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The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic | 
 enlarge | Author: Edward Beauclerk Maurice
Creator: Lawrence Millman
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 491460
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0618517510
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.92
EAN: 9780618517510
ASIN: 0618517510
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
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Condition: BRAND NEW 71
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Product Description
"This is a great book about life at remote bases in Canada's far north as seen by a young English boy who went there by himself to see the world and got more than he could have bargained for. Beautifully written." --Sir Ranulph Fiennes
"As spare, gleaming, and exhilarating as the Arctic wastes and the gentle, stoic Eskimos who had mastery of this realm . . . The book evokes the frozen seas, whale hunts, snow plains and storms that intimidated those rash enough to brave this world, and the traditions, myths, and hunting skills that contoured a bygone way of life . . . His translucent prose is a sparkling and moving record." -- Times (London)
At sixteen, Edward Beauclerk Maurice impulsively signed up with the Hudson's Bay Company -- the Company of Gentleman Adventurers -- and was sent to an isolated trading post in the Canadian Arctic, where there was no telephone or radio and only one ship arrived each year. But the Inuit people who traded there taught him how to track polar bears, build igloos, and survive expeditions in ferocious winter storms. He learned their language and became so immersed in their culture and way of life that children thought he was Inuit himself. When an epidemic struck, Maurice treated the sick using a simple first aid kit, and after a number of the hunters died, he had to start hunting himself, often with women, who soon began to compete for his affections. The young man who in England had never been alone with a woman other than his mother and sisters had come of age in the Arctic.
In The Last Gentleman Adventurer Edward Beauclerk Maurice transports the reader to a time and a way of life now lost forever.
After serving in the New Zealand navy during World War II, Edward Beauclerk Maurice became a bookseller in an English village and rarely traveled again. He died in 2003 as this, his only book, was being readied for publication.
"If you like reality, The Last Gentleman Adventurer will be your cup of tea: a delicious quaff of it. Savor it!" -- Edward Hoagland
"Maurice's memoir supplies a fascinating elegy to a vanishing world." -- Telegraph
"One of those rare writers who will be remembered for turning out one great memoir/travel book . . . He relates these events in a beautiful prose that is quaintly elegant in tone but never archly so . . . Not only a gentleman but a wonderful writer who limited his output to one book, and perhaps that is why it reads so beautifully." -- Sunday Tribune (Dublin)
"Maybe he was exceptional, but the charm of his book lies in its modesty; he makes no claims for himself. His concern was to make a record of some amazing adventures and a vanishing way of life; these are woven into an eye-opening narrative that is suffused with kindliness and an attitude to growing up more restrained but more humane than that prevailing today. A gentleman adventurer indeed." -- Times Educational Supplement
"A deceptively simple account of how he grew to manhood, shaped on one hand by the brutal elements of the Arctic, on the other by the compassionate communities of Inuit who understood them . . . This is a beautifully unadorned, homespun tale with a lack of self-consciousness rare in travel literature . . . I was charmed." -- Benedict Allen, Independent on Sunday
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
The Last Gentleman Adventurer March 16, 2008
This was an amazing story of the early years of the Hudson Bay Company and a year of young mans life at a trading post in the Arctic. I couldn't stop reading. I only wish the author had not stopped his story writing.
A must for those interested in "Up North" February 19, 2008
Fascinating story. Written in very genuine, matter of fact style. Author was completely open to learning all he could about Inuit culture, and this comes through in the book. A must read if you want to understand the culture and ecology of the arctic. Read this, then go watch "The Naked Runner."
 A well-written memoir, cheerfully told January 13, 2008
In this beautifully written book, Edward Beauclerk Maurice takes the reader to a distant, cold land to experience heartwarming stories of adventure, love and loss.
Maurice spent five years living with Eskimos (Inuit) on Baffin Island in northern Canada as a representative of the Hudson's Bay Company. He came of age there, starting as naive 16-year-old and growing to become an experienced leader by 21.
Maurice tells his stories in an understated and humble manner. When he falls in the water, he makes a joke. When he nearly plummets to his death off a cliff, he blames his own clumsiness. When Eskimo women express interest in him, you can almost feel him blushing. You really can't help but like him.
There's danger and adventure here, too. Maurice confronts wolves and polar bears. Storms tear the roof off buildings and threaten to swamp boats. Eskimos die tragic deaths.
Particularly well-written is a story near the middle of the book where Maurice and an Eskimo come to the rescue of a village where people are dying from a contagious disease. It's a grim scene, and I could feel myself there through Maurice's writing.
As a I read "The Last Gentleman Adventurer," I was somewhat wistful that neither I, nor anyone else, will ever get a chance to experience this sort of life again. It was an isolated existence, and Maurice and the Eskimos had to completely depend on each other and to live off the land. There was almost no communication with the outside world; a supply boat came just once a year.
The book is divided into two parts -- the first includes highlights of Maurice's first few years on Baffin Island. The second is a more detailed description of his life at a base where he was the only non-Eskimo for one year.
If you're wondering why I give this four stars, not five, it's only because in the second half of the book there are some flat parts where Maurice could have perhaps summarized and moved on. I also wish the book had a map.
Despite those small complaints, I'd love to see someone turn this into a movie. It's not a big blockbuster story that would interest major studios, but I could see the BBC or PBS adapting this for TV.
Readers who enjoy this book would also enjoy "Alaska Wilderness" by Robert Marshall.
Authentic..lovely read! September 19, 2007
I spent 9 years in Canada's Eastern Arctic in the 80"s and 90"s and this book struck a powerful chord with me. The author is perceptive enough and humble enough to gain a thorough understanding of the Inuit people and talented enough to bring his experience to life for us.
I am a big fan of this man. He brings the Inuit to life with great compassion and truth without decending into the hero worship that sometimes inflicts visitors to the far north. These are real people and the good and the bad comes accross.
There are also some fun adventures and honest reporting of how the experience transforms the author. I loved this book. I even wrote the authors family asking if he had other works to publish! That a book like this took decades to find a publisher when trash is printed on a daily basis speaks volumes.
This book rings true with every sentence. Like all great books I was sad when it ended, like on the departure of a true friend.
incredible read January 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An amazing account of a young man stepping up to the plate of life in a difficult environment requiring not only daring and tenacity, but incredible personal and political skills not usually inherent in a man of his age. An amazing tale of adventure, friendship, and loyalty.
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