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A carregar... The Snakebite Survivor's Club: Travels Among Serpents (original 1999; edição 2000)por Jeremy Seal (Autor)
Informação Sobre a ObraThe Snakebite Survivors' Club: Travels Among Serpents por Jeremy Seal (1999)
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Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. I have been fascinated by snakes ever since childhood and read whatever I can get me=y hands on and this definitely ranks high. A self-proclaimed phobic journeys to the heart of darkness for people like him, snake handling religious cults bith here and in India, among other places and takes you along for the ride. It is funny exciting and fascintaing . ( ) With keen powers of observation & description and not a little trepidation, Seal sets out across continents and cultures in search of the modern folklore surrounding the world’s deadliest snakes. The prose is lively and the humor dry and self-deprecating. All in all, Seal succeeds in rendering the fear and fascination that these creatures inspire in the human imagination. Popular nineteenth-century cures for snakebite included gunpowder, which was heaped on the wound and then ignited. Bite victims were known to remove the bitten extremity with an axe or even a loaded gun. Leeches, on account of their sucking ability, were often applied to bites. On the principle that the application of a second poison would neutralize the first, strychnine, mercury, ammonia and ‘chlorine of gold’ all enjoyed spells of popularity. The juice of banana leaves had its supporters, as did the urine of toads or even immersion in cattle manure. And massive quantities of alcohol, even more than was generally downed as a daily salve against the brutish realities of nineteenth-century Australian life, were regarded as an excellent cure for snakebite. Saranac Black Forest Bavarian Ale Atlantic Coal Porter I read this a long time ago so the briefness of this review is a result of my less-than-perfect memory! I had higher expectations for this book than it delivered. I thought it would be an interesting and quirky read but it fell short on all elements. It wasn't an awful book, just a mediocre one. I felt that it tried to be too many things in one package and that meant that it was neither a travel memoir nor an interesting study of the individuals written about nor an interesting piece about snakes (although there are some pretty pictures!). It's an 'almost there' book which I find irritating because there are glimpses of what it could be. sem críticas | adicionar uma crítica
Snakes are Jeremy Seal's fascination, and his greatest fear. In an attempt to overcome his phobia, he decides to journey into America, Australia, Africa and India in search of the most notorious and deadly snakes, and to meet the people who live among them. His travels take him to Kenya's snake man, whose entire life seems like a preparation for a bite from the terrible black mamba, and to witch doctors, who use snakes as instruments of vengeance. He recalls the stories of Australian convicts condemned to prison in the land of the world's deadliest snake, and the story of a Southern preacher who tries to murder his wife with his church's rattlesnakes. Mixed in with all these bizarre tales are fascinating scientific facts, snake lore and ancient legends. An erudite but highly entertaining travel narrative, The Snakebite Survivors' Club taps into our general fear of snakes to tell a funny and somewhat gruesome account of the world of snakes and the people they repel, mesmerize, and sometimes kill. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)597.96Natural sciences and mathematics Zoology Cold-blooded vertebrates, fishes Reptilia ; Reptiles SnakesClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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