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Title: The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard ISBN: 0-7867-0437-3 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: April, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (37 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Worse Time Than An Emperor Penguin
Comment: In the first paragraph of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's introduction to this book, he starts his tale of Antarctic travails with the droll line, "I do not believe anybody on Earth has a worse time than an Emperor penguin." This displays his very modest and understated tale of what was really the worst journey in the world. This book deserves its reputation as an adventure classic, as Cherry-Garrard outlines the disastrous expedition for the South Pole by Captain R.F. Scott in 1913, in which the author was a young expedition member. This book certainly has its share of great adventure narratives and tales of hardship as experienced by the early explorers, including many falls into crevasses, continuous deadly weather, and near-madness brought on by the midnight sun or snowblindness. There are some unexpectedly interesting tales from before the actual expedition as well, as the author describes the voyage by ship to Antarctica with the trouble of having ponies and sled dogs on board, while the ship got trapped in pack ice for weeks.
This book can be a tough read however, because Cherry-Garrard was a rather tedious writer. Note that the book was written in 1922 and styles were different back then, while the author admits that he meant to create a field guide for future explorers and not armchair adventurers, like most of us are today. However, this doesn't alleviate some of the writing difficulties. About a third of the time the author's style is very conversational and light-hearted, especially when he is praising his teammates in the expedition and describing their personal interactions. Otherwise though, the book often gets stuck in extremely verbose technical explanations of provisions and logistics. An example is an episode early in the book when the author, a few colleagues, and their horses were trapped on shore ice that was breaking up, and they had to jump the horses and themselves from floe to floe, over stretches of frigid water, all the while being observed ominously by a troop of killer whales. The author describes this harrowing episode with such clinical, detached understatement that all the obvious horror and heroism are ironed out. This problem is alleviated in the later stages of the book, as Cherry-Garrard describes the tragic death of Captain Scott and other team members in the doomed return trip from the South Pole. Plus, the final chapter is very moving as the author philosophizes on the loss of his comrades and the ethics of such dangerous exploration, with an eloquent sense of survivor's guilt. So while some portions become a tedious technical manual rather than a tale of heroism and exploration, this classic book is still a very worthy read for adventure fans.
Rating: 5
Summary: A superb account of Scott's expedition
Comment: "The Worst Journey in the World" is one of the finest pieces of travel writing in English. Cherry-Garrard starts his story in June, 1910, as the _Terra Nova_ is leaving Cardiff, and ends it in early 1913, with Robert Scott and four of his men dead on the ice.
The book has two separate climaxes. The first is the "Winter Journey", which Cherry-Garrard took with Birdie Bowers and Bill Wilson, to recover Emperor penguin eggs, which were then (erroneously) thought to be scientifically important. Cherry-Garrard's prose is archetypically English, restrained and transparent; but his language almost fails him here. Only his understated style tells you how bad it must be for him to say of an Antarctic hurricane that hit them: "The earth was torn in pieces: the indescribably fury and roar of it all cannot be imagined." Later he makes it clear that for him there are no words that can convey it. This journey is, despite what comes later in the book, in some ways the most memorable chapter. It took five weeks, in Antarctic winter darkness. A temperature of -40 when they camped was a warm night for them. They lost their tent--certain death--blown away in a three-day hurricane, and miraculously found it again. It's no use; I can't give you an idea of it in this review; all I can do is tell you to read this chapter, if you won't read the whole book--you will never forget it.
The second climax is of course the story of Scott's expedition. Five men died; Edgar Evans of scurvy; Titus Oates, who not long before the end, with horribly gangrenous feet, walked into the blizzard to die in the hope that the party would be less burdened without him, and Scott, Wilson and Bowers, found dead in their tent by Cherry-Garrard and the others of the search party eight months later, only eleven miles from a depot that might have saved them. Cherry-Garrard went with them as far as the top of the Beardmore Glacier, and tells the story from that point on using various diaries and journals of the rest of the party. Some of the secondary stories are in themselves amazing feats of heroism and endurance, such as Crean, who walked thirty five miles non-stop alone in the terrible cold to bring medical help for Lieutenant Evans, dying of scurvy.
The one flaw is the maps; I wished for more of them, and more detail, though the two main journeys are covered well enough. I don't agree with those reviewers who found the book ponderous, though; it's detailed, but well-written. I found little I wanted to skip except the occasional list of stores.
If you want the most recent historiography, analyzing why Scott's expedition failed while Amundsen's succeeded with so little trouble, you may want to go elsewhere. Here you'll find the record of a contemporary, a polar expert, passionate and sincere. An unforgettable book.
Rating: 5
Summary: They felt like friends when I was done.
Comment: As an American I don't even recall being taught anything at all about Scott and his men when I was in school.
I saw a article in a Life magazine special that got me curious and did a web search and discovered Cherry's excellent book.
Its my favorite adventure book of all time and the men were a different breed than most today. Bowers in particular sounded amazing, I think I'd rather have a conversation with him than Scott if I had the ability to go back in time and meet only one.
Sure there was the occasional dry spell but considering the age of the book I thought it was remarkably contemporary sounding.
Most amazing of all to me though was the fact that after reading the book at least 3 months ago I still think about it at least every other day!
Not only that it seems like Cherry, Scott, Bowers, Wilson and Evans were old friends of mine that in my opinion is a true testament to Cherry's writing.
I wish it had more pictures but I guess you can't have everything.
P.S. I can't help but looking at modern things and modern problems and thinking what would Bowers think of that or Cherry, I'm sure they'd be depressed at the overall state of morals around the world and Englands decline would suprise them but in particular I wonder what they would think of modern clothing and stuff like GPS.
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