The Mapmaker's Wife

This was an unread (by everyone in my book club) book club read. Although very interesting and informative, it was very a laborious read. I read a lot (2 books a week) and it is one of the first books I had to keep putting down and going back to later. Everyone in my book club was in agreement that the name of the book is misleading. It had about one chapter solely dedicated to the wife and that was at the end of the book. After discussing the book, however, many of the ladies rated it at least a 4 star due to the scientific value, exploration, flora and fauna collection and all around bravery of the men who were willing to die doing what they did.

This is a fascinating true story of adventure and science in what is now Ecuador during the 1730s. The scientific part involves the expedition of members of the Académie française to measure a meridian arc at the equator and to compare its measurement with one measured in "Lapland." The object of the enterprise was to determine whether Isaac Newton's description of Earth as flattened at the poles because of the planet's rotation or elongated at the poles as postulated by other scientists. The French scientists struggled for years in the inhospitable Andean terrain to obtain accurate measurements and proved that Newton correct. One lowly member member of the French team was Jean Godin, who married Isabel Gramesón of a high-ranking family of the Spanish Viceroyaltyof Peru. Godin's plan to return to France with his pregnant wife involved exploring the Amazon downstream for its entire length and returning upstream to collect his wife. Godin spent 20 years (1749-69) in this enterprise, at which point she set out in search of him and suffered even more horrific experiences than her husband had during the interval.

In his 2004 nonfiction book The Mapmaker’s Wife, Robert Whitaker takes a refreshing new look at the eighteenth century experiment known as the French Geodesic Mission. This was the first scientific expedition (as opposed to military, commercial, or religious expeditions) by Europeans to explore the interior of South America. Under the leadership of three French scientists, the explorers departed France in 1735 for what is now Ecuador (what was then Peru). The primary purpose of the mission was to measure a degree of latitude at the equator in order to confirm Isaac Newton’s theories about the shape of the Earth. This is often known as the La Condamine expedition, because geographer Charles Marie de La Condamine wrote the most popular account of the journey. Whitaker informs us, however, that astronomer Louis Godin was actually the senior scientist of the team. Godin’s younger cousin, Jean Godin, served as an assistant cartographer to the expedition. It is he who married a Peruvian creole woman named Isabel Gramesón, the Mapmaker’s Wife of the book’s title.The French Geodesic Mission was really a fascinating enterprise, and Whitaker does a great job of providing an abridged yet comprehensive account of the journey and its aftermath. Though the primary goals of the expedition were cartographic, the scientists involved also made important discoveries in zoology, botany, geology, and anthropology. Whitaker vividly describes the incredible hardships these explorers had to endure in order to measure a straight line across hundreds of miles of harsh terrain. The mission lasted about a decade, during which time team members had to take side jobs to generate income to keep going. Eventually the explorers split up and went their separate ways, allowing for several fascinating spin-off stories about what became of them.After relating the history of the expedition, Whitaker then recounts the exploits of Isabel Gramesón, whose heart-wrenching story is little-known in the United States. Jean Godin, in the process of attempting to bring his wife home to France, ends up stranded thousands of miles away, and the couple are separated for years. Isabel determines to make a perilous voyage down the Amazon to reunite with her husband in French Guiana. Whitaker painstakingly describes the terrible hardships she faced and her almost saintly perseverance in overcoming them. Compared to the chapters on the geodesic expedition, which are based largely on the accounts of the explorers themselves, Whitaker seems to take more poetic license with Isabel’s story by elaborating on the sights and sounds she would have seen and heard, and the thoughts and feelings she would have experienced. She never wrote her own story, so some of what happened in the Amazonian jungle is open to speculation. Of course, the fact that there is any story to tell at all effectively gives away the ending, but that doesn’t make Isabel’s journey any less compelling.Though geodesic science may not be the most alluring subject for many general readers, Whitaker does a fine job of explaining complex scientific concepts and complicated historical context in lively and articulate prose that general readers will find engaging. At the same time, however, he doesn’t insult the reader’s intelligence by dumbing down the content. On the down side, I’ve read hundreds of ebooks on my Kindle, but this is the first one I’ve ever come across where all the illustrations and almost all the maps are the size of postage stamps and can’t be enlarged, thus essentially rendering them useless.

This is a very well written account of the incredible capacity of humans to suffer tortures that most would consider beyond human endurance. Whitaker skillfully reveals a kernel normally hidden within our psyche that can grow into an infinite source of strength when we are motivated by love, desire for riches or even glory. The description of the mapmakers quest to determine the shape of Earth by trekking though the wilderness of south America provides a slice of world history and science that I had not encountered in hundreds of history books.The only real reason for a novel is to reveal the inner war forever waging within us. Riveting, enthralling, enlightening.

So wanted to enjoy this that not only did I buy the ebook but the audio book as well. My mistake. Fully one quarter of the book was notes and acknowledgements. 10% was index. Read this, it's a good book, but be warned it may not be what you're expecting. Starts out strong introducing and setting up characters involved in the expedition to South America, then somehow gets bogged down in Spain's fight with France and Portugal over how many sides there are to a triangle. The wife? She barely shows up at all. Perhaps 20 pages telling her story. Fascinating story reduced to footnotes.Note to author: the Donner party was lost in the Sierra Nevada mountains, not the Rockies. You only missed by 1000 miles. Someone really needs to write a book and tell this woman's story.

Despite what other reviewers have said, I think this is one of the best books I've read in a long time. However, don't be fooled by the title. It is not just a love story. Anyone looking solely for historical romance, will be bored and disappointed. However, if you are willing to give the book a chance anyway, you will find a fascinating history of one of the great questions of science. The first part of the book focuses on an expedition of French scientists in Peru measuring a degree of arc at the equator. The history of how the shape of the earth was understood and the subsequent story of the expedition are fascinating and you'll breeze through the chapters. Just like Dava Sobel's Longitude, the Mapmakers Wife reads like a novel, but is non-fiction writing at its best. In the second half we learn that one member, Jean Godin, has married a local girl, Isabel Grameson. When they decide to leave for France, he makes his way down the Amazon ahead of her with the promise to return as soon as possible and pick her up. What follows is a twenty year separation and a tragic tale of one woman's unbelievable perseverance through the Amazon jungle. Due to political and bureaucratic problems, Godin is unable to return to Riobamba by way of the Amazon. Why he didn't arrange a different route remains a mystery and Whitaker tells us "he never gave such options a thought." Instead Isabel, her two brothers and her seven-year old nephew make their way down the Amazon with a small party of helpers . The Amazon jungle itself is a character in the book and you would never realize how hard it would be to survive there. One would think that food, at least, would be widely available, but sadly we learn that it is hardly different than had they gotten lost in a desert. I think I read the whole book in two sessions. As cliché as this might sound, I simply could not put it down.

The first 60% of this book is about surveying Peru. If you like that kind of thing that's fine but I wanted to find out about the mapmaker's wife, which is, after all, the title. since her husband was a signal marker he doesn't feature much in the first part either. Overall I found it dull and disappointing apart from the final chapters.

Bought a second copy of this to read it again after I loaned the original one to someone a few years ago and he never returned it.I bought this originally because it was of interest to me as a former land surveyor. The first part of the book of a technical nature but still very readable for any layman interested in the topic. It then develops into a first rate survival adventure story.

This book was for me a great read. Not what I expected but full of superb information and the 'love story' was so touching, just had to wait quite a while for it to come out. I thought it was a fabulous read.

Loved this true story . Can not fault in any way ! Excellent !!!