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ddurrant's review
3.0
If I was doing a report on this subject this book would be an excellent read! The author really brings the reader into Paul's world and the frustrating battle to validate his works/adventures. I will admit that there were some slow parts of the book, and moments where I started to lose interest, but when the book ended I couldn't help but think that was a fascinating read.
autistic_dragon's review
5.0
Amazing! I haven't read a book this breathtaking in a long time. It takes you back to the time when there were still large areas of wilderness unexplored by modern society. While there are some parts that made me cringe, especially when reminded about 19th-century attitudes on race, the reality checks allow readers to dive in to a bygone era without completely being enveloped with distorting nostalgia. It also allows for an appreciation of scientific data as a liberating truth. All in all, I recommend this book to everyone, even those normally not interested in the genre.
annemaries_shelves's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the book. I was a little disappointed that not as much time and focus was spent on the trips into Africa. Overall, I found the book extremely well detailed and written, though a little detached - there wasn't enough emotion and excitement infused into the book. Still, the topic was interesting and it presented a different side to the Victorian scientific debate.
scotchneat's review against another edition
3.0
This is the story of Paul Du Chaillu, a Victorian adventurer who has been lost in the stories, partly because it's the guys with the money who get to write history.
Du Chaillue went into Africa before many others, and was the first to find, kill (unfortunately) and bring back Gorilla skins. He became a rock star for a time, before a slander campaign brought him down (and they used his possible "negro" heritage to do it).
This is a story also of slavery, PT Barnum, Darwin, evolution and religion.
Reel does a good job of trying to bring all of the personages involved to light - whether that light shows good or bad - in one of the most interesting periods of science history.
Du Chaillue went into Africa before many others, and was the first to find, kill (unfortunately) and bring back Gorilla skins. He became a rock star for a time, before a slander campaign brought him down (and they used his possible "negro" heritage to do it).
This is a story also of slavery, PT Barnum, Darwin, evolution and religion.
Reel does a good job of trying to bring all of the personages involved to light - whether that light shows good or bad - in one of the most interesting periods of science history.
saras's review against another edition
4.0
Amazing how someone can be so famous at one time and completely forgotten thereafter. I am interested in the history of science aspect and would have liked to hear more about how attitudes and understanding of the gorilla developed, but the story was a biography and when Paul moved on to other interests, so did the book. Quite a fascinating life and I appreciated how the writer withheld some details to be revealed and pondered later in the book.
rita42's review against another edition
5.0
“I am drawn to the notion of wildness—how it shapes our fears and dreams, and how those fears and dreams can, in turn, reshape the wild.”
Paul Du Chaillu, a now forgotten explorer, marched deep into the African wild, into a land where science and myth mix, an uncharted region populated by stories of great killer beasts and humanoid monsters, and he made a discovery that put him at the centre of the debate of the age.
This book relates Du Chaillu's travels, his evolution from an adventurer/hunter into a man of science and proper explorer, how his discoveries impacted the scientific world of the 19th century and paved the way for modern concepts, most notably ecological conservation.
His life was truly remarkable and exciting, Monte Reel has done him justice with this wonderful book.
Paul Du Chaillu, a now forgotten explorer, marched deep into the African wild, into a land where science and myth mix, an uncharted region populated by stories of great killer beasts and humanoid monsters, and he made a discovery that put him at the centre of the debate of the age.
This book relates Du Chaillu's travels, his evolution from an adventurer/hunter into a man of science and proper explorer, how his discoveries impacted the scientific world of the 19th century and paved the way for modern concepts, most notably ecological conservation.
His life was truly remarkable and exciting, Monte Reel has done him justice with this wonderful book.
lieslindi's review against another edition
This book's average rating is fairly high, so I'm giving it some leeway. The syntax is occasionally clunky and the writing needs other editing for concision and sense. For example, "native Mpongwe" suggests there were other Mpongwe living elsewhere. It was this passage that compelled my remark: “laudanum—an opiate that was a favorite of Victorian doctors, prescribed for everything from diarrhea to cholera." A little thought might have suggested that since both ailments loosen the bowel, an opiate is a reasonable treatment if not cure. A different choice of diseases would have made the point of overprescription better, like maybe cirrhosis and psoriasis.
annie139d7's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Adventure narratives are always very hit or miss with me and I was excited to find that Between Man and Beast by Monte Reel was a win! This book details the life of explorer Paul Du Chaillu in the late 19th century. In the 1960s, Du Chaillu introduced gorillas to England and America sparking worldwide interest in their connection to humans. Appearing on the scene at the same time as The Origin of Species, Du Chaillu’s discoveries launched him into fame and all the resulting challenges of maintaining that status.
I’m always nervous to pick up books dealing with the adventures of explorers in the 19th century as they tend to be hyperbolic and nostalgic for a time that is unarguably worse than today. Additionally, they often gloss over problematic aspects of the time instead of placing the thoughts and contributions of the scholar in historical context. I did not find that to be the case in Between Man and Beast.
The book spent a lot of time on Du Chaillu’s past and how his likely mixed-racial status influenced his actions. Likewise, there are discussions of how the ‘gorilla wars’ between Huxley and Owen contributed to the rise of eugenics. Further, Reel provides a balanced take on the early wars over evolution where neither Owen nor Huxley and Darwin and inarguably correct in their convictions. As someone whose career involves dealing with the ambiguity of history, I appreciate when popularized nonfiction includes these conversations!
4/5
Bonus quote:
“‘It may be truth,’ Huxley wrote of Paul’s work, ‘but it is not evidence.’”
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