Synopsis
Examines the ill-fated South Pole expedition of Scott and four other men in 1910, revealing the perseverance, courage, and spirit of the explorers, their haunting demise, and the discovery made by the rescue party in 1912.
Reviews
"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." So reads Captain Robert Falcon Scott's message from the grave, found in a tent with his frozen corpse and the bodies of two fellow explorers, after his expedition had lost the race to the South Pole. Disheartened by their defeat at the hands of the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the British team struggled on their return trip, succumbing to the Antarctic elements only 11 miles from the fuel and food that might have saved them. Scott was the most revered of the major Antarctic explorers of his day: Amundsen may have personified professionalism, and Shackleton, endurance; but Scott?perhaps only by dying?represented the courage and heroism that an insecure, prewar Britain craved. Drawing on the poetic writings of the explorers themselves, Preston (The Road to Culloden Moor) illuminates Scott's occasional bad luck, inexperience and even ineptitude without diminishing his unquestionable courage, honor and humanity. Indeed, it is Preston's balanced look at Scott's life and its context that sets this book apart from the many other works on the subject. Three maps, two 8-page b&w inserts.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
An imaginative, sympathetic biography of the famous and ill-fated Antarctic explorer. English biographer Preston, author of a life of Bonnie Prince Charlie (The Road to Culloden Moor, not reviewed), attended a girls high school in Hampstead in the entrance hall of which were emblazoned the words of Robert Falcon Scott: 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. Scott did not live, of course: he and four companions who had set off to find the South Pole in 1912 died horribly of starvation and cold, and in any event they were beaten to the pole by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Ironies attended their deaths, not the least of them the fact that Scott and his team perished just a few miles from a depot of food and supplies; all the same, Preston rightly notes, those deaths were not in vain, at least not on the national-pride front. England had nearly lost the Boer War, and the Titanic had recently sunk; the nation needed a hero and found one in a young naval officer who feared for the character of his own soul, thanks to a domineering father who accused him of indolence and cowardice, and who had a terror of being thought below par. That Scott acquitted himself admirably on the ice and was considered a model leader by his men did not do much to give the explorer greater self-esteem, but, writes Preston, he confined expressing his terrors to his much-quoted diary, in which he recorded his last moments in the hope that he would thereby make a tale for our generation which I hope may not be lost in the telling. Preston gracefully retells that stirring, unmistakably heroic, and sadly doomed adventure for a new generation. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Before deep-sea diving to the wreck of the Titanic, before spaceflight to the moon, and before treks up Mount Everest, there were expeditions to the North Pole and the South Pole; and when such heroes as Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen finally reached the South Pole, the world marveled. Despite his successes, Scott and four companions died during a 1911 trek to Antarctica, and Preston's book is a riveting look at Scott the man. He was a hero, to be sure, and far from a blustering, cocky fool, for he weighed each move realistically and still remained unsure afterward. The adventure of his early trips to the icy continent and the schmoozing of expedition investors are countered by Scott's loving relationship with his wife, Kathleen, a spiritual soul mate. Preston's in-depth look at the man behind the expedition makes this a first-rate adventure story about one of the most stirring and heartbreaking expeditions of all. Joe Collins
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