The Four Voyages: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narratives.. (Penguin Classics)

This book is a great description of the events related to the exploration of the new world made by Columbus. The first two voyages are the most interesting because of the discovery of the caribbean island and the natives inhabitants living there, the arawaks and the caribs. The latter were very particular on account of its cannibalism.In the third voyage, Columbus finally reach mainland and the fourth voyage was the toughest of all due to huge storms that lasted several days and the attacks of indian while they were repairing. At the end of the book there is an account made by Diego Mendez, a truly survivor and loyal servant of the Admiral who saved the lives of all of them while they were waiting in Jamaica, for a year.I my opinion Columbus was a great navigator and a brave man. It is sad how the life of the Admiral ends and the poor retribution from the kings of Spain.

Under the current “shame narrative” of American history, Columbus has been recast as a villain. I would urge the world’s readers to become acquainted with this book for a more objective view of him. When we see him within the context of his time, he becomes, for me at least, a very sympathetic figure. This excellent book tells the story of Columbus’s four voyages to the Caribbean taken from contemporary paraphrases of his log books (the originals have been lost), his son’s biography of him, accounts by contemporary historians, and letters by Columbus and others. This material has been skillfully cobbled together into chronological order by J.M. Cohen to make a quite compelling reading experience. Columbus went farther than any European had ever gone before. He was expecting to find India and he truly believed that Japan was not too far away. His perceptions of the New World were greatly colored by his expectations. Because of the high-risk nature of his enterprise, the men who served as his crew were adventurers, mostly of low moral character, who were treacherous, greedy, and cruel. Trying to govern such a mob in that particular environment must have been a nightmare for him. Indeed, it appears that he had a nervous breakdown at the end of the second voyage. Columbus was disgraced and discredited by the end of his life. I consider this story a tragedy.Cohen’s translation is outstanding. I found it very easy reading, and a real page-turner, to boot. Five Stars.

Original source material. Very interesting to hear the 15th Century perspectives. Many concepts held by the writers of this book are now known to be totally wrong. But that is to be expected. Still, those incorrect concepts drove decisions, just as our perceptions of the World today drive ours. The New World natives were not the peace loving, idyllic, one with nature innocences popularly thought. Columbus was a major figure of History.

The narrative was redundant, but then again that is expected considering he was crossing a vast ocean. Nevertheless, this is one of many books that I have read regarding Columbus' voyages...the "discovery" of the new world...the bondage, enslavement and ultimate genocide of the indigenous people. A people that Columbus himself described as...beautiful, peaceful, honest, hardworking and loyal. Despite all that Columbus was not satisfied with expanding Christianity for the Spaniards and the Catholic Church...the love of GOLD filled his eyes and every other Spaniard that joined him during his voyages. A very sad and heartbreaking end to a people that were doing just fine before the Spaniards decided to explore and conquer their islands.

I appreciated the research and work done by the author to get an education of history from original documents. We hear so much about Columbus these days and yet not enough to understand the truth of his time and his piers. It’s helpful to be able to read this cover to cover to really get a view of life at that time… should be required reading along with other research before jumping to conclusions!

I thought the author's approach to update and annotate Colombus's Log was, in the main, quite helpful in understanding distances from island to island and harbour to harbour along with and their place names past and present. And his intriguing take on what island in the Bahamas Colombus first went ashore was persuasive even though the author is given short shrift by many, if not most, historians on where exactly Colombus first made landfall in the so-called New World

It is really fascinating to realize how many historical figures have written books or had private letters of correspondence or even journals that have been preserved through antiquity to this time. There is something about reading the thoughts of historical figures that gives you much better insight into them than you would have by simply reading a history book about them.

This is truly a masterpiece of editing. Cohen strings together bits from various contemporary accounts and Columbus's own journal in such a way that it feels like a really creatively written novel. Hugely entertaining and satisfying to read. (Obviously colonialism is bad blah blah blah. The editor would surely agree with that sentiment! In any case, this is a great book.)

Better condition than described looks brand new, very happy

I was on the fence when it came to buying this. How interesting can a log book or journal be? FASCINATING! The way this book has been annotated for context and detail really helps and it’s genuinely exciting and interesting to read. If you’re on the fence, do it! Great book!

I’m very happy with the content of the text, but it looks like it’s been very cheaply and poorly put together with far too much glue, and the pages overlap the cover, plus a large amount of them on the inside are crumpled which aligns with the item being poorly put together. Not too happy about that — especially given I paid a fair price for it.

Schnelle Lieferung, gute Qualität.Klassiker, sollte man mal gelesen haben.Bin leider nicht ganz überzeugt von Kolumbus Stil (oder dem der Editoren der inzwischen x-ten Auflage), da es doch ein wenig langatmig auftritt. Aber für jeden Interessenten am Lebenswerk des C.C. auf jeden Fall lesenswert.

How can anyone not be interested in these momentous times and the events which unfolded?This is a mind boggling book, no fiction can come close to the records of those days and the changes in mentality which sprang from them.Oh, and the bravery of the men...incredible.Not the easiest of reading but worth the effort.