Journals - Hardcover

Scott, R.F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192803336 ISBN 13: 9780192803337

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2005

Synopsis

In January 1912 Captain Scott reached the South Pole, to find he had been beaten by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. Scott and his companions faced an 850-mile march to safety. All perished on the return. A few months later, a search party found Scott's body and the journals which
told his tragic story.

Scott's own account was published to extraordinary acclaim in 1913. Danger grips the reader from the first chapter, as the Terra Nova struggles to force a path through the pack ice. The journey to an unknown land becomes a journey into the self, as Scott's mood oscillates between hope and despair.
And, in his last entries, Scott gives voice to the heroic fantasies of his generation, the generation which would fight and die in the Great War.

This new edition draws on ninety years of reflection on the Antarctic disaster to illuminate Scott's journals, publishing for the first time a complete list of the changes made to Scott's original text. Drawing on papers from the John Murray archive which have never been used before, Max Jones
tells the story of this remarkable book and charts the changing fortunes of Scott's reputation.

About this title

Review:

In November 1910, a ship called Terra Nova left New Zealand on its way south to Antarctica. On board was an international team of explorers led by Robert Falcon Scott, a man determined to be the first to reach the South Pole. A year and a half later, Scott and three members of his team died during a brutal blizzard. Their dream of reaching the Pole first had already been dashed by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, and now on their return trip--slowed by ill health and bad weather--Scott's party found themselves trapped in a tent without sufficient provisions, while the wind howled endlessly outside. Even in his final hours, Scott found the strength to continue the journal he'd started at the beginning of his adventures; the diary was found beside his frozen body.

Scott's Last Expedition: The Journals is the explorer's detailed account of his time in Antarctica. The team's daily progress towards their final goal is recorded in Scott's vivid, personal narrative, as well as his impressions of the harsh conditions, the stark beauty of the tundra, and his own increasingly desperate ambition to beat his rivals to the Pole. Shortly before he died, Scott wrote: "Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman." Robert Falcon Scott and his men died, but their story lives on in his journals.

About the Author:

Max Jones is a Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Manchester.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0192803336
• ISBN 13: 9780192803337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 592