The Worst Journey in the World

by Apsley Cherry-Garrard and APSLEY CHERRY - GARRARD

Book Overview

"The Worst Journey in the World" recounts Robert Falcon Scotts ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrardthe youngest member of Scotts team and one of three men to make and survive... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143039385
• ISBN13: 9780143039389
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The best

One of the best adventure books I've ever read.

Antarctic Thriller

An adventure story just doesn't get any better than this, and what adds to the readers pleasure is that it is all true. I was fortunate enough to read this while on an Antarctic cruise. The descriptions of Antarctica and the conditions faced by this expedition are terrific. This book is about character, endurance, hope, tragedy, and ultimately, wonder and awe !

An Odyssey

Apsley's journey through the darkness of the stormy Antarctic winter to where the Emperor penguins stood with their eggs was one of the most moving journeys I have read about. Apsley tells the story with great humility and this endears him to the reader. This book would be worth buying simply for this story, but it also tells of Robert Falcon Scott's journey and the death of all of the party who made the final push to the pole. Apsley and the others who were not chosen to make the final push to the pole doggedly searched for their companions and friends and finally found them frozen. Apsley quotes Scott's journal detailing Scott's last moments and the fate of the others. This is harrowing, but inspiring reading. Apsley Cherry-Garrard is one of the more forgotten heros of Antarctic exploration. I use the word hero with trepidation, but it is apt in his case. He truly would lay down his life for his friends and he cared deeply for those he called friends.

An Adventure book Inside a History Book

In 1911-1912 the author as a young man was part of the ill fated Robert Falcon Scott British Expedition to be the "first" at the South Pole. The larger history of that effort's limited success and the stories of the lives lost is a well told as historical fact. Within the book lies the Chapter about the author's effort with two other companions to travel in a winter journey for the purpose of observing Emperor penguins in their nesting rookeries. This is the coldest journey "on record" with howling winds at -70 degrees f under total darkness climbing between open crevasses that were endlessly deep to retrieve a few unhatched eggs for scientific research. Once you've read this author's rendition of that "worst journey" no other adventure travelog can compare. Good reading and most unforgettable.

Worst Journey - best book

Apsley Cherry-Garrard's amazing tale of life in the Antarctic as the youngest member of Scott's fatal expedition. I was gripped from the very first line of this book; "Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." He describes wearing clothes for 6 months with no dirt building up on them, or it being 'more lonely than London' and later he talks of his later experiences in the Great War (1914-18) where the polar explorers felt, considering what they had been through, the trenches were a relatively comfortable alternative. In short Cherry-Garrard has a simple way with words that I loved.This Antartctic trip lasted some three years and ended with Scott's heroically-futile death - painfully close to supplies and help. Cherry-Garrard was one of those left at the base camp so he survived the trip - but don't think that his lot was much easier than those that struggled to the Pole. The book is as much about the Antarctic and the terrible hardships as about the people of the expedition. Cherry-Garrard's writing and his character seem to personify the stoic, good-humour of the men around him.The book is very long and I have to admit that I needed extra maps to make sense of where they were - even though there are maps throughout the book. This is not a book, I think, for someone who is not interested in reading further about exploration in the Antarctic, but it makes an excellent start point to read others.On a purely aesthetic note, the hard-cover version from Picador has the most wonderful cover and comes with a little ribbon to mark your place. It feels really lovely to read it.