The Alps

A Human History from Hannibal to Heidi and Beyond

By: Stephen O'Shea

Narrated by: Robert Fass

For centuries the Alps have seen the march of armies, the flow of pilgrims and Crusaders, the feats of mountaineers, and the dreams of engineers - and some 14 million people live among their peaks today. In The Alps, Stephen O'Shea takes listeners up and down these majestic mountains, journeying through their 500-mile arc across France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. Along the way he explores the reality behind Hannibal and his elephants' famous crossing in 218 BCE; he reveals how the Alps have profoundly influenced culture, from Frankenstein to Heidi to The Sound of Music; and he visits the spot where Arthur Conan Doyle staged Sherlock Holmes' death scene, the bloody site of the Italians' retreat in World War I, and Hitler's notorious vacation house, the Eagle's Nest. Throughout, O'Shea records his adventures with the watchmakers, salt miners, cable-car operators, and yodelers who define the Alps today.

©2017 Stephen O’Shea (P)2017 HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books

Get a cool map and follow along

I listened twice and the second time i regularly referenced a detailed animated birds eye view map of the Alps. It really made a difference in my ability to visualize the entire trip. Great reader - and kinda funny to hear an Alps book by someone “afraid of heights”

A travel buddy you didn’t know you needed

Fasten your seatbelts! The acrophobic, yet opinionated author Stephen o’Shea has taken the drivers seat, and is about to speed you through the alps, giving you insight into all the local stories and anecdotes, as well as his piece of mind on every nationality unfortunate to cross his alpine path. I loved all the curious stories he had to tell, following the route on google maps - for much needed visuals of the trip! Would highly recommend this as an easy read to get you in the mood for a European roadtrip.

An enjoyable and easy to listen to Travelogue

The Alps is a travelagoue created Stephen O’Shea filled with history tidbits and personal interactions. These sort of books are often not my favorite, even the classics like The Innocents Abroad and Roughing It by Mark Twain took some effort for me to get through. However, O’Shea does a really good job at keeping it engaging and exploring many aspects of Alpine culture and the people you meet there. While his historical blurbs are sometimes light on details they were often fascinating. If this is your kind of book, I would not hesitate recommending it.

Alps history and geography

Places I haven’t learned about and areas I will bucket list and others not so much. Flowing and interesting. Narrator is one of the best!

Wanderlust? Fernweh?

Every place in this book his enormous appeal after Mr. O'Shea describes it. and there's still thousands of other places to explore in your own.

Nice journey through the alps.

Not much to happens. But nice to tag along for the ride through the alps.

Meh

This guy is afraid of heights and he’s writing about the Alps! Good concept and I bet he’s trying to create drama, but come on! Not recommend!

Disappointing Performance

The performance is dreadful. The narrator has adopted a pattern of inflection that is very odd and jarring. Adding injury to insult, he recites every sentence in this singsong manner. I stopped after two chapters.

Bill Bryson this is not!

Or that seems to be the vibe he is trying to channel, i.e. witty travelogue with "fun" &/or interesting historical context. Unfortunately, his attempts at wit come across more acerbic than humorous. He seems hyper critical and misanthropic, two things I'm familiar within myself, but this is taken to new "heights" in this book.

I am in agreement with the other bad reviews about his obsessive disdain for heights (Dear god, stop bringing it up?!? And you chose a mountain range as your subject to write about?!). I'm also not a fan of the majority of his myopic and frequently dismissive appraisals of his locations nor the people found therein and/or their nationalities (Well, he seems to like Italy & Italians?! Or at least their food and the Dolomites). Being married to a Swiss person and having traveled the majority of his same locations, I was really looking forward to this book to fill in gaps on some of the historical context as well as some of those few places I've not yet visited.

Instead, I struggled mightily to finish this book, but finish it i did. I'm not sure I'm any better for it though or whether I'll return this for my credit, as i can't imagine having to make this slog again. It doesn't deserve a one star but it sure as heck doesn't deserve five stars.

Author is not a mountain lover

The author is not a mountain lover. Therefore, if you ARE a mountain lover and love ski lifts - you’ll be shocked to hear his disdain for gondolas and heights. Worse yet he comes across as arrogant and jumps around in the history portion (which follows his road trip vs any sequential storytelling). I can’t understand why he chose the subject given his attitude. I quit listening after a few chapters.