The Mountains Of Rasselas: An Ethiopian Adventure [Paperback]

Thomas Pakenham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1999

Rasselas is a tale of the royal princes of Abyssinia, who were condemned to live on the prison-mountain of Wehni until they died or the order of succession called them to the throne. How much of this was truth and how much legend? The author of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, Thomas Pakenham traveled to Ethiopia to find out. The predicament of the prisoners had been even more melodramatic than previously surmised. And an incredible archeological discovery was made: a medieval church of the finest style ever recorded. Nearly 40 years after the story was published in 1959, Pakenham returned to the Mountain. In this edition, historical insight and new color photography are added to the original story. 176 pages (all in color), 9 1/2 x 11 3/8.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Pakenham is the author of the critically acclaimed THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA which won the W.H. Smith Award and the Alan Paton Award. He is also the author of THE BOER WAR, THE MOUNTAINS OF RASSELAS and THE YEAR OF LIBERTY. He lives in County Westmeath, Ireland and is chairman of the Irish Tree Society. He plants trees both for profit and ornament.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (December 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841880051
• ISBN-13: 978-1841880051
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,149,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Travel > Africa > Ethiopia & Djibouti

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An adventurer's tale of medieval Ethiopia, December 26, 2003

By 

Bill O'Chee (Surfers Paradise, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mountains Of Rasselas: An Ethiopian Adventure (Paperback)

Before Ranulph Fiennes, there was Thomas Packenham, and before him was Evelyn Waugh, and before that a host of English amateur adventurers.

Packenham belongs to a long tradition of upper class Englishmen with too much money and too much time on their hands, but enough imagination (and insanity) to explore the most dismal parts of the world, and in so doing, make our world a more fascinating place.

Packenham's book recounts his visit to the golden jubilee celebrations of Haile Selassie in 1956, and his more amazing adventures in search of a lost mountain castle last seen by European eyes in 1770.

Now if all of this seems too fanciful to be true, hold the dibelief for just a while. Littered throughout the book are enthralling photos of Packenham's original expedition, and his most recent visit - pictures of monolithic churches, ancient castles in what is now Ethiopia, and a world that is gone forever.

Of course none of this would have been possible without a slight touch of lunacy, and impecable social connections. That said, the author presents his journey, and his discoveries, in a self-effacing and charming style, and without the slightest sense of self-importance. If it also comes across as something of a late 20th century "ripping yarn" all the better for that.

In a world where we are deluged with "reality television," manufactured, so-called "extreme sports" and endless trivial travel writing, this is a genuinely absorbing work, and also a record of a lost kingdom which still remains shrouded in the mists of time.

This book is something special.