The Last Place on Earth: Amazon.de: Roland Huntford: Englische Bücher

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Gebundene Ausgabe: 665 Seiten
Verlag: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; Auflage: New edition (1. Juli 1985)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0340381019
ISBN-13: 978-0340381014
Gr��e und/oder Gewicht: 23,2 x 16,7 x 2,8 cm

Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.4 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (23 Kundenrezensionen)

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On December 14, 1911, the classical age of Polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one month later--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 miles from their next cache of supplies. But it was Scott, ironically, who became the legend, Britain's heroic failure, "a monument to sheer ambition and bull-headed persistence. His achievement was to perpetuate the romantic myth of the explorer as martyr, and... to glorify suffering and self- sacrifice as ends in themselves."

Last Place On Earth is a complex and fascinating account of the race for this last great terrestrial goal. It is also biographer Ronald Huntford's rather heavy-handed attempt to restore Amundsen to glory. Though this was the age of the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left little to chance, apprenticed with Eskimos and obsessed over every detail. While Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, no dogs", Amundsen understood that both were vital to survival and they clearly won him the Pole.

Amundsen in Huntford's view is the "last great Viking" and Scott his bungling opposite: "stupid... recklessly incompetent", and irresponsible in the extreme--failings that cost him and his teammates their lives. Yet for all of Scott's real or exaggerated faults, he understood far better than Amundsen the power of a well-crafted sentence. Scott's diaries were recovered and widely published, and if the world insisted on lionising Scott, it was partly because he told a better story. Huntford's bias aside, it's clear that both Scott and Amundsen were valiant and deeply flawed. "Scott... had set out to be an heroic example. Amundsen merely wanted to be first at the pole. Both had their prayers answered." --Svenja Soldovieri -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

Amazon.com

On December 14, 1911, the classical age of polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one month later--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 miles from their next cache of supplies. But it was Scott, ironically, who became the legend, Britain's heroic failure, "a monument to sheer ambition and bull-headed persistence. His achievement was to perpetuate the romantic myth of the explorer as martyr, and ... to glorify suffering and self-sacrifice as ends in themselves." The world promptly forgot about Amundsen.

Biographer Ronald Huntford's attempt to restore Amundsen to glory, first published in 1979 under the title Scott and Amundsen, has been thawed as part of the Modern Library Exploration series, captained by Jon Krakauer (of Into Thin Air fame). The Last Place on Earth is a complex and fascinating account of the race for this last great terrestrial goal, and it's pointedly geared toward demythologizing Scott. Though this was the age of the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left little to chance, apprenticed with Eskimos, and obsessed over every detail. While Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, no dogs," Amundsen understood that both were vital to survival, and they clearly won him the Pole.

Amundsen in Huntford's view is the "last great Viking" and Scott his bungling opposite: "stupid ... recklessly incompetent," and irresponsible in the extreme--failings that cost him and his teammates their lives. Yet for all of Scott's real or exaggerated faults, he understood far better than Amundsen the power of a well-crafted sentence. Scott's diaries were recovered and widely published, and if the world insisted on lionizing Scott, it was partly because he told a better story. Huntford's bias aside, it's clear that both Scott and Amundsen were valiant and deeply flawed. "Scott ... had set out to be an heroic example. Amundsen merely wanted to be first at the pole. Both had their prayers answered." --Svenja Soldovieri -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

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What really happened 4. April 2000

Von John L. Velonis

Format:Taschenbuch

I recently read "Scott's Last Expedition", the edited version of his diaries from his South Pole expedition. This left me interested but unfulfilled: I wanted to learn more about Amundsen and the context for both expeditions, and to get more analysis of the bald facts as related in Scott's diaries. So I turned to Huntford's "The Last Place on Earth".

I was not disappointed. Huntford narrates the entire lives of both Amundsen and Scott, with edifying discursions on Nansen, Shackleton, and other Polar explorers. Huntford knows Norwegian and thus was able to consult primary sources for Amundsen's expedition directly; he provides many excerpts from the letters and diaries of both British and Norwegian expedition members. He also reveals some of the omissions in the edited version of Scott's diaries.

As a minor quibble, Huntford only rarely gives full dates, so that I found myself frequently having to page back a considerable way to remind myself which year or even which month it was. An appendixed chronology would have been immeasurably helpful.

As other reviewers have noted, the author is highly critical of Scott -- occasionally unfairly so, as when he notes that Scott's first depot journey brought "a ton of supplies not quite to 80 degrees South" where Amundsen's party had "moved three tons another two degrees of latitude closer to the Pole", omitting to mention that Amundsen started about a degree farther south than Scott. But from the evidence Huntford adduces, even without his interpretations, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Scott was criminally unprepared, negligent, and generally incompetent. It is not as though he had no information about what he would be facing -- his previous expedition encountered nearly all the same problems, but he seems not to have learned anything from it. Huntford shows how Scott's diaries and their careful editing combine to portray Scott in a much more favorable light than he deserves -- a case of the loser writing the history books.

Huntford also reveals what might charitably be called "traditional" attitudes toward women. For example, speaking of Kathleen Bruce, Scott's future wife, Huntford says, "She was a predatory female; more predatory than usual, that is." Fortunately, since nearly all the principal figures in the book are male, this only surfaces occasionally, as when Huntford describes Amundsen as having "an almost feminine sensitivity for the undertones and cross-currents on which a leader has to play".

Despite its flaws, "The Last Place on Earth" should be among the first books you read on Polar exploration, or true-life adventure in general. Once the race for the Pole was on, I found it as hard to put down as any fictional thriller.

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Engaging story marred by pedestrian writing 19. Oktober 1999

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Taschenbuch

The intertwined stories of Scott and Amundsen are dramatic reading for fans of exploration and the polar regions, but Huntford's plodding, judgemental style diminishes his book. I would have expected tighter writing and more judicious use of sources from a professional journalist, but I guess he needs a firmer editorial hand. I was particularly irritated by Huntford's unsupported psychological judgements, and his strong tendency to cast every act of Amundsen's in the most favorable possible light, and every act of Scott's in the worst. Nonetheless, it is useful to have the stories told in parallel, and this is certainly this account is a useful corrective to the myth of the heroic Scott.

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Substance vs. Illusion 25. Juni 2000

Von Gary M. Krinberg

Format:Taschenbuch

In my career as a Navy Diver, I made trips to both the Arctic and Antarctic; lived on the ice, dove through the ice and had to share limited space with other souls. This is not an easy task in extreme places such as the polar regions which is why prior to any work we did, we planned meticulously what we would do. In Virginia, prior to our diving off of Greenland's America Fiord, we built our tent city on the grassy area surrounding our building and we built all our flooring and numbered them. We did extensive research in polar diving, tested our dry suits and even read Will Stieger's accounts to acquaint ourselves with another's perspective and experiences. It paid off, as we were hit by three hurricane force storms during our month of living on the ice. We all made it because we were prepared. When I first saw Scott's Hut at Cape Evans and saw the stalls for the ponies, I just shook my head...what a waste. In Antarctica, among the scientists and workers who summer there, Scott is still somewhat of a larger than life character. His debris is everywhere, from the mummified seal corpses that litter the Cape Evans area, to the cross atop Ob Hill, he is there. The Kiwi base next to McMurdo is called Scott Base. I was too busy with work there to really understand what a terrific blunder his expedition was. But after reading Huntford's book, and holding it against my own modern day experiences I was amazed at just how poorly Scott planned his trip. In the polar regions, you don't throw the dice hoping things fall your way. After flying to South Pole and being alllowed to sit up front with the pilot and navigator, I saw from high what Amundsen's journey looked like. I think now of his meticulous planning and his handling of personalities. I read the sign at the geographic south that quotes both men; Amundsen in his matter of fact, understated way, and Scott in his dramatic flair for defeat. What opposites! An incredible book and a reminder that to pose and beleive in one's self-fulfilling prophecy is to doom yourself and others. Why one of his men didn't kill him (Scott) is beyond me.

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