The Worst Journey in the World

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The Worst Journey in the World
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  1. Paperback: 607 pages: 1 item
  2. Publisher: Basic Books; 1997-03-20
  3. Author: Apsley Cherry-Garrard
  4. ISBN: 0786704373
  5. Sales Rank in Books: #763401

Product Review

Cherry-Garrard, who accompanied Robert Falcon Scott to the Antarctic on the explorer's doomed quest for the South Pole, recounts the unforgettable journey across forbidding, inhospitable terrain. He was also a member of the search party that ultimately discovered Scott's frozen body along with his last notebook entries. With an introduction by the author, this tale of adventure stands out as a literary accomplishment as well as a classic of exploration.

Amazon.com Review

As Apsley Cherry-Garrard states in his introduction to the harrowing story of the Scott expedition to the South Pole, "Polar Exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World is a gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. The youngest member of Scott's team, the author was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and three men who had accompanied Scott on the final push to the Pole. These deaths would haunt Cherry-Garrard for the rest of his life as he questioned the decisions he had made and the actions he had taken in the days leading up to the Polar Party's demise.

Prior to this sad denouement, Cherry-Garrard's account is filled with details of scientific discovery and anecdotes of human resilience in a harsh environment. Each participant in the Scott expedition is brought fully to life. Cherry-Garrard's recollections are supported by diary excerpts and accounts from other teammates. Despite the sad fate of Scott, the reader will grudgingly agree with the closing words of The Worst Journey in the World: "Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion. And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.... If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg."

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Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (65 customer reviews)

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Title Says It All, December 20, 2002
sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Worst Journey in the World: A Tale of Loss and Courage in Antarctica (Paperback)
Robert Falcon Scott's scientific expedition to the South Pole in 1911 was like that famous medical cliché: "the operation was a success, but the patient died." The Polar Party did reach the South Pole, but were 34 days late from being the FIRST party at the pole. The entire Polar Party died in a blizzard returning to home camp. Invaluable scientific, geographic, and biologic data were obtained, but the hideous Winter Journey to collect Emperor penguin embryos at terrible risk turned out to be useless information. They hoped the embryos would show a connection between the evolution of dinosaurs into birds. (It did not.)Cherry Gerrard is a highly likeable, very human teller of the tale. He was the youngest member of the expedition, very much the gentleman and an Englishman to his fingertips. He shows us his human side (he didn't have the usual Englishman's fondness for animals and thought the dogs and ponies were miserable, exasperating beasts). He has a knack of...Read more


21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A Worse Time Than An Emperor Penguin, February 18, 2003
doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Worst Journey in the World (Adventure Library) (Hardcover)
In the first paragraph of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's introduction to this book, he starts his tale of Antarctic travails with the droll line, "I do not believe anybody on Earth has a worse time than an Emperor penguin." This displays his very modest and understated tale of what was really the worst journey in the world. This book deserves its reputation as an adventure classic, as Cherry-Garrard outlines the disastrous expedition for the South Pole by Captain R.F. Scott in 1913, in which the author was a young expedition member. This book certainly has its share of great adventure narratives and tales of hardship as experienced by the early explorers, including many falls into crevasses, continuous deadly weather, and near-madness brought on by the midnight sun or snowblindness. There are some unexpectedly interesting tales from before the actual expedition as well, as the author describes the voyage by ship to Antarctica with the trouble of having ponies and sled dogs on board, while...Read more


18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars "The Worst Journey" indeed, June 10, 2000
Susan Paxton - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Worst Journey in the World (Paperback)
Casual glancers at the title of this book about the 1912 Scott expedition may automatically assume that it refers to the death of Captain Scott and four of his companions on their return from the South Pole. Instead, "The Worst Journey in the World" was the trip to the Emperor Penguin rookeries undertaken in the middle of the Antarctic winter by Cherry-Garrand, Dr. Wilson, and Lt. Bowers, the latter two of whom would die with Scott on the polar trip. It makes absolutely terrifying reading; the men were not equipped or trained for the rigors of the expedition, and the scientific results from their collection of penguin eggs appear to have been absolutely nil (Shackleton fans will be interested to know that Dr. Eric Marshall suggested such a journey during the 1907-1909 Shackleton expedition, but Shackleton thought the idea was cracked and refused to countenance it). Cherry-Garrand is indeed a bit of a ragged writer, but as a non-heroic account of the Scott...Read more

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