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47th out of 2,086 books
—
3,722 voters
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
The astonishing saga of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's survival for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as Time magazine put it, "defined heroism." Alfred Lansing's scrupulously researched and brilliantly narrated book -- with over 200,000 copies sold -- has long been acknowledged as the definitive account of the Endurance's fateful trip. To write their author...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
March 19th 1999
by Basic Books
(first published 1959)
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Behold...the gentleman whose exploits crushed the last vestiges of manhood from my fragile psyche*:
* Psst....don’t mention this to my wife as she thinks she took care of this years ago.
Stranded for over a year in the most inhospitable climate on the face of the Earth, literally one tiny step away from complete disaster due to starvation, extreme weather or the ice flows on which they lived deciding to crack and deposit into the freezing depths below.
Holy persevering manliness Batman, I was w...more
* Psst....don’t mention this to my wife as she thinks she took care of this years ago.
Stranded for over a year in the most inhospitable climate on the face of the Earth, literally one tiny step away from complete disaster due to starvation, extreme weather or the ice flows on which they lived deciding to crack and deposit into the freezing depths below.
Holy persevering manliness Batman, I was w...more
oh my god i feel like i haven't written a review in ages.
goodreads.com, how you holding up without my pearls of wisdom??
i was going to write a DBR of this last night, because that's what shackleton would do, but then i ended up eating candy and doodling instead, and that is why i live a life of mediocrity and insignificance and i am not like shackleton, who ran into some trouble on a boat ride and managed to triumph over impossible odds.
cheerfully.
that's what i love the most - his unflagging op...more
goodreads.com, how you holding up without my pearls of wisdom??
i was going to write a DBR of this last night, because that's what shackleton would do, but then i ended up eating candy and doodling instead, and that is why i live a life of mediocrity and insignificance and i am not like shackleton, who ran into some trouble on a boat ride and managed to triumph over impossible odds.
cheerfully.
that's what i love the most - his unflagging op...more
49 likes
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Feb 03, 2008
Patrick
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
5Q Book Group
Recommended to Patrick by:
Vanessa
Shelves:
5q-book-group
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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5 likes
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I rarely re-read books, but this was such a gripping, true-life adventure, and well told, that I have read it three times in the last fifteen years. I think it is due for another re-read! It blows my mind to think of what these men went through and how they survived being stuck in Antarctica for years. The way they engineer their own rescue is hardly to be believed. What adds to the appeal of the book is the wonderful color throughout - details of how the men made life bearable during this unbea...more
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Part ripping yarn, part social psychology experiment, part metaphor for graduate school -- this is the most IN-CREDIBLE book that I've ever read.
It is insaaaaaannnneeeeee!!!!
But even though the whole time you are reading it, you are thinking to yourself -- #$(*&@$%(*waaahhh!!! -- the writing is remarkably restrained and pithy, putting you right in the moment without distracting you from what's going on. You'd almost think you were reading Updike, except the people in the story are real, and...more
It is insaaaaaannnneeeeee!!!!
But even though the whole time you are reading it, you are thinking to yourself -- #$(*&@$%(*waaahhh!!! -- the writing is remarkably restrained and pithy, putting you right in the moment without distracting you from what's going on. You'd almost think you were reading Updike, except the people in the story are real, and...more
This is such a great story, and Lansing does it justice. If you're not familiar with the facts of Shackleton's antarctic expedition, read this book.
If you do, you will undoubtedly want to check out Caroline Alexander's "The Endurance : Shackleton's legendary Antarctic expedition" as a companion volume. Lansing's book is excellent on exposition, but skimpy on photos. What makes Alexander's account compelling is the inclusion of ~ 150 photos, taken by the expedition's official photographer, Frank...more
If you do, you will undoubtedly want to check out Caroline Alexander's "The Endurance : Shackleton's legendary Antarctic expedition" as a companion volume. Lansing's book is excellent on exposition, but skimpy on photos. What makes Alexander's account compelling is the inclusion of ~ 150 photos, taken by the expedition's official photographer, Frank...more
5 likes
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I read this book quite a while ago, but would put it in my all-time list of top five favorite books. Lansing's written account of the voyage is more more interesting and readable than Shackleton's own accounts, as well as other author's attempts to document the voyage. The story was so amazing to me that for awhile I couldn't read enough/get enough info about this incredible adventure. I even purchased and watched copies of video footage shot while on the adventure. I wanted to name my cat Chipp...more
4 likes
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Feb 26, 2009
Sandra
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anymore who likes adventure
Recommended to Sandra by:
Jeff
Shelves:
memoirs,
non-fiction
This is truly an amazing story. I wasn't too interested in reading it, but Jeff kept encouraging me. I was having a lot of trouble believing what he was telling me about this book, as it didn't seem humanly possible for men to survive in the conditions he described. At the beginning of the book I felt Shackleton would not be up to hardships, but I was totally wrong. He kept his men together, brought out the best in them, and everyone survived. I don't want to spoil this tale, so it is hard to wr...more
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Prior to reading Endurance, I was aware of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to cross the Antarctic as one of the greatest adventures and struggles for survival ever recorded, so it was surprising to read an account stripped down to its most essential elements. Throughout the book, Lansing's tone is objective, even restrained in places; though he relies on the first hand testimony of crew-mates’ journals to supply some dramatic descriptions, his narrative voice remains matter-of-fact throughout...more
What an INCREDIBLE adventure story from the early nineteen hundreds!!! A true testament of man's perseverance & will to live! I will not forget this story for a long, long time... I really enjoyed it.
Dale and I both read this book on the recommendation of one of my credit union members. This story is a gripping, true-life tale of Ernest Shackleton and his team of 27 men who attempted to cross the Antarctic in 1914. Alfred Lansing, who published it in 1959, assembled his narrative from diaries kept by the men themselves. It is far from being a dry historical recital; he breathes life and action into the story from page one. Amazingly, not one man was lost on this expedition, though it is trul...more
Webster's defines endurance as: the ability to withstand hardship or adversity; especially : the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity
In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. For five months Shackleton and...more
In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. For five months Shackleton and...more
I cannot recommend this audiobook highly enough. As evidenced by the other reviews, the book is great, but I also really enjoyed the audiobook version.
This is only the second audiobook that's engaged me enough to get to the end, and while it started as a random pick to keep me entertained while painting my spare room, I found myself thinking up new menial jobs to do so I had an excuse to keep listening. The narrator clearly and almost poetically recounts the monotony of day-to-day existence as...more
This is only the second audiobook that's engaged me enough to get to the end, and while it started as a random pick to keep me entertained while painting my spare room, I found myself thinking up new menial jobs to do so I had an excuse to keep listening. The narrator clearly and almost poetically recounts the monotony of day-to-day existence as...more
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ENDURACNE was exceptionally well received by my book club. There were a couple (one an English professor and poet) who found the writing dry, bereft of metaphor and simile in saying, “it was cold.” He compared it to journalistic writing. However, he agreed the tale was compelling enough to keep them engaged.
Indeed, this was a story that even the worst writer would have to work hard at telling badly.
After reading it, it is still hard for me to conceive that it was true. For me, with the ever shor...more
Indeed, this was a story that even the worst writer would have to work hard at telling badly.
After reading it, it is still hard for me to conceive that it was true. For me, with the ever shor...more
This book tells the story of Ernest Shackleton, a British explorer attempting to chart Antarctica and reach the South Pole in 1914. The Endurance is the name of his ship. The trials and tribulations that Shackleton and his crew suffer, shipwrecked in Antarctica one hundred years ago, are simply beyond my comprehension.
QOTD
QOTD
Just then the sun came out. In its light their faces showed dead white from exhaustion and frostbite, and from being continually soaked with water. The circles around their eye...more
In 1914–1916, Shackleton and his crew survived a shipwreck on Antarctica. In 1919 he published South, his understated account of the ordeal.
There are PBS documentaries and a full–length movie dramatization (done rather well, imho) that you can get on DVD. First, though, read Shackleton’s own words. He and his crew pulled off an amazing feat, surviving the Antarctic with minimal gear (circa 1915 gear; that means no GoreTex!) by eating penguins and sailing an open boat to South Georgia — an 800...more
There are PBS documentaries and a full–length movie dramatization (done rather well, imho) that you can get on DVD. First, though, read Shackleton’s own words. He and his crew pulled off an amazing feat, surviving the Antarctic with minimal gear (circa 1915 gear; that means no GoreTex!) by eating penguins and sailing an open boat to South Georgia — an 800...more
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing is one of the most mesmerizing, breathtaking and intense stories someone can ever read. Have you ever been cold, tired, and cold? Or felt hungry with miles to go before resting? This is not even close to what Ernest Shackleton and his crewmembers felt during their Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914. They came within eighty-five miles of their destination when their ship, Endurance, was trapped fast in the ice pack and was crush...more
This book is simply awesome. There have been various books in the past decade or two about amazing true adventures. A few examples are Seven Years in Tibet, Touching the Void, and Into Thin Air. However, none that I've read can match the journey of Shackleton and his men: getting stuck in the ice near the Antarctic continent, floating north on pack ice for months until they had to jump in the life boats and sail north to Elephant Island, where they set up a camp. Then five of them (Shackleton in...more
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What a gripping tale! It’s incredible that an account of a failed expedition should stand as such an unrivaled catalogue of heroism and resourcefulness in the face of crushing odds. It reads like fiction, with a cast of characters created for effect. The action, too, seemed calculated for maximum suspense, with each difficulty surmounted and peril avoided, being followed closely by yet another and even worse one. As fiction, this story would strain credulity; as non-fiction it stuns. I was conti...more
I was vaguely aware of the story: Ernest Shackleton leads an expedition to the Antartic and the ship becomes trapped in ice and the crew struggle to survive.
What I didn't know was what en epic and almost unbelievable and amazing survival tale this actually is.
Several of the men kept detailed diaries and it is from these that the author was able to write such a clear picture of what happened. The diary entries themselves are quite something in that all the different authors appear to write about...more
What I didn't know was what en epic and almost unbelievable and amazing survival tale this actually is.
Several of the men kept detailed diaries and it is from these that the author was able to write such a clear picture of what happened. The diary entries themselves are quite something in that all the different authors appear to write about...more
This was an incredibly gripping story of Ernest Shackelton and the 26 men he lead attempting to traverse the continent of Antarctica in 1914. The difficulties they faced, over and over, as they tried to reach civilization after their ship, the Endurance, was literally crushed by the ice, were immense. Their will to survive is really the only thing that kept them going, day after day and month after month.
My only disappointment with the book was that there was no mention at the end of what happen...more
My only disappointment with the book was that there was no mention at the end of what happen...more
This is an incredible True adventure story, that is almost unbelievable. I don't go camping with out my cellphone, gps, checking the weather by the minute, researching spots on the internet, etc. Shackleton takes 28 other men on a ship to Antartica with nothing but drawings and whatever other navagtional devices they had in 1914, hoping to be the first to ever cross the continent on Antartica. Like any good adventure story, things go wrong, and many things did in this story...but each event is f...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I was enthralled by this historical account of this ill-fated expedition from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
In a nutshell, Shakelton's team finds their ship crushed by the ice before they even begin, and then spend two years trying to find their way back to civilization.
It's hard to explain why I found this such a page-turner: the drama here is pure man-versus-nature. Perhaps it's the utterly alien world of the Antarctic. Much of the account documents their time spent in "the pack," hu...more
In a nutshell, Shakelton's team finds their ship crushed by the ice before they even begin, and then spend two years trying to find their way back to civilization.
It's hard to explain why I found this such a page-turner: the drama here is pure man-versus-nature. Perhaps it's the utterly alien world of the Antarctic. Much of the account documents their time spent in "the pack," hu...more
Shackleton’s Endurance expedition is one of the most unbelievable survival stories known to man. For two years these men suffered through the most inhospitable environments; from being shipwrecked on giant ice floes on the Weddell Sea off Antarctica to endless days of stormy weather and journeys through mountainous terrain on obscure islands. Shackleton was a courageous leader and he loved his men, but he wasn't the only one willing to put his life on the line for the safety of all those who end...more
This book is truly a piece of history, as remarkable as the story itself. The author is quite clearly infatuated with Shackleton and the era of nationalist, ego dominated exploration that vanished forever with the world wars. His tale is as clean as the Antarctic ice; he doesn't even mention things like crude jokes, and other forms of male camaraderie (incidentally Shackleton, himself, disliked theses things.) All the same, the physical hardship and its grim details are captured with photograph...more
Jul 22, 2011
Brad Wheeler
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
history,
audiobooks
I listened to a history podcast that got me thinking about Antarctic exploration, so on a whim I picked up an audiobook on the subject. Oh man, am I ever glad I did.
I was expecting a scholarly look at an important historical voyage, one of the last in the very last age of exploration. Turns out that I was wrong on both counts. First, it wasn't a very important voyage in the grand scheme of things, either in theory or in fact. Second, it wasn't really a scholarly analysis, but an intensely person...more
I was expecting a scholarly look at an important historical voyage, one of the last in the very last age of exploration. Turns out that I was wrong on both counts. First, it wasn't a very important voyage in the grand scheme of things, either in theory or in fact. Second, it wasn't really a scholarly analysis, but an intensely person...more
When history is the topic it sometimes turns out that the story is better than the storyteller. That is the case here, where the author is of average ability at best, but the story he has to tell borders on the incredible. Many of the events described would seem beyond belief in an adventure novel, yet the journals and logs of the men involved give proof that they actually happened.
In 1915 an expedition to the Antarctic went catastrophically wrong when its ship became trapped in ice. After six m...more
In 1915 an expedition to the Antarctic went catastrophically wrong when its ship became trapped in ice. After six m...more
Spellbinding. This true story about the voyage of a group of adventurers stranded in the Antarctic is absolutely riveting. I became very aware of my own life's comforts as I read about the continual hardships these men faced as they struggled to survive and find some way to return home after their ship was caught and destroyed in an Antarctic ice floe. Just when you think the explorers had reached rock bottom, something worse happens that tests their bodily and mental perseverance. If it weren't...more
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An American journalist who wrote for Collier's, among other magazines and was later an editor for Time, Inc. Books.
Alfred Lansing served in the US Navy from 1940-46. He received the Purple Heart for his wartime service.
Later he attended North Park College, 1946-48, Northwestern University, 1948-50.
Lansing became a member of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England in 1957.
More about Alfred Lansing...
Alfred Lansing served in the US Navy from 1940-46. He received the Purple Heart for his wartime service.
Later he attended North Park College, 1946-48, Northwestern University, 1948-50.
Lansing became a member of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England in 1957.
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“No matter what the odds, a man does not pin his last hope for survival on something and then expect that it will fail.”
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“We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.”
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Sep 30, 2012 11:52am
So sad that some of them went to war afterwards and ended up dead (o...more
Apr 18, 2013 04:34pm