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The Worst Journey in the World | 
 enlarge | Author: Apsley Cherry-garrard
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 334865
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 607
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.9
ASIN: B0009PP2IQ
Publication Date: April 1, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
As Apsley Cherry-Garrard states in his introduction to the harrowing story of the Scott expedition to the South Pole, "Polar Exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World is a gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. The youngest member of Scott's team, the author was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and three men who had accompanied Scott on the final push to the Pole. These deaths would haunt Cherry-Garrard for the rest of his life as he questioned the decisions he had made and the actions he had taken in the days leading up to the Polar Party's demise. Prior to this sad denouement, Cherry-Garrard's account is filled with details of scientific discovery and anecdotes of human resilience in a harsh environment. Each participant in the Scott expedition is brought fully to life. Cherry-Garrard's recollections are supported by diary excerpts and accounts from other teammates. Despite the sad fate of Scott, the reader will grudgingly agree with the closing words of The Worst Journey in the World: "Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion. And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.... If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg."
Book Description
One of the most celebrated and exciting of all books on Antarctic exploration. Cherry-Garrard was the youngest member of the ill-fated 1912 expedition of Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole, and he later wrote this authoritative account of Scotts race against the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, to be the first to reach the Pole, and of its disastrous outcome. Original publication date 1922
New introduction by Karl E. Meyer
Photos by expedition member Herbert Ponting
New maps
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| Customer Reviews: Read 48 more reviews...
 One of my all-time favorites; I recommend it to everybody. June 13, 2008
You will NOT be sorry to embark upon this wonderfully written, dramatic, brave and heartbreaking story by a man who survived infinitely more than you and I ever will. With typical English stoicism, but with a beautiful and compassionate effort, he tried to understand Scott and all the others who travelled with him.
And when you're finished, read "Cherry", an authorized biography by Sara Wheeler for more of his life and times.
And sit by your warm fireplace...
 My order has never been received May 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Worst Journey in the World (purchased on 04/05/2008)
by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
This order has NOT been received. Please advise as what has happened to it.
best book about the worst journey April 17, 2008
i had been meaning to read this book for ages and when i started it i could not put it down.....what a read. thank you Amazon and keep up the good work.. yours Fintan.
Great Telling of a Great Adventure March 6, 2008
Cherry-Garrard is a literate,educated man, writing his experiences as well as including the memories, and journals of the other expedition members. Interesting how this young man of means who is accustomed to comfortable living,could endure such extreme hardship without complaint. The hardship and adventure begins with the terrible storm experienced on the ship from New Zealand to Antarctica. The description of this ordeal grabs hold and they haven't yet reached the Southern continent. The first year on the ice and the sledge trip during the winter months is gripping.
A compelling aspect is the matter of fact descriptions of the unbelievable [to us] hardship and daily rigors of living, sledging, carrying out scientific experiments, etc., in -20 to -70 degrees. Wind conditions that regularly must have sent wind chill factors [they never recorded such a thing] to -80 to -100 degrees,and the physical exertion. They regularly experience frost bite, hunger, occasional ptomaine from spoiled food, symptoms of Dysentary, and scurvy. Yet, they are able to recover. They never lose their spirit and comeraderie.
Until discovering the Pole parties' bodies the following year, Cherry-Garrard writes of his contentment and pride in being a member of this expedition.
In the subsequent years, until he writes the book in 1922, he becomes guilt ridden as to whether he and the other survivors could have reached and saved Scott before they died,[it seems apparent they could not have reached them. [In fact, rescueres would probably have died in an attempt]. It's impossible to imagine living in such conditions for 3 years. Constant cold, diet of seal, penguin, sometimes dog and horse, blubber, biscuit, and tea. Occasionally, chocolate, butter and sugar as a treat.
I agree with other reviewers that there is redundancy and repetition but I found it interesting to read how different members experienced the same events.
I thought from reading other books that Scott was somewhat naive and a dreamer when it came to planning and preparing for this expedition. I now feel differently. Scott prepared and planned diligently. He was well liked and respected by his men, in general, he was a strong leader. A terrible mistake was deciding at the last supply depot, to take 5 men on the final push to the Pole rather than the 4 which was the original plan. The 5th man, for which they did not have adequate supplies and the physical collapse of one member after reaching the Pole, probably cost them their lives.
Reading of a group of men living for years in these conditions, survival aways in doubt, out of touch with the rest of the world, gives perspective and toleration for what we think are trying experiences today. Early explorers are compared to to our astronauts. However,when one considers that communication is constant with space travelers. These men left and were never heard from again until they returned, if they did return, years later.
All time favourite travel book February 16, 2008
If you watch films like "The yourney of the penguins" you get not the slightest idea how brutally hostile for humans the environment of the South Pole is. If you read "The Worst Yourney In The World", you do. The book is a detailed description of the whole Scott Expedition, complete whith descriptions of packing lists, frostbite, snowblindness, awful food, recalcitrant ponys, and heroic English gentlemen. But the unpoetic language is exactly what makes the book such a worthwile read: The description is written in simple, honest words, that it gets your own imagination going. It reaches its climax with the Winter Yourney, where a small goup of men undertook a journey that was painful and horrific to a downright ridiculous extend, just to get their hands on some penguin eggs. Any romantic exaggeration would have destroyed the impact of this event in the readers mind, it is the simple, honest, sometimes even technial language that transforms this event into a classic tale. The character and the Winter Journey live on in literature, for example in Thomas Pynchons "V". The stuff of legends, on of my alltime favourites.
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