Darwin Slept Here

Discovery, Adventure and Swimming Iguanas in Charles Darwin's South America

By: Eric Simons

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

For "Darwin Year," a fresh-eyed and enchanting journey through South America in his footsteps One snowy day in Ushuaia, Argentina, the self-proclaimed "southernmost city in the world," writer Eric Simons picked up a copy of Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. Simons had just hiked the mountains overlooking Beagle Channel, and he found himself engrossed in Darwin's account.

Like Simons, Darwin was in his mid-20s when he traveled to the continent. Simons followed Darwin further into South America--to stand where Darwin had stood and to explore the histories, legends and people that had fascinated him two centuries before. Simons trekked to as many of the locations Darwin wrote about as he could find to see if he could see these places through Darwin's eyes, and to learn what South Americans know about Darwin. Darwin Slept Here is an innovative and thrilling new look at a familiar subject from a compelling new writer to watch.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2009 Eric Simons (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Hohum

Disappointingly middlebrow with a lot of wince-inducing humor, but okay as a low impact stroll. The reader does the best he can with what he’s given.

Narration ruins the book

I am about to venture down to South America and will be actullay walking in some of Darwin's foot steps. I thought that this book would add a little colour and information to my trip. Unfortunately the narrator of this book has made it all but unlistenable. I find it very, very hard to get past the narrator's mechanistic e-nun-ci-ation of al-most ev-ery syl_able. I've played it for a few freinds and they insist that it is a machine/a computor and not a real human being doing the reading.
I've listened to too many audio books to count over the years. I've had some favorite narrators and some not so favorite, none that would stop me from listening. If I wasn't traveling and hoping to get some useful information form this I would have given up on this one long ago.

Excellent! What I hoped for to prepare for trip.

Would you consider the audio edition of Darwin Slept Here to be better than the print version?

I did not read the print version so I cannot say for sure.
I can, however, speculate that it is better because the performance was so good.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Darwin as a young man came to life so it would have to be him.

What does Nick Sullivan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Nick brings more emotion, excitement and humor. I got each passage as I was listening instead of having to occasionally re-read sections once the intended emotion became evident.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Finding the old building that Darwin possibly slept in is especially moving to me as I have felt similar emotions while metal detecting for historical artifacts in old places. The closing comments about getting out and participating in adventures were also great.

Any additional comments?

My wife and I are preparing for a month long hiking trip to Peru, Chile and Argentina in a couple of weeks and I hoped to find a book that would fire my curiosity about the area. This book did just that. My most rewarding travel adventures have been when I eventually experienced that which I had imagined through another's creative viewpoint.