. The three guys weren't really together in the same place much. So we're following three separate, intertwined stories. There's nothing that quite holds it all together. It's a little repetitive. There's a lot of (each of them) waiting around until they can find enough Indians to pilot their boats up the river. (Apparently, the local Indians were spectacular at dealing with currents, etc, that the Westerners just couldn't do without.) There's a lot of being miserable in tiny villages because the ants/flies/mosquitoes are awful. There's a lot of difficulty in preserving specimens because it's so doggone wet all the time. And there even seems to be a lot of actual repetition of facts by the author.
The last quarter (or so) of the book picks up a bit, as they go home and we learn what happens on the way and for the rest of their lives.
Another annoyance: every time a distance is mentioned, the author feels obligated to state it in both miles and km (or feet and meters). There's a lot of it, and it just got distracting. I wish he had just chosen one system (probably feet/miles, to keep with the quotes from the diaries), and had a chart at the back or something.
This somehow should have been better than it was. The story itself was interesting: in the 1850s, three self-educated Englishmen went to the Amazon area to collect and record new species of bird, plant, insect, etc. For a long time, Portugal had tried to close off Brazil to foreigners in order to protect their resources. And these three guys (Wallace, Bates, Spruce) were fabulously successful, at least scientifically if not financially. They catalogued thousands of species unknown to Western science. They were eventually colleagues of Darwin, providing piles of evidence toward evolution.
And yet... somehow the book doesn't quite work. The three guys weren't really together in the same place much. So we're following three separate, intertwined stories. There's nothing that quite holds it all together. It's a little repetitive. There's a lot of (each of them) waiting around until they can find enough Indians to pilot their boats up the river. (Apparently, the local Indians were spectacular at dealing with currents, etc, that the Westerners just couldn't do without.) There's a lot of being miserable in tiny villages because the ants/flies/mosquitoes are awful. There's a lot of difficulty in preserving specimens because it's so doggone wet all the time. And there even seems to be a lot of actual repetition of facts by the author.
The last quarter (or so) of the book picks up a bit, as they go home and we learn what happens on the way and for the rest of their lives.
Another annoyance: every time a distance is mentioned, the author feels obligated to state it in both miles and km (or feet and meters). There's a lot of it, and it just got distracting. I wish he had just chosen one system (probably feet/miles, to keep with the quotes from the diaries), and had a chart at the back or something.
November 5, 2015
This book takes you to a different time and place, through the interwoven lives of three botanists exploring in the Amazon in the mid-1800s.
Relying on basic skills and with no wealthy patrons, each of these men overcame serious obstacles in a world far removed from their own lives back in England, to selflessly further the cause of natural history and contribute to Darwin’s thinking.
Coming from an age where letter writing was the main source of communication, they left detailed accounts of their travels and the author has researched these archives extensively. He has created a highly detailed and engrossing story of how the three men’s lives, ambitions and achievements were interwoven together over a few years in the remote Amazon jungle.
This is not a book to be rushed, more one to be lingered over and savoured, as you escape into another world and see behind history into how things came to be.
A thoroughly enjoyable and escapist read.
Relying on basic skills and with no wealthy patrons, each of these men overcame serious obstacles in a world far removed from their own lives back in England, to selflessly further the cause of natural history and contribute to Darwin’s thinking.
Coming from an age where letter writing was the main source of communication, they left detailed accounts of their travels and the author has researched these archives extensively. He has created a highly detailed and engrossing story of how the three men’s lives, ambitions and achievements were interwoven together over a few years in the remote Amazon jungle.
This is not a book to be rushed, more one to be lingered over and savoured, as you escape into another world and see behind history into how things came to be.
A thoroughly enjoyable and escapist read.
August 17, 2016
One of the most fascinating books ever! Facing an extremely difficult jungle environment and swarms of biting insects, including an inch long biting horse fly these three men faced extremely harsh conditions collecting insect and animal specimens for the biological conservancy in England. Highly recommend this book for someone interested in reading about such expeditions
September 22, 2015
I ran out of steam half way through. I really liked the topic and wanted to like the book, but it was more of a step by step recapitulation of their activity rather than a story with a theme and narrative.
July 17, 2015
Quite a story of three young men exploring the Amazon in the mid 1800's. Sure beats being shop keepers or factory jobs.
March 31, 2017
Such a fascinating story of three famous British naturalists who explored South America in the early-mid 1800s. They endured incredible hardships and made remarkable discoveries.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews