Finding Atlantis and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Start reading Finding Atlantis on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World [Paperback]

David King
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: CDN$ 18.95
Price: CDN$ 13.68 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save: CDN$ 5.27 (28%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Thursday, June 20? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Hardcover CDN $26.40  
Paperback CDN $13.68  

Book Description

July 25 2006
The Untold Story of One Man's Quest for a Lost World

In 1679, Renaissance man Olof Rudbeck stunned the world. He proposed that an ancient lost civilization once thrived in the far north of his native Sweden: the fabled Atlantis. Rudbeck would spend the last thirty years of his life hunting for the evidence that would prove this extraordinary theory.

Chasing down clues to that lost golden age, Rudbeck combined the reasoning of Sherlock Holmes with the daring of Indiana Jones. He excavated what he thought was the acropolis of Atlantis, retraced the journeys of classical heroes, opened countless burial mounds, and consulted rich collections of manuscripts and artifacts. He eventually published his findings in a 2,500-page tome titled Atlantica, a remarkable work replete with heroic quests, exotic lands, and fabulous creatures.

Three hundred years later, the story of Rudbeck’s adventures appears in English for the first time. It is a thrilling narrative of discovery as well as a cautionary tale about the dangerous dance of genius and madness.

Product Details


Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Few lives are as sadly instructive as that of the dreamer who, by reaching for the stars, falls crashing to earth. Such is the tale of a 17th-century Swedish polymath and gifted eccentric, Olof Rudbeck. Univeristy of Kentucky historian King relates how Rudbeck, trained in his youth as physician (he discovered the lymphatic glands), mastered fields as diverse as architecture, botany, shipbuilding, etymology, musical composition and mythology, among others. It was an ancient Norse saga that set him on the path to what he believed would lead to his greatest triumph. Enchanted by circumstantial evidence and supported by his own breathtakingly inventive archeological and etymological research, Rudbeck in 1679 astonished his Uppsala University colleagues with the announcement that he had discovered Atlantis—in Old Uppsala. Fiercely disputatious and uncompromising when it came to his own genius, Rudbeck had previously poisonously offended many influential colleagues; his work was ridiculed and he died in obscurity. King is marvelous at elaborating Rudbeck's theories and his heroic defense against charges of forgery and "foul-ugly fraud." One wishes, however, that King had dealt definitely with the forgery charges. His trust in his own subject despite the evidence is honorable but perhaps misplaced. Still, King tells his tale with the pace and appeal of a classic whodunit. 20 b&w illus. Agent, Suzanne Gluck.(June 14) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Center stage in this history of a history book is the rollicking, fantastical figure of Olof Rudbeck (1630-1702). After reading Rudbeck's monumental Atlantica (1679), historian King unpacks its plausible but reckless chains of reasoning and reassembles the mass into a marvelous account of the Swedish scholar's obsessions. Rudbeck was a professor of medicine at Uppsala University, and his restless mind seems to have seldom been idle. Rudbeck switched from physiology, in which he made his name as discoverer of the lymphatic system, to the study of the Viking sagas, just then coming to scholarly light. Connecting the sagas with the gods of Norse and Greek mythology, and with Plato's lost continent of Atlantis, Rudbeck proposed an astounding theory: Atlantis was located in Sweden! Odd though the idea was, King explains that Rudbeck's protomodern research methods in archaeology and etymology gained acceptance for his theory. Restoring this colorful eccentric to life, King reveals his talent for narrative flow and portraiture in a biography that will thoroughly inveigle history readers. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Search inside this book:

Customer Reviews

5 star
0
3 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
4.0 out of 5 stars
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Dreaming of Antiquity Nov 24 2007
Format:Paperback
David King's biography of an obsession is a very entertaining glimpse at what makes the human mind tick. Every person of more than average gumption seeks to align their life with meaning and purpose, as high a meaning and as high a purpose as possible. In the case of Olof Rudbeck, the hero of this antiquarian adventure, that driving purpose came with the realization of the mistaken but intriguing idea that he had discovered the key to all of antiquity right in his own back yard. Overlay this basic human need for purpose with another driving and powerfully persuasive human emotion, that of nationalism, and you get the "Atlantica" of Rudbeck: Atlantis and the whole genesis of European civilization originating in Sweden! My only personal criticism of the book is that I would have preferred a little less Rudbeck and a little more "Atlantica": i.e., more detail about Rudbeck's thesis. All it did was whet my appetite for a book which can't be found and which has never been translated into English.
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 3.7 out of 5 stars  9 reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A range of disparate legends to an ancient lost civilization Sep 4 2005
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
In 1679 one Olof Rudbeck succeeded in tracing a range of disparate legends to an ancient lost civilization which once thrived north of his native Sweden: he'd spend the last thirty years of his life seeking evidence of his theory. Finding Atlantis: A True Story Of Genius, Madness, And An Extraordinary Quest For A Lost World charts his extraordinary ability to chase down the most diverse clues in his search for the truth. Chapters probe the adventures he had tracing lends of the lost Atlantis, the publication of his 2,500-page history, and his research in uncertain times. Reading at times with the drama of a novel, Finding Atlantis is charged with action and even intrigue - as well as historical accuracy, and remains the only biography of Olof to probe his theories in detail.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Less Genius, More Madness July 7 2005
By Ricky Hunter - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Olof Rudbeck was some kind of seventeenth century wonderful, according to author David King in Finding Atlantis, A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World. Rudbeck comes across more self-delusional than either the mad or genius of the subtitle but either way it is an interesting story. He found Atlantis in ancient Sweden, which also became the birthplace for all language, mythology, and culture known throughout classical Europe (and later stretched to the Indus River itself by Rudbeck). There was nothing this man could not interpret to meet his needs for fitting into a particular hypothesis. At times, the reader may even feel a little embarassed for Rudbeck and a little shocked that less scholars were not laughing at him. The author gives a good glimpse into post Renaissance, pre-Enlightenment Sweden, a country not much discussed in most histories. Sweden was at the height of its power and maybe from so high up it was easy to imagine that everything glorious that was once existed there first. An interesting footnote in history.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and Interesting Read Mar 20 2006
By Bradley Beightol - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I just finished this book and found it very worthwhile. I have always been interested in the legend of Atlantis and oddly enough, had never heard of Olof Rudbeck. Therefore this book was quite intriguing (and has neat information about the history of Sweden and mythology as well). A few of the chapters in this book could be a bit boring, hence the not-perfect rating, but the rest of the book is quite fascinating. I highly recommend it!
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges