Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1829786 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Customer Reviews

A Great Classic To Be Read With Reservations
This book deserves credit for giving an incredibly detailed account of Indonesia, especially the Moluccas/Maluku, as seen in the 19th century.
As a travelogue it is a fascinating read.
It WAS also a great scientific work at the time it was written.
However some of its conclusions are now understandably a bit dated (though many others are still valid), while description of the local people, viewed from a position of European superiority, certainly wouldn't find acceptance today. Even failed and highly repressive Dutch colonial policies are given a sympathetic treatment by Wallace.
Unfortunately, having become such a classic, some of the dated conclusions of this book are still being reproduced in new works published about this region nowadays, nearly 150 years later!
So I would say that while this book is certainly worth reading as an account of how things were in Wallace's time, one should never forget when it was written. I gave only 4 stars to remind people of this - otherwise 5 would be justified.