A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole Book

British explorer Robert F. Scott spent three years exploring the Antarctic, returning to England a hero in 1904. His ambition was to be the first man to reach the South Pole, and he overcame innumerable obstacles to assemble another expedition, which left in 1910. Scott and three of his men did reach the pole, only to discover that Norwegian Roald Amundsen had been there only five weeks earlier. Slightly more than two months later, Scott and his companions died in their tents, their bodies--and Scott's diaries--found eight months later by a search party. This account of Scott, having followed the explorer from childhood through his naval training and marriage, gives us at the end not only a national symbol but a fully developed tragic hero. Diana Preston commendably ventures beyond the longstanding myth, including material that shows how Scott's decisions and faulty judgements ultimately sealed his fate. Read More

from£20.18 | RRP: £14.95
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £10.64
  • Product Description

    On November 12, 1912, a rescue party trekking across Antarctica's Great Ice Barrier found what they had set out to find: the snow-covered tent of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Inside, they made a grim discovery: Scott's frozen body lying between the bodies of two fellow explorers. The remaining two members of the party were nowhere in sight, but Scott's eloquent diary soon revealed their fate. They, like the others, had perished in nightmarish circumstances after successfully reaching the South Pole.

    The elusive character of Scott, in whom incredible courage was fatally matched by self-doubt and miscalculation, continues to haunt the popular imagination. His story--and that of the other four men on his final expedition--has never been told more grippingly or with greater compassion than it is in this book. "It is a tale of perseverance and unquenchable spirit in the face of terrible odds, " writes Diana Preston, "but it is also a story of stubbornness, sentimentality, and of men who are deeper and more complex than we sometimes acknowledge." Heroes, yes, but humans, too.

  • 0395933498
  • 9780395933497
  • Diana Preston
  • 26 November 1999
  • Houghton Mifflin (Trade)
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 269
  • 1st U.S. Ed
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.