Columbus

The Four Voyages

By: Laurence Bergreen

Narrated by: Tim Jerome

Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the Magellan biography, Over the Edge of the World, a mesmerizing new account of the great explorer.

Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a trading route to China, and his unexpected landfall in the Americas, is a watershed event in world history. Yet Columbus made three more voyages within the span of only a decade, each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity.

These later voyages were even more adventurous, violent, and ambiguous, but they revealed Columbus's uncanny sense of the sea, his mingled brilliance and delusion, and his superb navigational skills. In all these exploits he almost never lost a sailor. By their conclusion, however, Columbus was broken in body and spirit. If the first voyage illustrates the rewards of exploration, the latter voyages illustrate the tragic costs - political, moral, and economic.

In rich detail Laurence Bergreen re-creates each of these adventures as well as the historical background of Columbus's celebrated, controversial career. Written from the participants' vivid perspectives, this breathtakingly dramatic account will be embraced by readers of Bergreen's previous biographies of Marco Polo and Magellan and by fans of Nathaniel Philbrick, Simon Winchester, and Tony Horwitz.

©2011 Laurence Bergreen (P)2011 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Laurence Bergreen's Columbus was brilliant, audacious, volatile, paranoid and ruthless. What emerges in this biography, a worthy addition to the literature on Columbus is a surprising and revealing portrait of a man who might have been the title character in a Shakespearean tragedy." (The New York Times)

"Laurence Bergreen's ambitious new biography, Columbus: The Four Voyages [is] a spellbinding epic that's simultaneously a profoundly private portrait of the most complex, compelling, controversial creature ever to board a boat. This scrupulously researched, unbiased account of four death-defying journeys to The New World reveals the Admiral's paradoxical personality." (USA Today)

"A compelling new book [that] details the explorer's trips to the New World, including three you haven't heard about." (Salon)

Good story telling and fair storytelling

The author did a great job a recounting the story of Columbus and the four voyages that changed the world. I was especially happy with the even handedness the author takes by not falling into the current modern fashion of demonizing Columbus while simultaneously showing a gifted sailor with many flaws. The narration also makes this book an easy listening unlike some books in history genre that hired robotic like narrators. A must read(listen) for those with an interest in history and the age of exploration.

Well read and very interesting

What you leaned in history class is not the whole story by any measure.
I found this very to be a very good book. I the narrator's voice was enjoyable. Seems like the author has captured Europe's world view and mentality.

Excellant!

The good and bad sides of Columbus. Very good and educational. Goes deeper into the history of columbus than I expected.

Awkward writing, oddly read.

Not a bad book, but I found it difficult to listen to. The meter of the the book mirrors the rhythm of source material. It doesn’t vary.
Dut dah dut dah daa.
Dut dah dut dah daa.
Dut dah dut dah daa.
Over and over. It was hard to get lost in the book.
Also, and this is entirely personal, I found myself really disliking Columbus, and not for the reasons I expected. He is portrayed here as a unlikeable lucky doofus.
If you listen to the sample and the narration doesn’t bother you, you won’t have a problem.

Too Much Drama

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. Facts of Columbus's adventures important to understanding of history.

Would you be willing to try another book from Laurence Bergreen? Why or why not?

Not likely. Bergreen spent too many words reporting Columbus's moods, thoughts, motives. Would like a less dramatic presentation

Would you listen to another book narrated by Tim Jerome?

Would depend on title and author. Jerome also dramatic in emphasizing Bergreen's dramatic words.

Do you think Columbus needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. I think Bergreen did summarize what the records have to say about Columbus

Very Summarized

This should explain everything, a direct quote from the book:
“dead reckoning, that is sailing by the seat of his pants. Estimating time and distances with simple devices like a buoy or a landmark” .

a good mix of perspectives

this book has a good mix of perspectives. it is easy to hate Columbus, this explains why he he thought the way he thought, how others of the time thought and let's the reader judge him knowing all this information.

God and interesting read

Book is extremely interesting, although it wanders at times. I learned a lot. Narrator is very good.

What a story? Absolutely brilliant. 💯 %

It's the most amazing story I have ever listened to or read. Everyone on earth should at least take note of this legendary figure, Christopher Columbus. As the case is with many brilliant people, he was far ahead of his time. I doubt if even he himself realized what he had accomplished in his lifetime. It is a pity he did not get the recognition he deserves while he was still alive, but he got it only long after his death.

Not at all the story I got in school

Did you ever wonder what really happened when Columbus bumped into the New World by accident on his way to China? Europeans love to say they discovered much of the world but did you notice the lands they discovered on were already populated? This book shines a bright light on another very dark chapter of European self delusional aspect of history.