Tristes Tropiques

Tristes Tropiques

Cover of the first edition
Author	Claude Lévi-Strauss
Translator	John Russell
Language	French
Series	Collection Terre humaine
Subject	Anthropology
Published	1955 (Librairie Plon, in French) 1961 (Hutchinson & Co, in English)
Publication place	France, Brazil
Media type	Print
Pages	404 (1961 English edition) 425 (1975 Atheneum edition)
ISBN	2-266-11982-6

Tristes Tropiques (the French title translates literally as "Sad Tropics") is a memoir, first published in France in 1955, by the anthropologist and structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss.^[1] It documents his travels and anthropological work, focusing principally on Brazil, though it refers to many other places, such as the Caribbean and India. Although ostensibly a travelogue, the work is infused with philosophical reflections and ideas linking many academic disciplines, such as sociology, geology, music, history and literature. The book was first translated into English by John Russell as A World on the Wane.