The Worst Journey in the World (Penguin Classics)

I was waiting for the physical copy of this book to come out, and it has surpassed ALL my expectations. The author has experience with animation and you can tell with the incredible character design and composition. It's very cinematic. Cherry's narration is a little dry at times, (it's from his real memoir after all) but I think the illustration makes it legible even for younger readers. It has informational asides about the environment and ship navigation between scenes of fighting storms and exploring new shores. In the foreword, the author acknowledges that she's made some changes to the phrasing of the original work for pacing, and that her goal is bringing these men back to life. I think she excelled at that. The personality of the crew really shines through in the dialogue and expressions. The backgrounds are meticulously detailed. The overall effect feels like getting a glimpse back in time. (If you are buying this book for a younger reader, know that the expedition DID end in the tragic death of three crew members and there are subtle references to that throughout Volume 1, nothing graphic. That being said, later volumes will likely deal more directly with dark subject matter.)

The description of the 1911 journey to collect Emperor Penguin eggs from Cape Crozier in midwinter, is a truly incredible account of suffering, courage and survival. Cherry-Garrard is arguably the best writer among all of the twentieth century Antarctic explorers. To have his first person account of this journey is a gift to any reader of the literature of exploration. It is a long book, and the writing style has dated a little. But perhaps this is more because the understated bravery and stoicism of Cherry-Garrard and his companions is so foreign to the society we live in now. I think this is the toughest story of endurance by a group of men in Antarctica. The toughest story of individual endurance must be Douglas Mawson's return trek to Cape Denison in 1913. Lennard Bickel's account of that journey would reward anyone who enjoys this book, or finds the great age of polar exploration fascinating.

"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." So begins Apsley Cherry-Garrard's account of his experience with Captain Scott. I was exhausted when I finished reading this book. Not because it is long (though at 564 pages it is not short), and not because it is tedious (there were only a couple of passages that I might describe that way). It's just that Cherry-Gerrard describes his journeys in Antarctica so compellingly that it is impossible not to feel that in some way you are along for the ride. At the same time, the chasm between his experiences and anything the average person is likely to experience is so enormous that you can't possibly think you have really experienced--even vicariously--what he went through. I have read many books about Antarctic exploration, and this one easily ranks with the best of them. In 1910, at the age of 24, "Cherry," as he was known, joined famed explorer Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition aboard the Terra Nova. Their objective was to be the first men to reach the South Pole, thereby winning glory for England and themselves. The story of the race that ensued between Scott and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen is well known: Amundsen's secret voyage to Antarctica when most people thought he was going north; the two groups' different routes, different modes of travel, and different types of preparation; Scott's decision to make the final leg of the journey to the Pole with four companions rather than three; the disappointment on arriving at the Pole only to find that the Norwegians had beaten them by a month; the death of Edgar Evans and the subsequent death of the entire Polar party on the return journey, just a few miles from a large cache of food and supplies; the discovery of their frozen bodies (with the exception of Oates, who apparently sacrificed himself for the others and was never found); and the posthumous transformation of Scott into a hero at home in England. What Cherry adds is not just a first-person account of polar exploration (there are many of those), but a bone-chilling description of hardships faced and endured. He does so with a modicum of humor, but mostly with just the right combination of detailed observation, descriptive power, and narrative flair. The most noteworthy part of the expedition for Cherry as an individual was the famous "Winter Journey," a grueling three-man slog in the dead of the dark Antarctic winter to Cape Crozier (67 miles one-way from their base camp). The purpose of the trip was to collect emperor penguin embryos for scientific examination, but the fact that it had to be done in winter, and that this particular winter brought weather unbelievably inhospitable for traveling, made for an ordeal that Cherry describes with such a chilling matter-of-factness that it is hard to read without gasping. Take this: "It was the darkness that did it. I don't believe minus seventy temperatures would be bad in daylight, not comparatively bad . . ." Minus seventy? Not "comparatively" bad? How in the world did they make it back to their base at Hut Point alive, let alone keep journals along the way? And that is one of the most amazing things about so many of the explorers of the "golden age" of Antarctic exploration. Carrying out tasks that required the most arduous exertions, facing life-or-death situations almost daily, and ending each day in a state of utter exhaustion, they somehow found time to record their activities and their thoughts. And eloquently, too. Scott, of course, famously recorded his doomed party's activities and his own benedictory thoughts right up virtually to the moment of his death. So read Apsley Cherry-Garrard's book for his account of the polar party and the search for their bodies (a search in which he participated). Read it for the account of the incredible winter journey for the embryos. Read it for the sketches of the various characters that made up the Terra Nova's complement of officers and men. And if for no other reason, read it for gems like Chapter 6, a masterpiece on life in Antarctica and a memorable portrait of Captain Scott. This book is one of the very best accounts of Antarctic exploration. It is little wonder that it has become a classic of adventure literature.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard was only 24 when he set out on Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition. He was the youngest member of the group and, for my money, the best qualified for the later task of writing the complete story. Why? The Worst Journey in the World is an awe-inspiring adventure, told in such a way that you feel the young man's wide-eyed wonder as your own. Very few novels have gripped and excited me as this book has, and far fewer nonfiction works. Cherry--as his friends called him--writes with a vigor and attention to detail and drama usually reserved for thrillers. The blizzards, storms at sea, killer whale attacks, sub-zero temperatures, and exhausting struggles with sled dogs, ponies, and yawning crevasses are vividly depicted. By the end of the book, you almost feel as though you've been on the journey with him. The "you are there" phenomenon is something I encounter very seldom in a book. This book actually managed to make me cold. The Worst Journey in the World is not solely devoted to the adventure and the final tragedy of finding Scott and his men frozen to death. Cherry takes time out to comment on the scientific significance of their work in Antarctica, of the need for exploration regardless of immediate results, and, in conclusion, of why Scott's return from the Pole ended so bitterly. These sections of the work put the adventure into perspective, so that not only do you experience the good and bad times with the expedition, you learn what ideals drove them and what was at stake with every piece of bad luck. The book isn't perfect, of course. Some of the scientific information Cherry relates is, of course, now outdated. The book starts off rather slowly, and the reader must pick up and remember the names of the other expeditionary members on their own--Cherry does not list or describe the others in detail until somewhere near the middle of the book. That said, The Worst Journey in the World is still an outstanding nonfiction adventure. Once I started this book I could read nothing else. Anyone with an interest in the Antarctic, history, or exploration in general will find this book fascinating. Highly recommended.

`The Worst Journey in the World` (1922) is often cited as a masterpiece of travel literature. It is number one on National Geographic's list of 100 all time best travel literature, and is the first title in the prestigious Picador Travel Classics series. A. Alvarez has praised its "perfect prose: lucid, vivid, bone-simple, and full of feeling." The expedition was literary from the start and the "good modern fiction" the party brought along included Thackery, Charlotte Bronte, Bulwer-Lytton and Dickens. The poetry packed to the pole on the final fateful journey was Browning and Tennyson. Authors who stirred discussions included Shaw and Wells. Authors who were friends with members of the expedition included Galsworthy and Barrie. Robert Louis Stevenson is often mentioned. Each of the chapters of the book begins with poetry fragment from Shakespeare, Browning, Huxley, etc.. even the structure of the book is literary, re-telling the same events from different perspectives, building up to the climatic discovery of the fate of Scott. Cherry himself often delights with brilliant insightful views on travel, man, the meaning of life. This is Travel "Literature" with a capital L. Apsley Cherry-Garrad ("Cherry") was the wealthy heir of two estates who joined Scott's team as an assistant zoologist at the age of 24. He was educated at Oxford in Classics and modern history. In the tradition of the British amateur explorer he took on multiple roles, ultimately becoming the expeditions historian. He wrote Journey using the diaries of the team in the years after WWI while recovering from an illness. From their base camp at McMurdo Sound the three-year expedition made a number of trips composed of different groups. The trip to the pole by Scott is the most famous, but there were others. The title of the book, "Worst Journey", actually refers to a 67-mile 5-week trip by three members, including Cherry, in what at the time was twice as long as any previous Antarctic journey on the open ice. It only composes about 1/8th of the books length but is probably the most remarkable. They survived -70 degree temperatures and hurricane storms with primitive gear made from leather and canvas while man-hauling multi-hundred pound sleds and living on 4000 calories or less per day of nearly vitamin-free biscuits and pemmican (considered "adequate" at the time, today twice that is usual for explorers). Cherry interlaces his narrative with allusions to Dante, The Pilgrims Progress and Walt Whitman all the while maintaining that plucky cheery Edwardian foolhardiness that would run aground in the trenches of WWI. Cherry's teeth shattered from the cold, killing the nerves. The retelling of Scott's trip to the Pole is equally gripping, and "horrific", also living up to the books title. In later years Cherry suffered from survivors guilt and wrote `Postscript to the Worst Journey in the World` (1948) in which he severely reproaches himself for not doing more to save Scott and the party. Cherry died in 1959. EDITIONS: Only some editions contain this Postscript. The Penguin edition does not. Officially it was re-printed in the 1951 edition, and maybe in the 1994 Picador Travel Classics edition with an Introduction by Paul Theroux (Update: probably not. See comments to this review below). It should also be noted the 1951 edition was "corrected by the author" so it probably contains other changes - these changes I think might be reflected in the Picador edition (although not sure), but for sure not in the Penguin edition which is based on the 1922 text, as most are since it is now in the public domain.

This is a great story, and a great read. My complaint is with this particular print edition, which I found difficult to read because of the very small print, which is smaller and fainter than the standard trade paperback. I ended up giving it away and listening to the audiobook instead. The Audible version is a good listen though.

Interesting read. The book documents the trip to the Pole in three sections: firstly the preparatory stages and initial trip to base camp, then the titular "Worst Journey" which is not the trip to the Pole but a mid-winter trek in 24-hour darkness and freezing cold to obtain penguin eggs for scientific study back home, and finally the trip to the Pole. The book also is more than a travelogue and consciously seeks to document the psychology among the crew and the interactions between the different social classes. This was at a time when there were still some vestiges of the old Georgian and Victorian gulf in classes. The author himself is an amateur sportsman who has come on the expedition for a bit of sport, what! Over the lengthy time that they are together, they all manage to get along almost as equals and maintain gentlemanly cordiality. But there's always just a whiff of superiority in the breeding of the scientists. As I said, this aspect was interesting. If I had one criticism to make, I'd say that the book is slightly too long and fails to retain the reader's interest throughout. Particularly since the conditions of the penultimate journey were worse than that suffered by Scott during the race to the Pole. But then again, this is non-fiction and the subject matter is all snow and ice.

A well written and mind-blowing story of exploration in incredible conditions (a warm day is -50 degrees!). I like to keep it handy so when I get to feeling overwhelmed I can open it to any page and gain perspective, "Why so hot, little man?" An amazing experience!