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The Worst Journey in the World (Penguin Classics)
List price: $18.00
Sale price: $12.24
You save: $5.76 (32%)
Author(s): Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Binding: Paperback
Creator(s): Introduction Caroline Alexander
Dewey Decimal Number: 919.8904
EAN: 9780143039389
ISBN: 0143039385
Label: Penguin Classics
Language(s): English Original LanguageEnglish UnknownEnglish Published
List Price: $18.00
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 688
Package Dimensions:
Height: 1.18"
Width: 5.04"
Length: 1.18"
Weight: 0.97 lbs.
Product Group: Book
Address: 2006-02-28
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Editorial Reviews
Product Description:
The Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard—the youngest member of Scott’s team and one of three men to make and survive the notorious Winter Journey—draws on his firsthand experiences as well as the diaries of his compatriots to create a stirring and detailed account of Scott’s legendary expedition. Cherry himself would be among the search party that discovered the corpses of Scott and his men, who had long since perished from starvation and brutal cold. It is through Cherry’s insightful narrative and keen descriptions that Scott and the other members of the expedition are fully memorialized.
Customer Reviews Average rating - 5.0
Rating - 5 Date: 2009-01-06
Content: `The Worst Journey in the World` (1922) is often cited as a masterpiece of travel literature. It is number one on National Geographic's list of 100 all time best travel literature, and is the first title in the prestigious Picador Travel Classics series. A. Alvarez has praised its "perfect prose: lucid, vivid, bone-simple, and full of feeling." The expedition was literary from the start and the "good modern fiction" the party brought along included Thackery, Charlotte Bronte, Bulwer-Lytton and Dickens. The poetry packed to the pole on the final fateful journey was Browning and Tennyson. Authors who stirred discussions included Shaw and Wells. Authors who were friends with members of the expedition included Galsworthy and Barrie. Robert Louis Stevenson is often mentioned. Each of the chapters of the book begins with poetry fragment from Shakespeare, Browning, Huxley, etc.. even the structure of the book is literary, re-telling the same events from different perspectives, building up to the climatic discovery of the fate of Scott. Cherry himself often delights with brilliant insightful views on travel, man, the meaning of life. This is Travel "Literature" with a capital L.
Apsley Cherry-Garrad ("Cherry") was the wealthy heir of two estates who joined Scott's team as an assistant zoologist at the age of 24. He was educated at Oxford in Classics and modern history. In the tradition of the British amateur explorer he took on multiple roles, ultimately becoming the expeditions historian. He wrote Journey using the diaries of the team in the years after WWI while recovering from an illness.
From their base camp at McMurdo Sound the three-year expedition made a number of trips composed of different groups. The trip to the pole by Scott is the most famous, but there were others. The title of the book, "Worst Journey", actually refers to a 67-mile 5-week trip by three members, including Cherry, in what at the time was twice as long as any previous Antarctic journey on the open ice. It only composes about 1/8th of the books length but is probably the most remarkable. They survived -70 degree temperatures and hurricane storms with primitive gear made from leather and canvas while man-hauling multi-hundred pound sleds and living on 4000 calories or less per day of nearly vitamin-free biscuits and pemmican (considered "adequate" at the time, today twice that is usual for explorers). Cherry interlaces his narrative with allusions to Dante, The Pilgrims Progress and Walt Whitman all the while maintaining that plucky cheery Edwardian foolhardiness that would run aground in the trenches of WWI. Cherry's teeth shattered from the cold, killing the nerves.
The retelling of Scott's trip to the Pole is equally gripping, and "horrific", also living up to the books title. In later years Cherry suffered from survivors guilt and wrote `Postscript to the Worst Journey in the World` (1948) in which he severely reproaches himself for not doing more to save Scott and the party. Cherry died in 1959.
EDITIONS: Only some editions contain this Postscript. The Penguin edition does not. Officially it was re-printed in the 1951 edition, and in the 1994 Picador Travel Classics edition with an Introduction by Paul Theroux. I also found a 2004 paperback edition with an Introduction by Paul Theroux which might contain the Postscript but I don't know for sure: The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913 (Explorers Club Classic) (2004). It should also be noted the 1951 edition was "corrected by the author" so it probably contains other changes - these changes I believe are also reflected in the Picador edition, but not the Penguin edition which is based on the 1922 text, as most are since it is now in the public domain. If you can afford it, the 1994 Picador hardcover appears to be the most up to date authoritative edition, otherwise the 2004 paperback looks like a re-reprint of the Picador for a lot less, but I have not seen it to verify.
Summary: Masterpiece / information about editions
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-11-04
Content: The exploration described in this book is almost unbelievable in terms of its difficulty. It describes amazing feats but it also describes day to
day activities and experiences.
The book is readable enough. It is not a classic turner but anyone should be able to read it. It is definitely worth reading.
I am not sure they make people this tough any more.
Summary: Great Adventure Book - These Guys Were Crazy Tough
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-10-04
Content: I've read almost every book written on exploration of the South Pole, and this book - by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a member of Scott's expedition who never wrote anything else - is one of the best. The other reviews here give many of the details, so I won't repeat them, but this is worth reading by anyone who loves a great adventure story.
Summary: One of the greatest polar exploration stories of all time
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-09-25
Content: The Worst Journey in the World By Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Apsley Cherry-Garrard was a privileged English gentleman of twenty-four when he paid 1,000 pounds to accompany Robert Falcon Scott on his ill-fated "Terra Nova" expedition to the South Pole in 1911. It was the twilight of the British Empire, although no one knew it, and there was only one place on Earth left to explore: Antarctica. Scott had prepared for this expedition with his earlier "Discovery" mission, even leaving stores of supplies at various points. Things began to go bad almost as soon as the ship left port: animals sickened, the load shifted, the winds didn't blow enough or blew too much, and the ship got stuck in the Ice.
The general plan was for the group to proceed by sled hauled by themselves, not dogs or machines. This "man-hauling" concept had been abandoned as worthless by Amundsen, the Norwegian who would haunt Scott throughout the journey. Everything that could go bad, did. Animals got sick and died; food spoiled; fuel ran out; men became blinded by the snow glare and frostbitten. The idea was to slog as far South as possible as a group, and then for a smaller force led by Scott to reach the pole.
But it was far colder in the interior than Scott had believed possible - down to Minus 45 and Minus 50. With their limited equipment, survival in those conditions was impossible. Scott and his group essentially froze to death at their last camp. One man walked into a blizzard saying " I am just going outside. I may be a while." Cherry and his group found the leader and his team dead in their final camp, and built a cairn in their honor. One of the final entries in Scott's journal:
"The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole. It is a terrible disappointment, and I am very sorry for my loyal companions. .. The Pole, yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected... Great God, this is an Awful Place!"
Cherry never doubted Scott's judgment or character, but others have. Recent biographies including Roland Huntford's "The Last Place on Earth" depict Scott as vain, headstrong, resistant to criticism and petty. Huntford, referring to Cherry's account of Scott's admission that he may have failed to use the dogs properly, says: "this is Scott's first recorded admission of a mistake...that the fault may have been his, and not the animals'. Scott...had begun to feel very doubtful that the ponies will do their job & evidently thinks Amundsen with his dogs may be doing much better. The sight of a commander not only rueing his actions, but lacking the self-control to hide it, was hardly uplifting." (Huntford, "The Last Place on Earth, P. 406) But Scott, despite his many flaws, remains a hero to most of the English speaking world. Cherry himself, having accomplished so much so young, settled into a comfortable upper middle class life in England. writing and speaking of his experience.
"The Worst Journey in the World" is a classic of human endurance and will.
It is inconceivable that men of today's world, using Scott's equipment, technique, and knowledge, could have done what he did.
# # #
Suggestions for Further Reading:
South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance (The Explorers Club Classic)
The Last Place on Earth (Modern Library Exploration)
Summary: Will
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-08-02
Content: Get this book and read it to your children. Teach them of the days when men were men (and British at that!). Wean them from the cultural myth that whining and wimping and looking out for yourself alone are desirable traits. This book is about more than survival; it is about life and living. Here men give their all for the mission, for each other, for the animals in their service. You read it and wonder, could I have lived it? The book will answer, reminding you that there is more to life and more to live for, than we ever realized.
Summary: WHAT YOU HOPE YOUR HUSBAND COULD DO
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