Customer Reviews

My Life as an Explorer

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sven Hedin's "My Life as an Explorer" is an exceptional work. Stylistically situated somewhere in between scholarly works such as those by Aurel Stein and pure "adventure for its own sake" works such as those by Thesiger, Hedin's explorations are astounding and wonderful stories. His bravery and thirst for adventure are unmatched--he seems to have a total inability to turn back from his goals. Yet the goals are noble, and his methods meticulous and scholarly, so one is not left with the impression that he is simply a daredevil seeking thrills. He singlehandedly filled in, in a fairly detailed manner, one of the last white spaces of "terra incognita" on the map of the world.

At certain moments in the book, especially (in my opinion) the discussions of the Lama Rinpoche, who vows to remain walled inside his cave for his entire life, Hedin's narrative reaches the heights of great literature, placing his work, I believe, among the greatest travel or exploration writings ever produced.

The Swede Sven Hedin was the last great explorer we will see on this well-traveled planet. Hedin was born in 1865 and this autobiography describes his life up until 1908. Hedin's career was hardly finished, however, as he continued to traipse down the old Silk Road in Central Asia until the 1930s when he was 70 years old.

In a happy trait that should be copied by more auto-biographers, Hedin doesn't spend much time on his childhood. By the third page of his narrative he is 20 years old and off to the Caucasus Mountains which only whets his appetite for the little-known peaks and deserts of Tibet and Central Asia. He spent the years between 1893 and 1908 exploring these regions and filling in blank places on the map.

National Geographic's "Traveler" magazine put this book on its list of 100 best adventure books and, truly, the tales of Hedin's adventures make for good, exciting reading. Hedin displays both charm and generosity in his account. He traveled without the company of other Europeans and he enjoyed the companionship of his local helpers and the dogs he adopted along his way. He draws many clever portraits of the people he met in his travels. Hedin, however, was no mere adventurer. He was a serious, sober scholar who produced dozens of scientific studies of his findings.

One of the most hair raising tales in the book concerns Hedin's first expedition into the sands of the Takla Makhan (desert) of China in which he and his companions nearly died of thirst. A second high point of the book is the account of his attempt to visit Lhasa, the forbidden capital of Tibet. He failed after getting nearly to the gates of the city and was denied the honor of becoming the first foreigner to visit Lhasa in half a century. Amidst the plethora of adventures, the stoic Swede brushes over incidents others would consider high -- or low -- points of their lives. "Fever kept me in Kashgar a long while" is his complete description of one serious illness.

The book is illustrated with many of Hedin's drawings, including his hand drawn maps. I suggest that you read the book with a good modern map at hand so as to trace his routes with more precision as his constant tooing-and-froing can be confusing.

Smallchief

(This refers to the National Geographic Reprint edition)

This is truly a great book, full of the amazing adventures of an incredible explorer. You have to admire Hedin's determination and stubborness, although sometimes I wonder about his planning. It seems like every trip all his animals die, and the men are on the verge of starvation. And as for his trips in the desert, I would have thought the concept of "take some extra water" would have occured at some point!
Hedin is a fine writer, and his descriptions are not only accessible to the average reader, but often quite poetic as well.
Nevertheless, I only reluctantly give this a full 5 stars, because I feel that National Geographic missed a great opportunity to make this an almost perfect book, and it wouldn't have been that difficult to do. As a previous reviewer mentioned, some good maps could have helped. There's almost no excuse for NG not to have included some decent maps of Central Asia in their edition. Furthermore, one tends to forget (although Hedin mentions in the text), that he also took photographs on many of his travels. These might have been included as well. (To see some, refer to the Photos section of the website of the Sven Hedin Foundation, "http://www.etnografiska.se/hedinweb/htmsidor/organi.htm"). Aside from the simplistic drawings that are included, Hedin also did many detailed sketches and potraits on his travels. Now one can assume that none of these were included in the original, and this is only a reprint, but nevertheless, it is a missed opportunity. The introductory chapter by A.Brandt also adds little insight, and might as well have been left out as well.
However, despite the lost opportunities, this book is highly recommended.

I concur with NDylanRay@aol.com. This book is exceptional. I could hardly put it down. You feel the excitement and intensity of his adventures, you begin to understand the force that drives him (and you respect him for it), and you meet the people and the places that make Turkestan and Tibet 100 years ago like no place that you could ever imagine.

This is a tale wonderfully told of an explorer's quest to fill in the blank spots on the map of Asia. Not only does Hedin present a clear and highly entertaining view of his travels, but he also gives us a portrait of his character. He shows us that he is a man with high goals and is undeterred in achieving those goals, even when all odds are against him. He shows us that he is also a very caring man, very much concerned about the welfare of his men and his animals. He also is a man that is awestruck by nature and is very concerned about not unduly intruding upon it or unnecessarily destroying it.

But most of all, this is an adventure story that is just plain fun to read.

A suggestion to readers who are not very familiar with the geography of central Asia would be to have on hand some good maps as the ones Hedin draws are quite limited and often fail to give the perspective that may be desireable.

When you think of an "explorer" you think of a guy like Hedin. From an early age he ventured again and again into large swatches of Asian geography where few or no Europeans had ever trod. Hedin graphically and realistically portrays his travels with such detail that you can feel the cold, the heat, the parched throats, the curious indigenous eyes and the scenery staggering in its beauty. When you come to the end of this book, you will be all "adventured" out, for on almost every page there is a suspenseful, fascinating episode. Hedin was truly an explorer's explorer. His greatness is dimmed, however, by his fervent support of Naziism during WWII. As someone has writen elsewhere, Hedin knew about the death camps and never disavowed them. He was a solid Nazi partisan. In an epilogue to this book, author and admirer Peter Hopkirk urges us to look at Hedin's many and major contributions and to forgive his pro-German activities in both world wars. I'm not quite willing to forgive, but I will segment my views of Hedin into Hedin the explorer and Hedin the Nazi sympathizer. Anyhow,if you're looking for a fascinating book about exploration in the most forbidding sectors of our planet at the turn of the 20th century, this is a book for you.

In the last week or two Amazon have changed their search filters to ensure that, sorted by relevance alone, one of the most expensive versions of this book (around $25) comes up first, while the cheapest is nowhere in sight, even after many pages and sorting by cheapest price. However, the identical book can be obtained for around $2.50 second hand by adding national geographic to your search entry (it's part of their fine classics of exploration series).
As for the book itself, others have described it well enough, but I think I should emphasize that from the standpoint of the 21st century, Hedin's work can at times seem boastful and self-aggrandizing. Also, the rate at which Hedin went through both animals and men is quite disturbing. The high rate of 'staff turnover' was a chronic problem in the Hedin camp, and one wonders how he still managed to find men ready and willing to accompany him. A regular pattern is established quite early on in the book, whereby Hedin first recounts the number of men, horses, camels or cattle he acquires, then describes the journey itself while counting down the number and species of animals which die every day. Camels in the snow and horses in the desert? No problem, even at 2 or 3 deaths a day, when you have 60 animals you can calculate how many days you need at that death rate, and still reach your destination. And in poverty stricken regions there were always men ready and willing to risk their lives for money...
Mohammed Shah and Yolchi had lived relatively uneventful lives in Central Asia. Then along comes Sven Hedin, hires them, and within 3 weeks they're dead of thirst in the middle of the desert. Karim and Islam Bai are lucky to get away with near-death experiences.
Poor old Aldat was an Afghan yak hunter who survived alone in the mountains all year round, year after year. His food consisted of just wild yak flesh and he drank snow-water. Seemingly a hardy man when Hedin hired him as a guide, he still could not withstand the 'Curse of Sven'. Within three months Sven would be helping bury his body in the Tibetan highlands.
Mohammed Isa was a true veteran of long treks through Central Asia. A powerful sturdy man, he led Sven's caravan, as he had those of many other explorers. I quote: 'Younghusband (the famous British explorer) had counselled me to secure the services of Mohammed Isa. He had accompanied many famous Europeans on their travels into interior Asia. He had been with Carey and Dalgleish, De Rhins and Grenard, with Younghusband to Lhasa, and with Ryder to Gartok...He was a big, strong man...'. However, the unfortunate Isa had not reckoned with meeting Sven Hedin, the curse of the Himalayas as far as men and animals where concerned, and predictably, he too eventually succumbed on another of Hedin's marathon treks.
Don't get me wrong, Hedin's actions must be judged by the values of the times, he certainly seemed to care about his men's lives, and in a way he immortalized their names in his works. He certainly had impressive powers of endurance too. But keep the above in mind before getting this book, as some may find the rate of attrition in men and animals too appalling to enjoy it.

I really was drawn into this book, I wish I was able to travel along in person but the book allowed me to do that from my chair.

My experience reading this book was so bad it's hard to justify why I didn't just put it down after the first 150 pages. Just so I could write this scathing review?

This guy is so arrogant, pompous and self-absorbed. He comes right out on the first page confessing that he's a bold faced glory hound.

He "explores" parts of Asia that've been under civilization for thousands of years. What he really means is that he's a glorified surveyor, at least with respect to some of the more desolate regions. For the more settled regions he never loses an opportunity of bragging about how at home he feels amoung the rich and powerful who lavish their hospitality on him. In which case he comes off more as a nineteenth century version of a pampered jet setting tourist. The first 100 pages is full of this indigestible bragging.

One of the fabulous services he selflessly performs for the sake of human knowledge is to measure the depth of each lake he encounters. Pretty feeble pretext for all the expensive and arduous folderol he goes through.

The second half of the book is devoted to arrogantly and illegally surveying Tibet, a country where he is repeatedly told he is not welcome. It's just phenomenal that he expects the reader to empathize with his behavior.

It's also kind of gross to witness him driving hundreds of pack animals to their death of exhaustion, starvation and thirst. He develops a soft side towards the end of the book where he speaks tenderly of the animals, especially the dogs, that accompany him until they're abandoned or die. This tender side failed to touch me in the slightest.

More than once he likens the regions he traveling through to the dark side of the moon, partly because of their being unmapped and partly because of their desolation. This sums up this guy to me, he's someone who loves lifeless sterility.

Apparently he got a bad rap for sympathizing with the Germans in both world wars, i.e., he sympathized with the Nazis. The arrogant, Euro-centric attitude shown in this book jibes perfectly with this.

I really wish I'd done my homework better on this and not ordered this book to begin with. The idea of someone exploring Asia at the turn of the 20th century is simply preposterous.

Hedin seems to have had a deep need to take dangerous boat trips on cold mountain lakes and rivers. Almost every goat-skin boat lake ride had the same result; near-disaster because of the inevitable wind/hail/rain storm which ensued. You would think he'd give up on boat-rides, but no, he continues, even taking further risks by setting off in the middle of the night.

When he gets tired of near-death experiences in the water, he tries to kill himself on long desert treks with short food/water rations. After awhile, you get the feeling he had a death-wish, and wanted to see how many pack animals and other people he could take with him when he met with the final disaster. He continually defied the Tibetian authorities, risking not only his own life, but that of his workers.

The place descriptions are good, however, the book is almost totally inadequate when it comes to maps and pictures. They consist entirely of pencil sketches made by Hedin, and they're not good or helpful at all. I tried to locate his camps as he went along on google maps; not much luck there because the names have all changed over the years.

Hedin was ruthless in pursuit of his goals, but I guess that's what it took to do what he did. According to his own writing, it seems he did have a heart, and appreciated the efforts of the people he hired and the people in high places who financed and supported him, but it's clear his aim was to get his name into the history books, regardless of the cost.