16 h 38 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What drives people beyond familiar coasts: the promise of gold, a new trade route, or the need to know?
In A Book of Discovery, M. B. Synge follows exploration from the ancient Mediterranean to the polar regions. Phoenician traders leave familiar shores, and Vikings cross rough seas in open ships. Merchants, monks, kings, soldiers and sailors enter the story, each with a reason to travel and hardships to face beyond the places they know.
Prince Henry of Portugal gathers pilots, mapmakers and shipbuilders to send captains down West Africa’s coast. Ferdinand Magellan seeks a way past the Americas, while Captain James Cook brings greater precision to the map. Synge tells this broad history with the pace of an adventure, showing how knowledge grows through journeys driven by trade, ambition and curiosity.
What you’ll discover
- Beyond the familiar shore Follow early traders whose practical needs carry them into waters beyond home.
- People behind the voyages Meet leaders and sailors with different motives, from seeking gold to wanting knowledge.
- Oceans become routes Trace the voyages that connect distant coasts and widen the known world.
- A clearer world map See how Cook’s work marks a shift from broad outlines toward greater precision.
- Toward the polar regions Follow the search for a northern sea route as exploration reaches the earth’s extremes.
Who will love it
For readers who love history told as adventure, families who enjoy a clear sweep of exploration, and anyone who wants the big picture of voyages, trade routes and polar journeys.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Exploration begins with trade and curiosity
- Medieval travellers open the road east
- Portugal and Spain push out across oceans
- The world is circled and the Americas entered
- Cook and the filling in of the map
- The poles are the last great goals
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- Audiobook
- 16 h 38 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Un libro de descubrimientos
by M. B. Synge · 1912
From ancient sailors to polar explorers, follow the voyages that reveal the world's shape and the cost of each step.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A Book of Discovery is a history of exploration for general readers, written by M. B.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Exploration begins with trade and curiosity
Synge starts in the ancient world, where the first long journeys were made for practical reasons. The Phoenicians, who lived along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, were traders and sailors. They carried goods from port to port and pushed out beyond the narrow sea into the Atlantic. Their ships made them rich, and they kept their routes secret so that rivals could not follow.
The Greeks add a different motive. They were traders and settlers too, but they were also thinkers who wanted to describe the earth. Their writers and geographers collected reports from travellers and tried to draw the world on a map. Some of those maps were wrong in large ways, yet the habit of asking where the edges of the world lay was a real step forward.
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What is A Book of Discovery about?
It is a history of exploration. It follows travellers and sailors from the ancient Mediterranean through the age of Columbus and Magellan to the inland journeys in Africa and the race to the poles.
Who wrote A Book of Discovery?
M. B. Synge, a British writer of popular history in the early twentieth century. She died in 1939. She wrote clear, story-driven history aimed at general readers and young people.
Is A Book of Discovery a true story?
Yes. It is non-fiction, a retelling of real voyages and expeditions. It was written over a century ago, so newer research has added to or corrected some details.
The author
M. B. Synge
English historical writer
M. B. Synge was Margaret Bertha Synge, an English writer who lived from 1861 to 1939. She lived in England and wrote history books for young readers. Her works included A Book of Discovery, published in 1912. She published her books under the initials M. B. Synge.
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