The Mapmaker's Wife
Robert Whitaker
2004
4/5 stars
In 1735, a expedition to South America is undertaken by a group of French scientists and their assistants with the purpose of measuring the circumference of the earth. This led to a ten-year-long trek through South America (principally in the Quito region) in which the Frenchmen made valuable scientific discoveries and experienced many adventures.
In 1741, one of the signal carriers, Jean Godin, married a thirteen-year-old Peruvian noblewoman, Isabel Gramesón. In 1749, Godin was still in Peru with his wife, but a letter from France made him decide it was time to go home. Godin then made an unwise decision which would have tragic results. He traveled down the Amazon to French Guiana without Isabel, with plans to return to Peru for her after trying out the route first himself. Portuguese and Spanish officials refused to allow him to return through their territory, and Godin spent the next 19 years trying to find a way to reach Isabel or to have her travel to him.
At last, Godin was able to send for Isabel, and she and a forty-two person party of friends, relatives, and slaves began their trip down the Amazon. After many misadventures, Isabel was the only remaining member of the party, but did manage to join her husband, twenty-one years after they separated.
The title of this book is quite misleading. First, as noted above, Jean was not a mapmaker; he was, in fact, a very minor assistant, brought along as a signal carrier because he was cousin to the expedition's chief scientist, Louis Godin. Secondly, the book is not fully about Isabel, as the title would suggest. The majority of the book is taken up with describing the French expedition and their experiences. Isabel was not mentioned until half way through the book, and her Amazon trip does not begin until page 226 of the 295 page book, and then isn't given in detail.
Other than this quibble, I quite enjoyed the Mapmaker's Wife. It is an engrossing book, with the story of the French expedition described extensively using first-hand documents. Whitaker writes well and intelligently, gives a surprisingly good description of the personalities involved, and presents a lively account of an interesting set of events.
Robert Whitaker
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| Isabel Gramesón Godin |
4/5 stars
In 1735, a expedition to South America is undertaken by a group of French scientists and their assistants with the purpose of measuring the circumference of the earth. This led to a ten-year-long trek through South America (principally in the Quito region) in which the Frenchmen made valuable scientific discoveries and experienced many adventures.
In 1741, one of the signal carriers, Jean Godin, married a thirteen-year-old Peruvian noblewoman, Isabel Gramesón. In 1749, Godin was still in Peru with his wife, but a letter from France made him decide it was time to go home. Godin then made an unwise decision which would have tragic results. He traveled down the Amazon to French Guiana without Isabel, with plans to return to Peru for her after trying out the route first himself. Portuguese and Spanish officials refused to allow him to return through their territory, and Godin spent the next 19 years trying to find a way to reach Isabel or to have her travel to him.
At last, Godin was able to send for Isabel, and she and a forty-two person party of friends, relatives, and slaves began their trip down the Amazon. After many misadventures, Isabel was the only remaining member of the party, but did manage to join her husband, twenty-one years after they separated.
Other than this quibble, I quite enjoyed the Mapmaker's Wife. It is an engrossing book, with the story of the French expedition described extensively using first-hand documents. Whitaker writes well and intelligently, gives a surprisingly good description of the personalities involved, and presents a lively account of an interesting set of events.
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