Congo (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

by Michael Crichton

Contributed by ZealousAdventurer859

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References To Other Books

Direct References

King Solomon’s Mines

The fabled city of Zinj formed the basis for H. Rider Haggard’s popular novel King Solomon’s Mines, first published in 1885. Haggard, a gifted linguist, had served on the staff of the Governor of Natal in 1875.

The Congo Delta in Myth and History

*Johnson's principal reference was the definitive work by A. J. Parkinson. The Congo Delta in Myth and History (London; Peters. 1904).

The Death of Nature

In 1955, the French anthropologist Maurice Cavalle published a controversial paper entitled “The Death of Nature.” In it he said: One million years ago the earth was characterized by a pervasive wilderness which we may call “nature.” In the midst of this wild nature stood small enclaves of human habitation...

Interpretation of Dreams

Only after the expedition was concluded and Elliot had returned to Berkeley did he find the explanation to this perplexing event—in Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, first published in 1887.

Referenced By

Direct References

Travels

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

Travels

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

State of Fear

Eaters of the Dead CongoSphere

Places Referenced

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
"Peter Elliot was a twenty‐three‐year‐old graduate student when he first read about a year‐old gorilla with amoebic dysentery who had been brought from the Minneapolis zoo to the San Francisco School of Veterinary Medicine."
Washington, D.C., United States
"Martin, the diplomatic man, said, “We can’t get visas from the Zaire Embassy in Washington in time.”"
San Francisco, California
"DAY 2: SAN FRANCISCO       June 14, 1979"
London, England
"In 1661, Samuel Pepys saw a chimpanzee in London and wrote in his diary that it was “so much like a man in most things that. . . I do believe that it already understands much English, and I am of the mind it might be taught to speak or make signs.”"
Virunga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"Travis said, “As far as anybody knows, we still have an expedition in Virunga. If we put a second small team into the field fast enough, nobody will ever know that it wasn’t the original team.”"
Borneo, Southeast Asia
"Under “Primates” she found fourteen names, including several in Borneo, Malaysia, and Africa as well as the United States."
Berkeley, California
"At his first visit to the hospital to meet Amy, he found a pathetic little creature, heavily sedated, with restraining straps on her frail black arms and legs. (Amy lived in a mobile home on the Berkeley campus.)"
Congo, Africa
"Travis began by saying, “I want us back in the Congo in ninety‐six hours.”"
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"…and there are thirty Japanese trade officials in Kinshasa right now, spending yen like water."
New York, New York
"…one copy somehow (it is still unclear just how) fell into the hands of the Primate Preservation Agency, a New York group formed in 1975 to prevent the “unwarranted and illegitimate exploitation of intelligent primates in unnecessary laboratory research.”"
Berkeley, California
"On June 3, the PPA began picketing the Zoology Department at Berkeley, and calling for the “release” of Amy."
Chicago, Illinois
"Maurice, a Chicago orang, became intensely neurotic, developing phobias that halted work in 1977."
Norman, Oklahoma
"Dr. Wayne Turman, of the University of Oklahoma at Norman, was quoted as saying that Elliot’s work was “fanciful and unethical.”"
San Francisco, California
"Eleanor Vries announced that the PPA had hired the noted San Francisco attorney Melvin Bell “to free Amy from subjugation.”"
Congo, Africa
"Sarah Johnson, a research assistant, was checking prehistoric archaeological sites in the Congo, on the unlikely chance that Amy might have seen such a site (“old buildings in the jungle”) in her infancy."
Grant Street, San Francisco, California, United States
"Morton took notes on a yellow legal pad in the wood‐paneled library overlooking Grant Street."
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
"Timothy, an Atlanta chimp, became psychotic in 1976 and committed suicide by coprophagia, choking to death on his own feces."
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
"…before she was brought to the Minneapolis zoo."
Karakorum Mountains, Pakistan
"“Look, last week Harry did fill-in-the-blanks on the Karakorum Mountains and he got back a lunar landing game. You’re supposed to land next to the McDonald's stand, all very amusing.”"
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
"Mrs. Swenson brought her back to the States and donated her to the Minneapolis zoo."
Japan, Asia
"For one thing, the otter came from Japan. Someone named Morikawa—he’s in electronics in Tokyo."
Tokyo, Japan
"Someone named Morikawa—he’s in electronics in Tokyo. I found that out when the lawyer called back this morning to increase his offer."
Mombasa, Kenya
"In 1187 Ibn Baratu, an Arab in Mombasa, recorded that the natives of the region tell of a lost city far inland, called Zinj."
Zanzibar, Tanzania
"In 1292, a Persian named Mohammed Zaid stated that a large diamond of a man’s clenched fist was exhibited on the streets of Zanzibar."
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"The Congo was not navigable beyond the first set of rapids, two hundred miles inland (at what was once Léopoldville, and is now Kinshasa)."
Western Australia, Australia
"In February, 1977, a new pharmaceutical factory was built in Western Australia. In this factory all the pills came out on a conveyor belt."
Tangier, Morocco
"DAY 3: TANGIER, June 15, 1979"
Great Rift Valley, Eastern Africa
"This led Ross to look along the Great Rift Valley—an enormous geological fault thirty miles wide, which sliced vertically up the eastern third of the continent for a distance of fifteen hundred miles."
Virunga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"In 1872, Stanley passed near the Virunga region but did not enter it; in 1899, a German expedition went in, losing more than half its party."
Ubangi River, Central Africa
"In 1804, another British party led by a Scottish aristocrat, Sir James Taggert, approached Virunga from the north, getting as far as the Rawana bend of the Ubangi River."
Zaire, Central Africa
"Within fourteen days, Ross’s team would either have beaten the Euro-Japanese consortium or she would have failed and the Zaire Virunga mineral exploration rights would be lost forever."
San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, United States
"In photographs taken at San Francisco airport, Elliot and Ross appeared as two smiling, youthful academics embarking on an expedition to Africa."
Hallowell Road, San Francisco, California, United States
"Karen Ross found herself riding with Peter Elliot in his battered Fiat sedan along Hallowell Road, going past the University athletic field."
Congo, Africa
"…Elliot understood why the first explorers to the Congo had believed gorillas to be “hairy men,” for this magnificent creature looked like a gigantic man, both in size and shape."
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"‘Out of Kinshasa?’ Munro nodded."
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
"…the woman who had brought her from Africa and had donated her to the Minneapolis zoo."
South Africa, Africa
"…stories of baboons attacking farmhouses in South Africa and buses in Ethiopia."
Ethiopia, Africa
"…stories of baboons attacking farmhouses in South Africa and buses in Ethiopia."
Borneo, Southeast Asia
"…the woman who had been in Borneo all these weeks."
Berkeley, California
"Only after the expedition was concluded and Elliot had returned to Berkeley did he find the explanation to this perplexing event—in Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, first published in 1887."
San Francisco, California
"Elliot recorded thirty additional skeletal measurements for later analysis by the computer back in San Francisco."
Houston, Texas
"During the evening, Elliot transmitted the taped breath sounds to Houston, and from there they were relayed to San Francisco."
Boulder, Colorado
"The largest solar flare of 1979 was recorded on June 24, by the Kitt Peak Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, and duly passed on to the Space Environment Services Center in Boulder, Colorado."
Stanleyville, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"The news would come to them: “Digger bought it last week outside Stanleyville.” “Outside? Why’d he leave home?”"
South Africa, Africa
"Go to the South African diamond mines or the Bolivian emerald mines and the first thing you are made aware of is the security."
Bolivia, South America
"Go to the South African diamond mines or the Bolivian emerald mines and the first thing you are made aware of is the security."
Borneo, Southeast Asia
"Mrs. Swenson travels constantly; she’s in Borneo."
Tucson, Arizona, United States
"The largest solar flare of 1979 was recorded on June 24, by the Kitt Peak Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, and duly passed on to the Space Environment Services Center in Boulder, Colorado."
Detroit, Michigan
"In 1978, for each new automobile that rolled off the Detroit assembly lines, the cost of worker health benefits exceeded the cost of all the steel used to build the car."
Bristol, England
"In 1971, the British scientist R. V. S. Wright decided to teach an ape to make stone tools. His pupil was a five-year-old orangutan named Abang in the Bristol zoo."
Houston, Texas
"By 11:45 P.M. on the night of June 13, the sequencing had been worked out—a fully loaded 747 could leave Houston at 8 P.M. the following evening, June 14; the plane could be in Africa on June 15 to pick up Munro “or someone like him.”"
Houston, Texas
"A Dr. Karen Ross from the Earth Resources Wildlife Fund called from Houston to say that she was leading an expedition into the Congo in two days’ time."
Houston, Texas
"…by shining infrared light on the walls and recording the image with the video camera—and then feeding that image via Satellite through the digitizing computer programs in Houston, and returning it back to their portable display unit…"
San Francisco, California
"Peter Elliot remembered June 14, 1979, as a day of sudden reverses. He began at 8 A.M. in the San Francisco law firm of Sutherland, Morton & O’Connell."