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63rd out of 171 books
—
67 voters
The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage
The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of nineteenth-century British exploration.
After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcu...more
After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcu...more
Hardcover, 441 pages
Published
March 2nd 2010
by Knopf
(first published 2010)
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The story of the Franklin Expedition has always fascinated me, as did the entire Arctic quest to find the Northwest Passage. To think that it was just about a century and a half ago that mankind still didn't know what was really up there...such bravery. However, having bookshelves full of other books describing most of this Arctic adventure, I can only give this edition two stars, as it ended up reading more like a tenured professor's obligatory publication (I much prefer Barrow's Boys: The Orig...more
History isn't written by the victor, it's written by the most kick ass wife on the winning side. Seriously, just about the only name associated with the Northwest Passage that I knew before reading this book was John Franklin's. It turns out that he didn't travel the furthest or suffer the most in the arctic ice, while he was a great adventurer, there is no proof that he ever even found a Northwest Passage. At most, he died in the vicinity of one. Luckily, he had an incredible wife who ensured t...more
Anthony Brandt tells a surprisingly interesting story of the British search for the Northwest Passage - a long-sought route to the Far East by going around the Americas to the north. While he briefly covers early efforts, the core of the book focuses on the first half of the 1800s and men like John Ross, William Edward Parry, James Clark Ross (nephew to the elder Ross), and John Franklin - the man who literally ate his boots to avoid starvation.
"Risk is the essence of exploration" (pg 140), but...more
"Risk is the essence of exploration" (pg 140), but...more
I picked this book because I enjoyed The Terror and that book is a "what if" about the Franklin expedition.
It's a thumping good read.
This is coming from someone who is only mildly interested in the topic of the Northwest Passage.
Brandt makes the reader feel cold, which considering the weather in Philly when I was reading this book, is surprising. I felt cold even when I was sitting outside in the sunlight.
Brandt also seems to be fair. While acknowledges the stupidity or hubris of the British in...more
It's a thumping good read.
This is coming from someone who is only mildly interested in the topic of the Northwest Passage.
Brandt makes the reader feel cold, which considering the weather in Philly when I was reading this book, is surprising. I felt cold even when I was sitting outside in the sunlight.
Brandt also seems to be fair. While acknowledges the stupidity or hubris of the British in...more
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Jul 07, 2010
Mouldy Squid
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Shelves:
history
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Not claiming objectivity here, but I must say, up to part V and have enjoyed what could have been a dusty, depressing read given the subject matter.
Not so.
The author, a lovely man, has verve and panache.
As a constant reader of history books, now that they're all the rage, there are several things I liked very much about this one.
1) It was written by my father and he's a pretty nice guy.
2) Even though I am a fan of history books, I sometimes feel like the writer is almost as glad as the reader wh...more
Not so.
The author, a lovely man, has verve and panache.
As a constant reader of history books, now that they're all the rage, there are several things I liked very much about this one.
1) It was written by my father and he's a pretty nice guy.
2) Even though I am a fan of history books, I sometimes feel like the writer is almost as glad as the reader wh...more
I've read a bit about Arctic exploration in my time, and this book is a great representation of the genre. Brandt manages to portray the history of the search for the Northwest Passage and the subsequent search for Sir John Franklin without bogging down in technicalities or losing momentum. I love these stories not only because they are about Canada (the Arctic is as fascinating a place as you can find in the world), but also because they show so vividly what humanity can endure, and how ridicul...more
It is very dry. Be prepared to read this book as you do a text book- ie with a note pad- and record every date.
While the author brings in personalities of the main players, in interesting yet brief asides, he also assumes you remember every date of every polar enterprise over a multi CENTURY period of arctic exploration. He almost NEVER relates the timing to any other event- they are simply listed as a serious of month/year...
If only he had done the math for us it would be a 3-4* book. Its har...more
While the author brings in personalities of the main players, in interesting yet brief asides, he also assumes you remember every date of every polar enterprise over a multi CENTURY period of arctic exploration. He almost NEVER relates the timing to any other event- they are simply listed as a serious of month/year...
If only he had done the math for us it would be a 3-4* book. Its har...more
The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of nineteenth-century British exploration.
After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Orient via a sea route over northern Canada. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sent out expeditio...more
After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Orient via a sea route over northern Canada. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sent out expeditio...more
Non-Fiction. Concentrates on the period of British history following the Napoleonic Wars, covering 1818-1880, with a focus on John Franklin. 1818 was the year Franklin went on his first expedition to the arctic, and 1880 saw what would be the last of the Franklin search expeditions until the end of the twentieth century. The book covers more than just Franklin, but his first and last trips act like a set of bookends, neatly propping the whole thing up.
This isn't as detailed or comprehensive as W...more
This isn't as detailed or comprehensive as W...more
1 like · like · see review
A brilliant retelling of the history of Arctic exploration that culminated in the search for Sir John Franklin. It's a long, dense read but gripping throughout. Brandt brings alive the stories of the many explorers who suffered through long winters frozen into the ice living in conditions it hardly seems possible humans could survive.
He also illuminates the pigheaded stubborn bureaucrat's whose refusal to open their minds to the fact dooms hundreds of men to an unpleasant death or to permanent...more
He also illuminates the pigheaded stubborn bureaucrat's whose refusal to open their minds to the fact dooms hundreds of men to an unpleasant death or to permanent...more
I found it to be well-written, although certainly not spell-binding. It would've been nice to have a bit more mention of the first actual navigation of the NW Passage by Amundsen. I found the writing to get more interesting once Franklin's final voyage took off. I chose this over Pierre Berton's The Arctic Grail, because it was shorter, but I imagine it would've been a bit more entertaining. Not that this book is dry, just that I didn't find it to be much of a page turner.
The Man Who Ate His Boots is jam packed--like a Royal Navy ship trapped in a polar ice floe--with historical detail, yet thanks to Brandt's writing style, it retains a light tone that propels the action forward and makes it hard to put down. It's essential reading for anyone interested in British maritime history, Arctic exploration, the Canadian fur trade, shipwrecks, cannibalism and, of course, fans of Dan Simmons' The Terror.
A fascinating book. . . . This is the story of those who tried to discover the Northwest Passage, a route to take ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is a story of folly. It is also a story of human courage. Many died to discover the elusive passage, based on the confidence of countries like England that it could be done. A story of courage tragically misused in many cases. . . .
I'd recently read a book about Henry Hudson's last voyage and how he'd probably been set adrift in the Arctic. It was a painfully boring book, and I was not looking forward to reading this one.
However, Brandt's effort is a surprisingly good read. It's full of British hubris and utterly insane tales of survival and even has a compelling mystery to it. I was totally captivated.
However, Brandt's effort is a surprisingly good read. It's full of British hubris and utterly insane tales of survival and even has a compelling mystery to it. I was totally captivated.
omgosh - the British Empire just didn't get it. They just kept throwing more and more men and money at trying to "discover" the Northwest Passage even after they pretty much knew it wasn't going to happen. You read these tragic adventures and you just want to take a hot shower, eat a juicy steak and cuddle up in a soft, warm bed. Life was WAY TOO HARD back in the day.
Sad sad story. So many brave, dedicated men, rampaging off across the Arctic with so much hope and so little preparation. The enormity of their suffering.... Brandt does a great job of giving the big picture of the search for Northwest Passage. Very readable. It also makes me realize how little I know about the far North of my country - I spent a lot of time poring over the maps, trying to get straight in my mind where they were.
Those crazy Brits! Unable to get it through their thick skulls that the NW Passage wasn't a feasible navigation route (at least until global warming) and that just maybe the natives new a thing or two about surviving in the Arctic. The amount of suffering they endured is mind-boggling. This is a fantastic book, I was totally absorbed and couldn't put it down.
I knew next to nothing about Sir John Franklin when I started the book, so I'm afraid my mind wandered a bit after Franklin's boot-eating session but before he comes back on the scene. Nevertheless, the author kept the narrative hopping with plenty of (unforced) mention of relevance to current events and to better known events in history.
Mr. Brandt has written a very detailed, well constructed and entertaining narrative on England's search for the northwest passage. The fate of the crews of the Terror and Erebus have fascinated scholars for years, and while there have been numerous books published over the years on Franklin's expedition, this could very well be the most thoroughly researched. Mr. Brandt does an excellent job of recounting all of the different accounts of each expedition and the many rescue attempts that followed...more
This books turned out to be a interesting read. The Man Who Ate His Boots is John Franklin, the explorer who finally disappeared into the Arctic for years. His first expedition led to a tragedy where the men had to eat his boots and since that time was known by that nickname. The British wanted to find the Northwest Passage and spent nearly a century looking for it after many other countries gave up. The story is an interesting one and I hope that others will read it. Still it is amazing that th...more
While I did start to feel a little stranded in the Arctic myself a few times, this was a really interesting read about something I knew nothing about. I'm fascinated by the courage of true explorers and this book delivers on being both informative and captivating.
End-to-end thrilling and informative, if you like exploration and freezing to death in the Arctic (which I do). I wish the maps were more easily referenced--I ended up reading with the atlas open on my lap--but now I know my Baffin Island from Melville and Beechey. Highly recommend.
Sorry, I had to stop about a third of the way through, much like most of the explorers who did not find the Northwest Passage and had to abandon their search. I know others liked it, but it was not a well told story, more of reading a ships log. Too bad. Perhaps in the hands of someone with more of a story-telling bent, like Sebastian Junger, would have made this story come to life.
Harrowing tales of daring do in the Artic and Northern Canada during Britain's often ill fated search for the Northwest Passage. This book was made all the more interesting for me after I recently discovered that I have a connection through marriage to Sir John Franklin, then man referred to in the book's title.
Great book for armchair adventurers about the British and the artic. Trials, tribulations, dangers, and death are all things I prefer to read about rather than be involved with. Especially when it is cold.
This was a compelling adventure story, though some of the political chapters were a bit slow. The author needed to include many, many more maps. . . how frustrating to read about how Franklin and his men spent their first of many long winters stranded on a certain island, only to find that not one of the maps in the book included that island. I mostly kept my computer at hand to cross-reference. This Canadian site was particularly useful:
http://ve.torontopubliclibrary.ca/fro...
http://ve.torontopubliclibrary.ca/fro...
another one of those "50 degrees below zero, ate the last of the dogs, hope to be home by Christmas" story's, where do these people get the idea that traveling in the arctic/antarctic is fun...
Excellent extreme...adventure history of exploration in the Canadian archipelago, with maps included! Had no idea so many voyages were made by an array of interesting characters who tended to give their names to everything they found. There is even a woman, Jane Franklin, adventure traveler in her own right and relentless in her pursuit of an answer to what happened...
A thorough telling of the search for a navigable Northwest passage. Sometimes a bit lost in the geography but the maps helped. Also seemed a bit dry at times, but overall well written. It was amazing the stubbornness of the Admiralty in England...."it is there, I just know it, don't confuse me with the facts"...and how quickly expeditions were deemed failures by the men comfortably ensconced in England, while the explorers dealt with fickle and persistent ice, 70 degree below temperatures, and a...more
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From Random House:
Anthony Brandt is the editor of the Adventure Classics series published by National Geographic Society Press, and the books editor at National Geographic Adventure magazine. Formerly the book critic at Men’s Journal, Brandt has written for The Atlantic, GQ, Esquire, and many other magazines, and is the author of two previous books. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.
More about Anthony Brandt...
Anthony Brandt is the editor of the Adventure Classics series published by National Geographic Society Press, and the books editor at National Geographic Adventure magazine. Formerly the book critic at Men’s Journal, Brandt has written for The Atlantic, GQ, Esquire, and many other magazines, and is the author of two previous books. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.
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