It is a measure of the power of this book that when it first appeared in Britain, it caused an uproar and a few years later, a television series that was adapted from it created a flurry of angry letters to newspapers and a great deal of public discussion in which the book was rubbished and its author condemned-even vilified in some quarters for suggesting that Fridtjof Nansen was engaged in a sexual affair with Kathleen Scott while her husband lay freezing in his tent. Huntford proves all of this wrong, and much more, to boot. Roald Amundsen is a sort of afterthought: Oh, yes, the dour Norwegian actually got to the Pole and planted his flag first, but that's a detail he was very lucky and a little devious. Scott's expedition was essentially scientific he was beset by bad weather.
What most people know of the conquest of the South Pole is that Captain Scott got there and then died heroically on the return journey that when the Polar party lay tent-bound and apparently doomed, Captain Oates unselfishly said, "I am just going outside and may be some time," and took himself out to die, so that his comrades might live that Scott represented self-sacrifice and endurance, and glorious failure, the personification of the British ideal of plucky defeat. May be incomplete or contain other coding. Sample text for Library of Congress control number 99041398 Sample text for The last place on Earth / Roland Huntford.īibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalogĬopyrighted sample text provided by the publisher and used with permission.
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