In Mountains of the Mind, Robert Macfarlane blends cultural history, meditation and personal memoir. He considers the way geology transformed perceptions of wild landscape; the natural miracles that drew early travellers to the upper world of the mountains; the enchantment of great height; the allure of the unknown; and the elemental beauties of snow, rock and ice. He shows how Victorian sages, Renaissance cosmogonists and early geologists, as well as explorers and climbers - especially George Mallory, the passionate young English mountaineer who died on Mount Everest in 1924 - all contributed to this dramatic re-evaluation.
The author explores how his feelings about mountains have been shaped by earlier generations of travellers and thinkers. His book is at once an enthralling cultural history of the Western love affair with mountains, an intimate account of his own experiences in the world's mountain ranges, and a beautiful meditation on how memory and landscape intertwine.
Why do so many feel compelled to risk their lives climbing mountains? During the climbing season, one person per day dies in the Alps, and more people die climbing in this season in Scotland than they do on the roads. This book investigates our emotional and imaginative responses to mountains.
