Farthest North (1898)

The good doctor entered the limelight after his landmark first crossing of Greenland in 1888. Shortly after, he concocted a brilliant (or lunatic, depending on whom you asked) scheme to conquer the pole. He and a small crew would freeze a specially designed boat in the ice and drift with the Arctic current, which he believed would carry him from the coast of Siberia northwest to the pole. In mid-voyage, he realized that the current would not carry him far enough. Undaunted, he and a companion set out across the ice with a dogsled. Nansen was left for dead, but when he stumbled upon another exploration team more than a year later--having reached farther north than anyone before him--he returned to Norway an international sensation.

This book, the chronicle of that journey, was hurriedly written to capitalize on that sensation. Penned in only two months, it lacks literary polish, but Nansen's eye for detail and indomitable spirit shine through. Because he wrote while still thawing from his adventures, his story has an exciting immediacy, one that the passing of a century has done little to diminish. As a historical document, as an epic adventure, and as a revival of a worthy hero long forgotten, Farthest North is a tale well worth remembering. --Andrew Nieland

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: too hard and brittle, and apt to have holes knocked in it during transport over the ice. Therefore I preferred to steep it in a mixture of paraffin and tallow, which added somewhat to the weight of the kayaks, so that altogether they came to weigh about 36 pounds apiece. I had, moreover, some hand-sledges made especially for this expedition; they were supple and strong, designed to withstand the severe tests to which an expedition with dogs and heavy freights over the uneven drift- ice would necessarily expose them. Two of these sledges were about the same length as the kayaks—that is, 12 feet. I also made several experiments with respect to the clothes we should wear, and was especially anxious to ascertain whether it would do to go in our thick wolfskin garments, but always came to the conclusion that they were too warm. Thus, on November 29th I write: " Took another walk northward in my wolfskin dress; but it is still too mild (-37.6 C). I sweated like a horse, though I went fasting and quite gently. It is rather heavy going now in the dark when one cannot use snow- shoes. I wonder when it will be cold enough to use this dress." On December 9th again we went out on snow-shoes. " It was —41 C(-41.8 Fahr.). Went in wolfskin dress, but the perspiration poured down our backs enough to turn a mill. Too warm yet; goodness knows if it ever will be cold enough." Of course, we made some experiments with the tentand with the cooking apparatus. On December 7th I write: " I pitched the silk tent we are going to take, and used our cooking apparatus in it. From repeated trials it appeared that from ice of —35 C. ( — 31 Fahr.), we boiled 3 litres of water (5) pints), and at the same time melted 5 litres (8| pints) in an hour and a half, with a consumption of about 120 grammes of snow...

"Farthest North" combines Nansen's post-trip narratives of events with many verbatim daily journal entries. These passages, as in most diaries, are understandably highly repetitive and at times lack focus. (It's easy enough to skim until finding something more engaging.) I found Nansen's descriptions of the polar darkness lasting many weeks each winter and its effects on morale particularly compelling. Also well recounted was the nerve-wracking grinding and pressure of the ice upon the "Fram" with the underlying danger of shipwreck in the Arctic. I was also moved by Nansen's bitter frustrations at the forward-then-back progress north and at his exhaustion trying to move dog sleds across uneven tundra. The map of the journey is hard to read or to match with the text, unfortunately. Conversely, the trip's black and white photos that match faces to names add much to the book. This edition of "Farthest North" was abridged from an original two-volume set. I for one did not, however, want more text to read and would have appreciated additional editing. Even abridged and even as an historical document, this remains a very long book.

One caution not mentioned in other reviews here to date: attitudes of Nansen towards wilderness and wildlife will likely bother some readers. Nansen's view of an animal could be characterized as, "Shoot it... unless it's a sled dog we need... at the moment." Polar bears (including cubs), whales, fish, walrus, seals, birds, as well as non-wild sled dogs and puppies are killed frequently, every few pages on average, and without guilt (with the exception of a few favorite sled dogs whose demise did bother Nansen). One can rationalize a need for hunting because this well-stocked crew had to find additional food in a place where it couldn't be grown. But at other times, the killing seemed for diversion or because, in the case of the dogs, supplies were running short, and a faithful but hungry sled dog had one final service to perform for its comrades or master. In August 1894, Nansen noted with wonder and delight that he'd finally seen three "rare and mysterious" Arctic Ross' gulls, a species he'd been searching for. With no expression of irony balancing his happiness at his sighting, he gunned each one down, apparently ensuring that the species would be even more rarely observed in the future. These small birds, the size of snipe, would have had little food value. To readers who are sensitive to graphic descriptions of hunting that in today's culture may seem senseless, or to raw exploitation of animals for human needs, this book may be hard to take. Dog-training techniques are also notably unenlightened. One also misses crew attention to any need to carry out what was carried in to the wilderness. But these are objections in the context of current environmentalist values towards animals and wilderness-- values that have only come into prominence in recent years. The essential point to remember is that "Farthest North" reflects the attitudes of the era in which it was written and of the people who participated in this historic venture. As such, it offers a point-of-view and a look at cultural values of the 1890s that could not be matched by a modern third-person account of the trip. "Farthest North" is not the way we would choose to travel there now. To readers who can keep this perspective in mind, and can in fact appreciate the contrast and change in attitude towards wild places over the last century, the book is a journey they will be glad they made.


Reprint the original with color prints and engravings   April 17, 2000
John M. Roberts (usa)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

I will only state briefly, that I have an abiding interest inarctic exploration and I find that this edition, while very useful,does not do justice to the 1897 original in that the many engravings and esp the color prints are missing. One must purchase a used book to get the whole flavor of the original.