From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 14:08:30 +0000

Today's unexpected snow day (last night one local weatherman spoke of a
"Blizzard Bust" so I was assuming school today) gave me time to read Marc Aronson's Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado. This is quite a wonderful book and well?serving of the Sibert Award. Others have commented on the the excellent notes and other ancillary materials. Here are a few random observations.

"...But the story does not end with greedy stories seeking new conquests..." (page 9). The issue of narrative in relating history intrigues me. This is the story of Walter Ralegh. Yet Marc Aronson successfully weaves in and out of Ralegh's own story, the story of his era. It is quite a feat (well, perhaps not quite on the level of besting Essex, but pretty impressive nonetheless) to bring in as much information, names, dates, and more in such an engaging and engrossing way.

I especially loved little touches like writing of Elizabeth's arrival in Norwich that it was like a "cross between a ride in a modern theme park and a school pageant." (page 33) and, a bit further on that something was an "....ancestor of all parade floats... (page 34).
   

I admired the author's ability to clearly provide his own views through the book and in the notes in a way to get the young reader to do more than just take in the drama. That is, to get the reader to think about what this all meant and still means. The author is able to both keep Ralegh in his time and help us today consider many difficult issues. For example, the questions about "Who was the 'savage'?" on page 72.

I really liked the references to other parts of the world both in the time line and in the notes. For example, a note for page 94 compares the Spanish crescent to similar actions by Shaka Zulu. (page 197) and for page 99 another note refers to "...a perfect moment in parallel world history." and goes on the provide the reader with a quick mention of the Mongols invasion of Japan in the late thirteenth century. (page 198)

Then there is the final powerful paragraph of Chapter 11 where the author comments on Ralegh's own efforts to sum up his feelings about the Orinoco,
"These words are the true gold of Ralegh's quest for El Dorado. They show how irresistible the treasure of the new lands was to a strong and determined person like Ralegh. Yet they reveal that at least one such exceptional man knew he could only destroy what he was so desperate to possess. The discovery in his book is not of the large, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana, but the clash in Ralegh's large, deep, and conflicted heart." (page 142.) This fabulous statement is even further enriched in the notes where the author writes, "To this day, we have not learned to solve exactly the conflict Ralegh described." He then gives a contemporary example involving the use of cyanide in a mining company today in the area Ralegh wrote about and ends provocatively, "If we want our own El Dorado, our land that produces gold, we have to use deadly poisons. If we want to preserve what is left of a virginal land, we will have to give up millions of dollars' worth of gold that can support many poor people in struggling countries such as Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela. Which should we do?" (page 201).

For anyone else with an unexpected few quiet hours to spend, I recommend this book highly!

Monica




Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Mon 05 Mar 2001 08:08:30 AM CST