Oh, that Olof Rudbeck! Though quite the Renaissance man and the discoverer of the lymphatic system, the 17th-century university professor is today (if at all) remembered and summarily dismissed as a crackpot. And for somewhat valid reasons, as he spent three decades and some 2,500 written pages searching for and chronicling the mythic lost city of Atlantis. David King outlines Rudbeck’s every move of this most dubious undertaking in the entertaining account FINDING ATLANTIS: A TRUE STORY OF GENIUS, MADNESS, AND AN EXTRAORDINARY QUEST FOR A LOST WORLD.
For a while, Rudbeck was the toast of Sweden’s academia world, running both an autopsy theater-style classroom and a spacious botanical garden. But when the country’s economy took a downturn and salaries went unpaid, Rudbeck pursued a most unusual desire to find the sites of the stories of his beloved mythology, firmly believing them to be true. Where did Jason and the Argonauts find the golden fleece? Where was Hades located? He sought to find these answers through actual travel and valid theoretical testing, which led him to his eventual obsession with Atlantis, the once-mighty city that fell into the sea.
But in doing so, his reputation took a direct hit, and he encounters resistance, claims of heresy and even court battles from various fronts. This is where the book hits a slow point, taking interest in too much political manuvering at the expense of losing the somewhat loopy narrative. Luckily King picks back up for the last third, detailing the troubles of getting Rudbeck’s mammoth ATLANTICA published (and then sold). Creative non-fiction like FINDING ATLANTIS should tell a compelling story while also doling out serving spoon-sized dollops of information; King does both, although it may be too well-researched at times. With a subject this eccentric and a story unknown to most of us, King’s book is a good bet for those seeking history that plays out with some mystery. –Rod Lott
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