Alpine Tragedy

by Charles Gos

Translated from the French by Malcolm Barnes

George Allen and Unwin, 1948 [First English Translated Edition], black and white photographic plates, black and white illustrations, illustrated title page, hardcover, dust-jacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, minor foxing to end-papers; price-clipped dust-jacket shows some edge and shelf wear with rubbing, bumping, chips, creasing and small tears, small parts missing at edges (see photographs)

"In this sombre but strangely beautiful book are related in dramatic fashion some of the many tragic incidents which darken the pages of alpine adventure.  Their story vividly recreates the atmosphere of the High Alps, its dazzling and inspiring scenery, and the mystic enthusiasm of its devotees.  Among the tragedies recorded are those of the conquest of the Matterhorn; the death of a famous guide in a winter avalanche on the Haut de Cry; the total destruction of a party of eleven men in a storm at the summit of Mont-Blanc; the unsolved mystery of the disappearance of the Count of Villanova; the annihilation of an English family on the Dent de Veisivi; and many others.
Their interest is by no means wholly macabre, for death in the high mountains, like death at sea, has about it something which transcends the mere fact of destruction.  These episodes are so vividly related that they will appeal equally even to those who have never seen the Alps nor climbed a mountain."