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The Worst Journey in the World

by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Caroline Alexander (Introduction)

4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 · rating details · 3,164 ratings · 270 reviews

The Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the youngest member of Scott's team and one of three men to make and survive the notorious Winter Journey, draws on his firsthand experiences as well as the diaries of his compatriots to create a stirring and detailed account of Scott's legendary exp ...more

Paperback, 640 pages

Published February 28th 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published 1922)

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Lists with This Book

Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time

13th out of 124 books — 175 voters

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Best Non-Fiction (non biography)

237th out of 3,143 books — 5,138 voters

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Community Reviews

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May 11, 2009 Buck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: life-writing

Never again. Never again will I complain. About anything. The sufferings heaped on the members of Scott’s second polar expedition make the ordinary misfortunes of modern life –- the fender-benders, hangovers and breakups –- seem like pleasant diversions. There are passages in this amazing memoir where the reader, appalled, begins to suspect that these men were collaborating on a metaphysically refined form of self-destruction.

Apsley Cherry-Gerrard –- and let me say now what a wonderfully plummy ...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: 2011, kindle-baby, own, faves, book-crushes, history, non-fic, what-a-man, been-around-the-world-and-i-i-i

He wasn't lying with that title, but what's missed out is that it's perhaps the most incredible journey too, as well as one of the most incredible books I've ever read (if I could give this 10 stars it wouldn't be enough).

Concerning Scott's last expedition to the Antarctic of which I previously knew woefully little (even though he's a hometown boy), I no longer have to lament that fact thanks to this most comprehensive and compelling account by Apsley Cherry-Garrard who, at 24, was a member of t He wasn't lying with that title, but what's missed out is that it's perhaps the most incredible journey too, as well as one of the most incredible books I've ever read (if I could give this 10 stars it wouldn't be enough).

Concerning Scott's last expedition to the Antarctic of which I previously knew woefully little (even though he's a hometown boy), I no longer have to lament that fact thanks to this most comprehensive and compelling account by Apsley Cherry-Garrard who, at 24, was a member of the expedition (though not of the last dash to the pole) and made it back to tell the tale. Painstakingly compiled from not only Garrard's diaries and remembrances but also through those of the other men, from letters home and the many, meticulous records of the journey (it chiefly having a scientific object), Garrard fully presses home the ideal that these men strove to uphold even in the face of certain death - to shine a little light on the darkest, most inhospitable corners of the world and bring forth a little more knowledge, laying a foundation for those who came after to build upon.

Garrard does a truly fantastic job of immersing you in his material, not only giving you all of the detail surrounding the expedition down to temperatures, wind directions, logistics, etc but also painting a vivid picture of their lives there. Alongside the hardships there are moments of wonder and joy; in the beauty of their surroundings, of their discoveries and studies and in the way Garrard writes of the personalities of the animals and men (I adored the indomitable Bowers as, clearly, did Garrard). Sitting alongside is unhistrionic documentation of the most unimaginably inhospitable environments and acts of incredible endurance, bravery and generosity that I don't think I'll be ever able to forget (Crean's solitary journey of 35 miles, on foot and with no equipment, to raise help for a dying man, completely awes me). Waking afloat on a patch of floating sea ice, teeth splitting due to the cold, frostbite, hourly drops into crevasses and the terrible blindness of blizzards are just some of the other horrors within. I can't even begin to imagine what a temperature of -75 feels like, but if I ever whinge at a festival that my clothes are damp again, you have my permission to slap me.

We all know now became of Scott's last Polar Journey and it's very easy to look at it with the benefit of hindsight and point out mistakes. I spent quite a lot of time cursing the horrific distances between depots and Garrard, in his stated aim of passing on knowledge to future explorers, is forthcoming about the many shortcomings and miscalculations as well as the plain rotten luck experienced by the party. Having read this now, and feeling like I've come through the journey with them, I find it hard to condemn any of the actions within and am instead struck with a feeling of awe at what was accomplished and endured, and what a debt we owe to all of the people who have gone out and discovered all of the wonderful things we know about the world. ...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Tom Stallard rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, travel, autobiography

This is, quite simply, my desert island book. No other book encapsulates the message of hope in amoungst utter futility quite as perfectly as this. Describing the adventures of the Scott expedition, for all its joy and folly, based on the jaded observations of a man who went filled with hope and expectation and looks back at an older, more cynical age. As a travel diary, it has no comparison: this truly was a journey into the heart of darkness. While the famous Scott expedition to the pole is co ...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Pete daPixie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, polar, travelogues

Apsley Cherry-Garrard's 'The Worst Journey in the World' is quite simply a 20th century classic. Published in 1922, the author recounts, in almost six hundred pages, Scott's polar expedition of 1910-1913.
I find reviewing this book extremely difficult. I'm probably still in a state of reverential and dumfounded awe after reading such an eloquent masterpiece. In the field of polar exploration or travel writing, this book is utterly astounding.

It is now a century past since the exploits of this 'wo ...more

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Feb 03, 2008 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a first rate adventure story told by a man who is sensitive, thoughtful, courageous, and kindhearted. The part of the book from which the title is taken is maybe the most harrowing saga I've ever encountered, involving minus 70+ degree temperatures, howling winds, deadly crevasses, starvation, hopelessness, and endless darkness, all to collect Emperor Penguin eggs in the middle of an Antarctic winter.
I am not so big on non-fiction generally, but this is a book I could read again and a ...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Sapetron rated it 3 of 5 stars

Pemmican, apparently, tastes quite delicious when stirred into hot water and eaten as a "hoosh." Also, the Antarctic is cold & horrible & I really want to go there because falling in a crevasse would look amazing on a tombstone.

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Jun 25, 2011 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Dad

Shelves: history, biography-autobiography, favorites, great-big-hunks-o-nature

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” said Henry David Thoreau when he read the galley proof of Walden and realized what kind of gonif editor he was faced with. Still, it did rather well. So has The Worst Journey, in spite of the fact the Natointal Geograhpic society ! has gotten hold of it.”

Now the book is over, and it’s back to my stinkin’ life. This is a fudge sundae of personal history, journals of explorer friends; of mountains, glaciers, ice, crevasses, pemmican and killer wh “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” said Henry David Thoreau when he read the galley proof of Walden and realized what kind of gonif editor he was faced with. Still, it did rather well. So has The Worst Journey, in spite of the fact the Natointal Geograhpic society ! has gotten hold of it.”

Now the book is over, and it’s back to my stinkin’ life. This is a fudge sundae of personal history, journals of explorer friends; of mountains, glaciers, ice, crevasses, pemmican and killer whales; of hauling a sledge in the dark at 77 degrees below zero; cold and dark and light in word-pictures from every angle till you see and feel them in your sleep. There are courage and triumph and loyalty and disaster. Yet the only happiness in it is when, well, let’s face it, “All the world loves a penguin.” Cherry clearly loves the Adelie penguins, with their little dinner suits, their cheeky waddle, their brutal life cycle, and their fearlessness. He will make you love them too.

Is it wrong to fall in love with an author? I feel like I know him. At just 24, he begged and bribed his way into the expedition—no doubt hoping for high adventure, like a medieval knight—after being initially turned down because of his extreme nearsightedness. Because he couldn’t wear his glasses when sledging (they fogged up), and because he volunteered so often, and because he was “often scared out of my wits,” he suffered more than most of the men from cold, hunger and sickness. He suffered, too, from the loss of his best friends when the Polar party died, and never forgave himself for waiting at One Ton Depot and not taking supplies farther south to relieve them, although on his return to the winter quarters he was so sick he could barely walk. After the Great War he sat down to write an Official Narrative, and in the Introduction apologizes to the Antarctic Committee for leaving out the tedious details they doubtless expected. This is characteristic of his self-effacement throughout. But one can imagine his friend Bernard Shaw, who read and helped write, snorting into his enormous beard.

Cherry emphasizes that the Scott expedition was devoted to science, unlike Amundsen’s expedition (which beat them to the Pole, and lived to tell the tale), and he insists that he is writing for the sake of science. But he studied classics, so we will forgive him for writing a memoir instead. They did a lot of scientific observation—geology, zoology, meteorology—and some of it was actually useful, and a little of it makes sense in the text. But the reader is left wondering why in the world these men put themselves through three long years of hellish wind and wet and cold and dark at the risk of their very lives. He does address this: Science is an investment that requires patience, and its returns are seldom quick or obvious. “We are a nation of shopkeepers…If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.”

Was it worth it? The question is open.

I would knock the book down to four and a half stars if I could because of all the errors. The typos are annoying enough, but there are a couple of places where large chunks of text are missing. During the nightmare Winter Journey (from which, at Bernard Shaw’s suggestion, the book takes its title), Cherry, Wilson and Bowers experimented with different amounts of carbohydrates, protein and fat in their diet. But we never get to find out how it turned out, because the editor decided to skip a very large bit of information, right in the middle of a sentence. And then there are the maps. For their own reasons, the three maps the editors have included show only a few of the places Cherry mentions, not including Cape Adare, Evans Coves, any of the supply depots except One Ton, or THIS THING CALLED THE BARRIER that is basically the protagonist of the book, but nowadays it’s called the Ross Ice Shelf, which good luck figuring that out from the maps because “Map reflects present-day place names.” Seriously? This is the National Geographic Society?

There are no pictures in this barren edition, and the maps are terrible, but the Public Library yielded up A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston, which has useful maps, some photos, more information, the full names of most of the party (which Cherry leaves out), and a detailed analysis of reasons for the Polar party’s fate. It is not nearly as good a book, but it’s a fine companion. In The Coldest March Susan Solomon, a meteorologist, re-examines the Scott expedition and concludes that the main reason Scott perished was the unusually cold temperatures they encountered on the Ross Ice Shelf. On Solomon’s recommendation, I picked up The Worst Journey, which I would never normally have read. In my (futile) search for a map with Evans Coves on it, I have found more references to this book than any other single source. It is the classic of Polar exploration. I think you should read it.
...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Jonathan Hutchins rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At a time when traditional heroism has been deconstructed and psycho-analysed out of existence, it becomes more necessary to understand the nature and purpose of the desire which drove a crew of men, most no longer young, to explore Antarctica and reach the South Pole. Note the order of those objectives: the comparison of Scott's 'failure' with Amundsen's 'success' is outrageously wrong: the latter was in a race to the Pole, the British party had a wide variety of scientific observations and int At a time when traditional heroism has been deconstructed and psycho-analysed out of existence, it becomes more necessary to understand the nature and purpose of the desire which drove a crew of men, most no longer young, to explore Antarctica and reach the South Pole. Note the order of those objectives: the comparison of Scott's 'failure' with Amundsen's 'success' is outrageously wrong: the latter was in a race to the Pole, the British party had a wide variety of scientific observations and interests as well as that other goal. Cherry-Garrard's testimony (not being widely read in the literature of polar exploration I don't know to what extent its account and conclusions have been revised or contradicted in the years since) describes a life of barely comprehensible arduousness and snails'-pace progress in weather conditions which were often alarmingly unpredictable and which in the end probably defeated the Polar Party. What makes Scott's well-known final testimony excruciatingly poignant is that he knew they were only eleven miles from One Ton Depot but because of continuous heavy blizzards none of the party were able to set out. Edgar Evans had died some miles before. It made me think how primitive in some ways was 1912: allegedly the ignorance of the crucial role of vitamins in diet contributed to their hunger and debility. The motor sledges were a novelty but all failed. Cherry-Garrard's writing is articulate and always interesting, whether describing the corporate comfortable fug in the Hut at Hut Point over the 1911-12 winter, the crazy winter journey to obtain Emperor Penguin eggs, or the tragedy of the Polar Party. And it's evident that he was haunted for the rest of his life by the 'what-if's of the expedition, to the extent of bouts of depression and compiling a privately published postscript to this book. The head-doctors term this 'post-traumatic stress'; on a higher level it can be understood as the difficulty of adjusting to a more undemanding existence after a sustained period of heightened awareness, exertion, perception, and experience. ...more

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Dec 07, 2014 Fraser rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the finest books I have ever read in terms of defining the spirit of the adventurer going genuinely into the unknown.

Everyone knows the tragedy of the Scott Polar expedition, with its supposed 'race' with Amundsen to get to the South Pole, but here is one of the key members of that expedition some 10 years on, reflecting on it all, from start to finish.

To say heroic, is just simply an understatement. Cherry-Garrard's very own 'worst journey' with Wilson and Bowers off to Cape Crozier to c One of the finest books I have ever read in terms of defining the spirit of the adventurer going genuinely into the unknown.

Everyone knows the tragedy of the Scott Polar expedition, with its supposed 'race' with Amundsen to get to the South Pole, but here is one of the key members of that expedition some 10 years on, reflecting on it all, from start to finish.

To say heroic, is just simply an understatement. Cherry-Garrard's very own 'worst journey' with Wilson and Bowers off to Cape Crozier to collect emperor penguin eggs is an epic in its own merit. Placed within the context of the herculean efforts of the overall expedition it assumes the status of just another chapter. The key to Cherry-Garrard is in his descriptions not just of the hardships and travel, but the psychology, the team spirit, and an uncanny ability to do the right thing no mind the cost. To be honest, if you were ever in a difficult place, a dangerous situation, I would with no word of a doubt would want to be around men like this. It is hard to encapsulate that spirit, often it is quoted with Titus Oates famous last words as he stepped off out into the polar night, but there is just so much more to it than this.

Scott has his critics, and I read Ranulph Fiennes excellent defence of him some time ago. Having read this, I believe Fiennes to be correct. Scott instilled something incredible - not blind hero worship, but a sense of togetherness that held despite his own downfall on the return journey. That it was Cherry-Garrard who found his tent with him Wilson and Bowers, seems very apt.

Three years at the pole, no sat phones, no GPS, no fancy tech laden clothing. Lots of wool, bamboo for tent poles and a reliance on animals (ponies and dogs). No chance of air-lift rescue etc, this was similar to me to as say someone trekking the surface of the Moon.

It almost seems to me absurd that anyone survived the expedition, such were the hardships and privations. Not just the physical elements which were incredible. But as Cherry-Garrard himself noted, it wasn't about being the strongest and fittest in terms of pulling sledges or putting up with the cold, it was in the mind.

The beauty in the Chapter "The First Winter" is awe inspiring and one can feel exactly why this expedition took place when it is completed. It is not a rose tinted piece of reminiscing, which makes it all the more inspiring.

There are some incredible travel and expedition books out there. I have read a few of them. But I can honestly say, nothing touches this, and likely never will.

Highly recommended. ...more

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Oct 05, 2014 Anna Vincent rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: Those interested in psychology, nature, survival, travel, Antarctica geology

Shelves: memoirs, favorites, history

Beautifully written, exquisitely detailed memoir, great for memoir enthusiasts and history readers alike.

I love many aspects of this book (style, story line, characterization, historical record, etc.), but on top of my list is that this book remarkably documents the core of what is real vs. what is perceived, and of the psychology of a small group of men, withholding their truth to makes the last days of their lives livable... and all in the gorgeous, other-wordly setting of Antarctica.

This is a ...more

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Mar 28, 2013 James & rated it 5 of 5 stars

Actually, I listened to this book on Audible. It's possible that it could have accompanied me to the end of the world and back again. It is not short, and the better for it. You feel invested in the staggering persistence and extraordinary, dogged, foolhardiness that stretches over years. Listening to it unfold at its own pace was a distinctive experience; never boring, but almost mesmerizing.
Some of the casual descriptions of appalling and/or hilarious events were all the more perfect for the ...more

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Jun 05, 2014 Joan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fabulous, factual, free-to-download, gutenberg-project-book, historical, read-again, real-life, heroism, antarctic-heroism, hardback-second-hand

(Free on the Gutenberg Project, complete with illustrations.)

But I also bought this hardback copy. A wonderfully thick book, beautiful to hold and read. So much more 'satisfying' than reading on a Kindle

A fabulous book, written in a comfortably 'personal' manner without any heroics ,just a factual account of real life. Utterly readable, amusing, sad, terrifying and brought me to tears in places. Quiet, understated English pluck at its best, and very different in style to Scott's somewhat dry an ...more

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Dec 09, 2014 Laura marked it as to-read

Recommended to Laura by: Wanda

Shelves: travel, e-books, gutenberg

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

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Feb 09, 2015 Self-propelled rated it 5 of 5 stars

This, possibly the greatest true adventure story ever written, was well worth a winter re-read. Cherry-Garrard's description of the hellish Antarctic winter puts even a freezing January in perspective. I again shuddered in sympathy on reading that every night, he had to thaw his way into his frozen-solid sleeping bag, only to lie miserably sodden and cold for a few hours before beginning another "day" hauling his sled across the almost impassable Antarctic terrain in the pitch dark. He shivered This, possibly the greatest true adventure story ever written, was well worth a winter re-read. Cherry-Garrard's description of the hellish Antarctic winter puts even a freezing January in perspective. I again shuddered in sympathy on reading that every night, he had to thaw his way into his frozen-solid sleeping bag, only to lie miserably sodden and cold for a few hours before beginning another "day" hauling his sled across the almost impassable Antarctic terrain in the pitch dark. He shivered so much and so violently that most of his teeth were fractured by the constant chattering; and for the rest of his life he suffered from the aftereffects, both physical and mental, of the journey.

Yet there is also a great deal of delight to be had as the reader shares the camaraderie of Scott's men; where modern accounts of 'exploration' or adventure often come with a great deal of self-aggrandisment, back-stabbing and sniping, Cherry-Garrard's companions are unbelievably self-effacing and stoic. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this sort of modest grit is a far rarer commodity nowadays. Indeed, their humaneness and compassion towards their ailing companions and pack animals is one of the many reasons why Scott's final attempt to the pole failed; had they abandoned Edgar Evans and then Titus Oates to their fates early on, the healthier members of the party may well have survived.

Cherry-Garrard does not attempt to pinpoint why the attempt failed, and in fact says that given what Scott knew at the time, he made largely the right choices; but his thorough cataloguing of the choices made by Scott and others makes clear that several decisions were crucial. Among these were: that the expedition had to achieve the twin but not always compatible goals of scientific research and the race to the pole; the reliance on a poor selection of ponies, fed with inadequate fodder; the last-minute addition of an extra man to the polar team; the lack of skiing and navigational expertise among the men; a lack of fuel caused by the (previously observed) problem of evaporation from their containers; worse than expected weather; miscommunication regarding depot-laying; and perhaps most crucially, inadequate rations for the polar party. This last was understandable, as nutritional science was in its infancy and no-one knew the extent of the awful demands that manhauling would make on the party. Amundsen's journey was far easier, accomplished as it was with sleigh dogs, and made possible through a brilliant guess at pioneering an entirely new route to the pole rather than making use of Scott and Shackleton's earlier exploratory work.

The 'Worst Journey' of the title was not in fact to the pole, but to an Emperor Penguin rookery in order to obtain penguin eggs. There is a great moment of black humour as Cherry-Garrard tells of how after his return he sat, alternately ignored and condescended to, in the Natural History Museum in London: "What do you want? This ain't an egg-shop," spat one custodian. A more senior colleague took the eggs but brushed off Cherry's demands for a receipt. "It is not necessary: it is all right. You needn't wait."

A great book. ...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Jade rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, kindle

This has to be one of the most heroic tales that I've ever been proud to have read. Coaxed into taking on this mamoth book by a friend I kept putting it off as something I wasn't sure if I could give the time and my full attention to. Realising it was the 100th anniversary since Scott's Polar expedition and learning that the streets around my home were named after him (and that he grew up in my area), I thought I had to do it. It was amazing!

There were times when I felt bogged down by measuremen ...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my favourite books. The title gives high expectactions, and Cherry-Garrard does a good job of justifying these. The book gives a real sense of the lives and the decisions that the early polar explorers faced. Cherry-Garrard's esteem for his colleagues is clear. Wilson in particular comes across as some kind of buddha figure.

The worst journey was going to collect penguin eggs in the middle of winter. The reason was that there was a theory that penguins were one of the most primitive specie ...more

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Aug 19, 2012 ♥Belleza★✰ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, memoir, my-ebooks, non-fiction, ebook

This is an account of Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to the South Pole. But the title refers to a expedition made in the winter of 1911 by Bowers, Wilson and Cherry-Garrard to Cape Crozier to get Emperor penguin eggs. They believed there was a rookery there and that Emperor penguins laid and incubated their eggs in the wintertime. This was a very hazardous time for travel, intense cold and no sunlight means they were traveling in the dark over land that has crevasses and ice. It was either the This is an account of Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to the South Pole. But the title refers to a expedition made in the winter of 1911 by Bowers, Wilson and Cherry-Garrard to Cape Crozier to get Emperor penguin eggs. They believed there was a rookery there and that Emperor penguins laid and incubated their eggs in the wintertime. This was a very hazardous time for travel, intense cold and no sunlight means they were traveling in the dark over land that has crevasses and ice. It was either the height of bravery or foolishness depending on your point of view.

The book covers more then just that, Cherry attempts to give the reader an idea of what it was like to actually live in the Antarctic for as long as they did. Detailing their daily activities, the work they did, the food they ate, their “Saturday night toast”: “Sweethearts and wives; may our sweethearts become our wives, and our wives remain our sweethearts.” Also a Sunday night toast to “Fallen Friends”. He also gives some of the conditions that factored in Scott’s death, how the weather and the men’s health, frostbite and injuries affected the outcome. He also tells of the other samples they collected, some specimens that only exist in the South Pole. He talks about searching for Scott’s body, and how they had to decide between searching for the Polar party or going to find another group since they couldn’t do both.

Cherry relies on his own memories, and the diaries of other explorers, including Scott and Wilson, Bowers letters home to his mother. He really gives you a feel for what happened, you can understand a little more of how, when a blizzard hit, they were basically helpless, couldn’t move from their spot. Although it was peaceful, you could sleep for hours in your bag, if you were running low on food it could be quite dangerous. They were also cut off from the world. Depending on a ship that might come, might shipwreck, or might get caught in a gale or an ice pack.

This could be a difficult read for some, Cherry doesn’t gloss over anything, he talks about the diseases, about the killer whales trying to eat them, having to kill their horses and dogs to survive. But if you can handle that, this is definitely a book I would recommend. ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Joshua Horn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a first hand account of Captain Scott's Terra Nova Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1912. The expedition's goal was to send the first party to the South Pole, as well as other parties to do scientific research. The book was well written, although it got slightly dryer and hard to follow when Cherry quotes extensively from letters and journals of his fellow explorers. The book really gets exciting when Cherry, Wilson and Bowers went on a journey during the Antarctic winter to get specimens of ...more

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Jun 19, 2013 Douglas Dalrymple rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apsley Cherry-Garrard was one of the younger members of the cursed 1911-1912 Robert Falcon Scott expedition to Antarctica and the South Pole. Cherry, as his fellow expedition members called him, was one of three who undertook the infamous 70-mile “winter journey” in total dark and temperatures of 75 degrees below zero (F) to retrieve three emperor penguin eggs for science. He was also a supporting member of the Polar team and among those who finally discovered the frozen corpses of Scott, Wilson Apsley Cherry-Garrard was one of the younger members of the cursed 1911-1912 Robert Falcon Scott expedition to Antarctica and the South Pole. Cherry, as his fellow expedition members called him, was one of three who undertook the infamous 70-mile “winter journey” in total dark and temperatures of 75 degrees below zero (F) to retrieve three emperor penguin eggs for science. He was also a supporting member of the Polar team and among those who finally discovered the frozen corpses of Scott, Wilson and Bowers on the Ross Ice Shelf.

The book was originally written to provide an official record of the expedition, and it shows in the details. Cherry quotes at length from the letters and journals of other expedition members, and especially from Scott’s recovered diaries. If his book tends to drag at times (he could have cut 200 of the book’s 550 pages and given us a better read), it’s because Cherry wants to document everything as precisely as possible. Though not, in the end, published as the official record of the expedition (it was considered too personal a narrative), Cherry-Garrard's book is the most fitting monument to the persons and aims of the expedition that could be imagined.

It's Cherry’s own voice that really makes the book as a piece of literature. He’s writing after his own return from the front in WWI, and ten years after his return from Antarctica, but the Scott expedition haunts him more than the war. Reading the book I was reminded again and again of T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. There are similarities in tone, but it’s more than that. Apparently, as I learned only today, Cherry had written an appreciation of Lawrence’s work later in life, concluding that both he and Lawrence had employed the writing process to exorcise their personal demons of loss and suffering.

As a record of physical and mental endurance, it’s hard to imagine anything that could top The Worst Journey in the World. “Exploration,” Cherry-Garrard writes in the conclusion of the book, “is the physical expression of the intellectual passion.” Passion, however, may be both that which drives us forward, and that which we must endure. The Antarctic, for him, was not simply a place of scientific fascination, nor was the pole a mere crown for competitors, but it became, both literally and figuratively, the spot “where a man loses his orbit and turns like a joint on a spit,” with all the pain and scorching that image suggests.
...more

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Mar 28, 2010 Maureen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: maciej-recommends

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May 22, 2011 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure-library, travel-adventure

"The flowers were of snow, the rivers of ice, and if Stevenson had been to the Antarctic he would have made them so." (p 255)

Who would have guessed that a slight, young, recent Oxford graduate who paid for his passage with Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition would not only survive the ordeal but also write a classic narrative of his adventure? I might have been surprised had I not recently been reading the biography of young Teddy Roosevelt who overcame early physical weakness and dire di ...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Lara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, e-books, read-in-2011, travel, biography-autobiography-memoir, exploration, antarctica, 1900-1950

Fantastic account of Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition in Antarctica. It's wordy. Extremely wordy. But what words! Cherry-Garrard describes things beautifully, with emotion and humor and, well, lots of detail. He tells the story not only through this narrative, but also through his own journal entries and those of many of the other men who took part in this journey. And I love that, in addition to descriptions of the expedition itself, he also tells us about the jou ...more

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May 27, 2012 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well-deserved place atop the world's greatest adventure stories ever told. (Whether Cherry-Garrard wrote it himself, or had Shaw help him, is irrelevant, in my opinion.)

The title of the book refers to a brief slice of the 1911 trip to Antarctica that killed Scott and many members of his expedition. Scott's race to the South Pole is the background, the "worst journey" refers to a side-trip made by two members of the party. (I won't spoil it with any other details.) This is a flat-out superb book, ...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars

"At the same time, to visualize the Antarctic as a white land is a mistake,for, not only is there much rock projecting wherever mountains or rocky capes and islands rise, but the snow seldom looks white, and if carefully looked at will be found to be shaded with many colours, but chiefly with cobalt blue or rose-madder, and all the graduations of lilac and mauve which the mixture of these colours will produce. A White Day is so rare that I have recollections of going out from the hut or the tent ...more

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Dec 08, 2014 Wanda marked it as to-read

9 Dec 2014 -- find it here -- http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14363

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Feb 11, 2009 Leftbanker rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

Read this book and you'll never bitch about stuff like not having enough towels in your hotel room or an over-cooked steak you were served at a restaurant in Paris. Yet another story that makes the modern man relize that there are no more worlds to discover. Polar exploration was just about the last of the travels into the unknown. I don't count space exploration because for that you need an entire country's economy behind you. Now any knob can circle the world with only a credit card. Sic trans ...more

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Mar 10, 2014 Derek Walsh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-in-2010

The title is no exaggeration. This is the tale of Captain Scott's ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic told by one of the survivors, with large extracts from Scott's own diary, and the diaries and letters of other members of the team.
Three years in some of the harshest conditions on the planet, in a time before portable radios, lightweight fabrics, vitamin tablets or reliable engines, this is a tale of bravery and determination, of abject misery, and ultimately of tragedy. I can assure the read ...more

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Dec 28, 2014 Kettie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book. It was a little tedious at the beginning but once the journey started, I was thoroughly engaged. I enjoyed the narrator's voice, his observations, his attitude. If you like adventurous exploration stories, you'll love this one. I would have curled up and died had I been in a similar situation but I love reading about it.

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Jan 17, 2015 Sheila rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the retelling of explorer, Robert Scott's 1910, three year Antarctic journey through the eyes of a 23 year old participant. If you begin this book, you will HAVE TO finish it. And then, possibly you will become obsessed with thinking about polar exploration, as I have. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

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Sep 24, 2012 Thia added it

Wow! I was not prepared for the laborious task of reading this 300+, small print, scientific journal. It sounds like an intriguing story; maybe if there is a condensed version I would be interested. There are lots of different editions of this book so maybe one would be not so time-consuming. Maybe some day, but not toda.

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