Les Batailles pour L'Himalaya

Publication Year: 1937.

Les Batailles pour L’Himalaya, by Claire-Eliane Engel. 8 vo. ; vii + 157 pages, with 16 full-page illustrations, 3 outline maps, 2 diagrams and bibliography. Paris : Flammarion, 1936.

This is an historical rather than a geographical approach to the Himalaya, and covers the period 1783-1935, approximately corresponding with the time of the first ascent of Mont Blanc in the Alps down to the present. Following a brief topographical description of the range, the early travellers and first climbs are discussed, and then in order the major expeditions from the time of Conway, Mummery and Fresh field to the attempts on Everest, Kangchenjunga and Nanga Parbat. It is unfortunate that the compiler neglected to credit the maps to Marcel Kurz, and the book is so marred by errors in altitudes and orthography that much of its value is lost. The future historian will have much to confuse him in reading these conflicting reviews: A. J., 48, 379 and Die Alpen, xii, 354.

J M T