Customer Reviews

Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels

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I found a 1941 copy of this book at a military DRMO sale for a quarter in Berlin, Germany in 1990 just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I found a kindred spirit in Richard Halliburton. I joined the military with Europe guarranteed in my contract because of my thirst to see the world. I was very fortunate to be stationed in Berlin during the fall of the Wall, and was sent to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the Gulf war. Later, my husband, son and myself were stationed in Spain and I was able to visit Morocco, Africa and Gibraltor and Portugal. On these adventures I always felt as if I were a co-conspirator with Mr. Halliburton. I soaked up every minute and second during my adventures knowing that eventually I would have to leave these places and wanted them to last forever in my mind. When I found this book, I first thought before I read it, "This looks interesting." Now it is a treasure to me. Now that my son is older I will start reading it to him. I would like to buy other books by him and am dismayed that they too are out of print. I hope something can be done about that.

I'm now 58 years old, but still remember first reading this book when I was 10. I can't remember how many times I would pick up this book and be transported as a child to so many different cultures. If I could find it, I would read it over and over and then give it to my grandchild when I felt he was old enough to even look at the pictures. I credit Mr. Halliburton with not only showing me the world, but starting me on my life long love of books. I too wish this book could be brought back into print. It belongs in every school and every home, for young and old alike.

My father bought this book for me when I was 6, back in the middle 50s. While my other friends were boringly reading "run, spot, run," I was being introduced to places I could only wonder about. I was entranced by his chapter on Chichen Itza and that chapter alone was THE push that allowed me to become an archaeologist many years later. Richard Halliburton will always be a hero of mine, as he gave me a love of travel, other cultures, reading, and learning. I think there is a small pocket of people across the world who have been touched by this author in the same way I have.
katwas (Juneau, Alaska)

There's not a lot to add to the previous reviews. I too discovered the book as a young adolescent (because I am from Halliburton's home town of Memphis, Tennessee) and read it as a bedtime book to my son. It's much more than a travel book because Halliburton not only gives his wonderful descriptions and pictures of marvelous places all over the world but also his infectious sense of romance and wonder. My most memorable chapters, swimming in the forbidden pool at the Taj Mahal and diving into the sacrificial pit at Chichen Itza, are prime examples of the daring and adventuresome approach to life that should make this book required reading in today's schools. The fact that it is not, and is even out of print today, seems to me a sad reflection of our society's choice of conformity and routine over risk taking and intellectual curiosity.

I picked up my father's first printing of this when I was just starting to read as a little boy. It was the book which captivated him at the same age and made him determined to travel the world and see all its wonders. A tall order for a poor kid in the middle of the depression. But my father has traveled to every corner of this earth, and has been to all the locations in the Book of Marvels. I got caught in the same net, and I'm still traveling far and wide, thanks to this one book. The power of literature ... Oh, I still have that first edition, now dog-eared and timeworn from the eager fingers of little boys. And I'm starting to read it to my little niece and nephew - and they've already been to Rome, Helsinki, London, the Scottish Highlands, Austria, Sweden and Dublin. At four and six years of age, they're *way* ahead of my father and I!

I loved reading Book of marvels.The Author Richard Halliburton's words made me feel as if I was along with him while he traveled.
This would be the ideal book to read to your little dreamers.

In 60 years of life, there are precious few books that I have read that evoke the images drawn linguistically by Halliburton. As a boy, lost in the World of Halliburton's experiences, I dreamed then of seeing everything that he described and feeling the awe that he did so long ago.

I have been fortunate to travel all over the World and have indeed seen much of what he did and I never fail to draw to mind the passages of his books and it gives me added pleasure. This is a book for the ages. Mandatory reading for the children of the millenium. As the World shrinks, it is good to see it in the context of the Book of Marvels and The Royal Road to Romance. I have cherished these books and have recommended them to all who would seek adventure.

He doesn't just transit the Panama canal; he actually swims it, braving crocodiles and sharks along the way. At the Rock of Gibraltar, he gains special permission from the British military to examine secret tunnels loaded with heavy gunnery -- only to be arrested later on charges of international espionage. At Chichen Itza in Mexico, he dives headlong into the six-story deep sacrificial well of death, where the Mayans used to drop human sacrifices. But I think Halliburton's work should speak for itself. A few choice passages:

On King Christophe's Citadel in Haiti--
"It was about 6 o'clock and the sun was just setting. All that day, a storm had been threatening and now as night approached, I saw that a heavy black mist had gathered and filled the valley below with a black sea. Suddenly the thunder and lightening began to crash and echo within arms reach. And wave after wave of black clouds, rolling in from the northern coast, now rapidly climbed up the mountain side. The clouds reached the lowest parts of the walls and blotted out the realms beneath. Only the citadel floated above this rising tide, its prow cleaving the oncoming billows so that a huge stone ship, beautiful, silent and alone, seemed to be sailing majestically forward into darkness -- on through the thunder -- out across the sky -- proud to bear the name of the great black king who had launched it as a challenge to the world."

I find the image he describes captivating. This surreal scene is beyond classification.

On Journeying to St. Bernard Monastery in the Alps via Elephant--
"Dally [his elephant]... had one very alarming adventure. By accident I rode her into the mountain war games of the Italian Alpine Army. Without warning, a battery of big guns fired real shells across the valley ahead of us -- shells which exploded all too close for Dally's peace of mind. Terrified, she wheeled about and charged in wild panic right through a company of Italian soldiers -- just as Hannibal's herd [of elephants] must have charged the Romans. The soldiers retreated helter-skelter up the side of the mountain, believing, no doubt, that Italy was being invaded again by the Carthaginians."

The book just goes on and on in this way, one incredible situation after another.

I first read this book when I was eight or nine years old, in the late 1950s. Sounds corney, but I think it changed my life. I hated where I was growing up (Las Vegas), and the stories and pictures in the Book of Marvels transported me to faraway places, taught me that there was a big beautiful world out there, and encouraged me to travel myself when I was able to do so. (I've spent years working and exploring other countries and continents.) I was surprised to read later in life that Richard Haliburton was gay, but whatever. That didn't stress me out nearly as much as the brief epilogue of the book, which noted that he disappeared on his final journey aboard a Chinese junk. It broke my heart. I hope there are kids today who can find and read the book.

My dad had a copy of this book, and I used to read it constantly until I moved away. It's more than just a geography book, it's also a look into history as well. Many different things can be discovered, it's well worth the investment.