Product Description

A riveting account of Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic, combining Frank Hurley's remarkable photographs and Alfred Lansing's gripping narrative.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #438425 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-14
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
When Alfred Lansing's Endurance was first published in 1959, few people in this country--or anywhere else for that matter--had heard of Shackleton or the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition of 1914. Britain's polar history had been rewritten with Shackleton airbrushed out and Captain Scott taking centre stage as the archetypal English hero who died on the Great Barrier on his long haul back from the South Pole.

If Scott's deification was almost instantaneous, Shackleton's descent into obscurity was more of a slow fade than a sudden death. He achieved a certain amount of acclaim when South, his own account of the Expedition, was published, but his legend seemed to die with him when he suffered a fatal heart attack on another trip south in 1922. His memory deserved much better. Not only was he a far better explorer than Scott, both in terms of his technical and man management capabilities, but the story of the Transantarctic expedition read like an epic out of a Boys Own annual. With his boat crushed, he led his men across the pack-ice, sailed them in open boats to Elephant Island. Once he realised there was no chance of rescue, he and four crew mates sailed a further 600 miles across the southern ocean to South Georgia where they were shipwrecked. The five men then made the first crossing of the island to reach the whaling station at Stromness. Three attempts and three and a half months later, Shackleton returned to Elephant Island to pick up the remaining men. Not a single member of either party was lost.

So we have Lansing to largely thank for Shackleton's rehabilitation. But herein lies the problem. Shackleton's story has been now been so well told both in books--especially Roland Huntford's definitive biography, and in film and TV, that even though Lansing's thrilling account, making liberal use of the diaries of several expedition members, was the first to be published it now feels all terribly familiar and adds nothing to what we already know. Even Frank Hurley's exquisite photographs which illustrate the book now engender a slight feeling of déjà vu--not least because they have already been better reproduced in a single volume published by Bloomsbury. But Lansing deserves his day in the snow and no polar library would be complete without this book. And if, by any chance, you've never previously read a word about Shackleton, this is as good a place as any to start. --John Crace

THE TIMES
'thoroughly attention-grabbing'

Synopsis
'Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew make today's hightech adventurers look like dilettantes. Their interminable voyage across frozen land and open sea is one of the most harrowing survival stories of all time.' Sebastian Junger, author of the bestselling The Perfect Storm. In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men set sail for the South Atlantic on board the Endurance. The object of the expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland. In October 1915, still half a continent away from their intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in ice. For seventeen months Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs and then on the stormiest seas on the globe, were castaways in this most savage region of the world. Frank Hurley, the photographer of the expedition, documented their struggles, miraculously saving his negatives and photographs from destruction at each stage of their journey. His photographs illustrate the dramatic, terrible beauty of the lands with which they were contending.

They also provide an unsurpassable insight into the extraordinary spirit of Shackleton and his crew, and their extraordinary indefatigability and lasting civility towards one another in the most adverse conditions. Lansing's gripping narrative, based on firsthand accounts of crew members and interviews with survivors, vividly describes how the men lived together in camps on the ice until they reached land, how they were attacked by sea leopards, ate sea lion and polar bear, developed frostbite (an operation to amputate the foot of one member of the crew was carried out on the ice), and finally embarked on a 850-mile voyage in a 22-foot open lifeboat to find help.

Customer Reviews

A remarkable tale woderfully written
Endurance is, to say the least, one of the most harrowing stories that I have ever read, not least because it's true. Pointless me using adjectives here to describe this book as they have all, I'm sure, been used before. If you get the book, you'll find it all there, fascination, awe inspiring, triumph, emotion, gripping, suspense, compelling... A powerful and fascinating tale of the bravery and determination of Shackleton and his men to survive agianst all the odds and live to tell the tale.

the ultimate survival story
If this weren't a true story you would consider it too far fetched. The determination to survive in the face of extreme hardship is mindblowing. Shackleton's leadership skills are unparalleled and could be applied to many other areas of life. One of the best books I have ever read - thoroughly recommended.

Brilliant subject, lousy book layout
The subject matter is awe inspiring, to say the least. It's also amazing that Frank Hurley was still taking photos right up to the time they were rescued. Where this book falls down, though, is that there are no list of contents, no index, no list of photographs and no list of maps. The book is badly laid out. Unforgiveable, really.