Description
Book SynopsisAn entertaining and informative voyage through cultural fantasies of the North, from sea monsters and a mountain-sized magnet to racist mythmaking
Trade Review" German historian of culture and science Bernd Brunner, in his book
Extreme North, weaves a darker tapestry, layering legends over the science and history of the north to describe a place that is real, remote, inscrutable and cold." -- Josie Glausiusz - Nature
"A collection of curiosities… There may not be a great deal of sunniness here, or for that matter warmth, but the book makes up for that with fascinating anecdotes, useful digressions and little nuggets of interest." -- James Lovegrove - Financial Times
"Brunner’s own cabinet of curiosities offers both a delightful series of vignettes of the north, including Mary Wollstonecraft’s description of the perpetual summer light as the ‘noon of the night’, and a gallery of the preconceptions and agendas which successive visitors have carried with them...Brunner’s work is a dizzying tour of the ways in which successive ages have engaged with the idea of the north… More than anything, though, the book is a reminder that the north is both a place and a perspective." -- Philip Parker - Literary Review
"In 31 chapters, each as self-contained and pointed as a shard of ice, Brunner presents a different historic, political, natural or cultural facet of his subject... Thought-provoking and wide-ranging, Extreme North resembles the 'cabinet of wonders' that he uses as the book’s embarkation point." -- Liesl Schillinger - The New York Times Book Review
"Engaging… Those who seek out cultural histories to see the world through a strange new lens may particularly enjoy the section exploring how the North was misperceived in antiquity." -- Cal Flyn - Times Literary Supplement
