From Venus to Antarctica: The Life of Dumont D'Urville

High adventure, drama, discovery, science and map making. This is the first-ever full-length English language biography of D'Urville - one of the nineteenth century's great explorers. Bad-tempered and irreverent, D'Urville was loved by his men but hated by his superiors. He didn't care either way. His passion for science drove him forward as he explored the Pacific - from Guam to Antarctica and from New Guinea to Chile, collecting a vast number of natural history specimens and recording extensive hydrographical information. Hobart was frequently a base and D'Urville is credited with making the single greatest contribution to perfecting the map of the Pacific. He was not consumed with French colonial arrogance, often preferring the societies he visited to his own. He was however given the prestigious French Legion of Honour. He is often remembered for arranging the purchase of the famous statue Venus De Milo (whose arms were broken off in the battle to get her to Paris). His life ended in a railway accident in 1842.