Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica (Modern Library (Paperback)) - Softcover

Wheeler, Sara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375753389 ISBN 13: 9780375753381

Publisher: Modern Library, 1999

Synopsis

Ever since the time of Captain Cook, Antarctica has captured the imagination of countless explorers who set off against great odds in search of riches and honor, for science or a better world. Sara Wheeler weaves together her own experiences on the ice with the grueling adventures of Antarctica's most mythic figures - the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who beat his rival to the Pole by twenty-nine days; Ernest Shackleton, whose men lived on seal and penguin blubber for three months when their ship was pierced by an iceberg; Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who famously braved the polar winter to hunt down rare penguin eggs that were ignored and eventually lost back home; Robert Falcon Scott, whose heroic example inspired countless young men to sacrifice themselves in the First World War. Accounts of these epic expeditions alternate with Sara Wheeler's own adventures in Antarctica, where a motley crew of scientists, drifters and dreamers search for bacterial traces that might hold the key to life on Mars, harass penguins and seek to measure this still largely impenetrable land.

About this title

Review:

"A triumph . . . I cannot believe that anything better will ever be written about Antarctica." --Daily Telegraph

"Compelling . . . leaves the reader with a visceral understanding of the mysterious, even sublime power the poles have exerted
on the human imagination, and the desolate beauty that resides there amid the glaciers and icebergs and penguins."
--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"I have read many accounts of polar exploration, but never one which so touchingly describes its emotional topography. . . . What she has done could not be done better." --Richard Eyre, The Independent

"The first funny book about Antarctica." --Los Angeles Times

Book Description:

A modern classic on exploring and understanding the most uncharted place on our planet.

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0375753389
• ISBN 13: 9780375753381
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384