I enjoyed this book so much, from cover to cover.
It is so clearly very well researched and a vast amount is covered. The author makes interesting connections with a wide range of interesting figures along with Humboldt.
As someone who knew very little about this extraordinary character, it has filled an essential gap in my knowledge. Many of the characters mentioned in relation to Humboldt (who have been inspired by him essentially) are people who I am interested in separately and had intended to read on separately (Muir, Thoreau, Darwin), before discovering their link to each other through Humboldt, showing how central Humboldt is to my interests.

So the man himself was clearly a spectacular figure, and Wulf brings his story to life using wonderful prose and in an engaging and interesting manner. She paces the book well so there was never a moment where I felt I was lost or that she was being tediously long-winded. I was hooked and consequently read it very quickly. As I mentioned before, the author managed to link in many other interesting aspects without it feeling relevant and their intense research will have helped with that. Everything felt meant, most of all, I learned a lot.

Overall, it feels an injustice that I had not learned about Humboldt previously, and reading this book and learning about Humboldt has genuinely affected me and, I believe, encouraged my passion for learning about nature and ecology