Why read Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vols. I and II?

Book cover of Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vols. I and II

Book description

Both volumes of John Lloyd Stephens epic accounts of the Yucatan are united in this single volume, complete with over 100 illustrations of encounters on his journeys in Central America.

Prior to the 1840s, when J. L. Stephens published this superb account of his explorations, the Yucatan was only crudely…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vols. I and II as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Gabriela Vargas-Cetina

Author

I read this book when I was a teenager growing up in Yucatan.

Stephens’ description of both the everyday life of Yucatecans in local villages and cities, and of the imposing ruins left by the Maya are enchanting. Catherwood’s drawings and plates are both accurate and dream-like representations of Yucatecan life, Maya ruins and artifacts at the time.

The book left vivid pictures in my mind; I could and still can see across Yucatan the traces of what Stephens described and Catherwood caught with his drawings and plates.

This book has resisted the passage of time as a story of…

From Gabriela's list on falling in love with Yucatan’s ethnography.