One hundred years have passed since Robert Falcon Scott's beleagured expeditionary team arrived at the South Pole, only to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
The most feted explorer of his generation, Amundsen counted the discovery of the Northwest Passage, in 1905, as well as the North Pole amongst his greatest achievements. In the golden age of polar exploration Amundsen, whose revolutionary approach to technology transcends polar and nautical significance, was a titan among men. However, until now, his story has rarely featured as more than a footnote to Scott's tragic failure.
Reviled for defeating Scott but worshipped by his men, Amundsen was pursued by women and creditors throughout his life before disappearing on a rescue mission for the Italian Fascist who had set off in an airship to claim the North Pole for Mussolini. The Last Viking is the life of a visionary and a showman, who brought the era of Shackleton to an end, put the newly independent Norway on the map and was the twentieth century's brightest trailblazing explorer.
Against the backdrop of the race to conquer the most inhospitable corners of the earth, The Last Viking stands alongside The Worst Journey in the World for its grim immediacy of heroism and hardship. Bestriding the generation defined by adventure and the unquenchable desire for discovery, it is the mesmerising story of courage, misery, friendship and the ultimate price paid for immortality.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'Fascinating biography. As a depiction of an explorer's life however, it is intelligent and often thrilling. Hi focus and resolution are, in their own way, admirable. Perhaps it is time for the British to jettison their pique, and learn to admire this complex and deeply modern figure.' 'Stephen Bown celebrates this pioneering explorer and redresses the balance of an enigmatic man who was a footnote to another story for far too long.' 'An enjoyable and informative biography' Stephen Bown delivers an intensely researched, thoroughly enjoyable life of one history's best explorers.
As the author demonstrates, Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) was certainly the most skilled polar explorer. Obsessed with adventure from boyhood, the teenage Amundsen led companions on exhausting attempts to cross the mountains of his native Norway during winter. He joined the 1897 Belgian Antarctic expedition, receiving a painful education on the consequences of poor planning. In 1903, he outfitted a fishing boat with a crew of six and crossed the Northwest Passage from Greenland to Alaska. Moored for two years in the Arctic, he eagerly learned from the local Inuit. The lessons he learned-ignorance of which killed many polar explorers-included: Animal-skin clothes trump wool, and transportation requires dogs and skis. The crossing gave Amundsen international celebrity, making it easier to finance an expedition to the North Pole. When both Robert Peary and Frederick Cook claimed to have reached it (a controversy that persists), Amundsen aimed for the South Pole, announcing the decision before Robert Falcon Scott announced his expedition. Superbly organized and supplied, Amundsen's expert skiers and dog handlers won the race in 1911 and survived, while Scott's less efficient team died. After World War I, Amundsen failed to reach the North Pole by plane but succeeded by dirigible, finally disappearing in 1928 while flying to rescue another expedition.
A superb biography of a fiercely driven explorer who traveled across the last inaccessible areas on earth before technical advances made the journey much easier.
Kirkus review
'Captivating...Bown makes a compelling case that Amundsen deserves renewed recognition for his outstanding achievements.'
'An enjoyable and informative biography'
'It was a life of adventure, full of exploits that would make a work of fiction blush. Bown attempts to give us an insight into this man of iron, and what drove him from triumph to triumph.'
'Stephen Bown celebrates this pioneering explorer and redresses the balance of an enigmatic man who was a footnote to another story for far too long.'
'Fascinating biography. As a depiction of an explorer's life however, it is intelligent and often thrilling. Hi focus and resolution are, in their own way, admirable. Perhaps it is time for the British to jettison their pique, and learn to admire this complex and deeply modern figure.'
Sprache
Verlagsort
Minneapolis
Großbritannien
Verlagsgruppe
ISBN-13
978-1-78131-084-7 (9781781310847)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Stephen Bown was born in Ottawa and graduated in history from the University of Alberta. Specialising in the history of science and exploration, his books include Sightseers and Scholars: Scientific Travelers in the Golden Age of Natural History and the internationally successful Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail.
