History and Travel

While Into the Heart of Borneo is described as a antic-filled journey to the center of an exotic land, it contains many passages that the reader picking up a book with this description would not expect. It is full of historical themes, excerpts and descriptions from previous English travelers in Borneo. Redmond O'Hanlon is a naturalist and a journalist. As such, it makes sense that he would read guides to Borneo written by travelers from decades ago and sometimes even a century or so ago.

Often these books will contain descriptions of the unique plant and animal life in Sarawak and in the jungle specifically. On other occasions, these excerpts will mention unusual dangers in the jungle or give great detail on native peoples. In still other cases, the guides will generate biological and evolutionary theories from their observations, just as Darwin did from his observations...