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Lädt ... The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Explorationvon Alec Wilkinson
   Keine Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  upontheforemostship | Feb 22, 2023 |   In any case, the majority of this book does not concern the main character, but instead consists of digressions about other explorations which are tangentially related. Although I think this is a very interesting story indeed, for some reason the author's account was not compelling. A mediocre telling of an exceptional adventure. (  ) la2bkk | Feb 12, 2023 | Imagine then how it was undertaking polar exploration in the Victorian age. The expedition equipment was very primitive, and in some cases dangerous, they did not have years of study and understanding of the human body in these conditions. Wilkinson has looked at the story of S A Andrée, a Swedish explorer who took of in a hydrogen filled balloon in 1897 with the aim of being the first man to go over the North Pole. He has written this account based on the diaries of Andrée, and contemporary accounts of the time. He was a hero of his age when he departed, following in the footsteps of many explorers who tried and failed to make it there. The journey was not straightforward, as you would imagine, and of all the expeditions they were probably the wine who got the closest. After the balloon landed, they unpacked and set about trying to return across the ice. This was a fascinating book in lots of ways, Andrée was a true gentlemen, and the description of the meals that they ate were almost unreal, for example champagne at one meal. The thing that I didn't like about the book was that there was too much material on other attempts and journeys in the Arctic. I understand to set the context, but it just felt like it was padded a little. ( ) PDCRead | Apr 6, 2020 | The actual story of the balloon expedition (from its genesis to its execution) is fairly short. The book has a few other accounts of Arctic exploration that were helpful to gaining an understanding of the nature of such expeditions (and why Andree wanted to bypass land exploration in favor of air exploration), but they aren't totally relevant to this specific story. You do get a good sense of the dangers of the Arctic from those accounts. And (spoiler alert) since Andree's expedition failed, the tales from survivors of other expeditions can give you some sense of exactly how bad it was for Andree and his team. The book is also an interesting look at some misconceptions about air travel when the concept was still in its infancy. The thought of traveling to the poles in a hot air balloon now is laughable to us, but some scientists from the era (though not all) thought it was possible using Andree's methods. I think this is a decent book if you are an avid reader of books about Arctic exploration and want to supplement your reading. Otherwise, it is just OK. ( ) slug9000 | Mar 20, 2015 | As with many other explorers of the farthest reaches of the globe, Andree disappeared from view and truly disappeared until remains of his expedition were found 30 years later. Even then, it's a mystery exactly how the three men died. Their diaries don't provide clues, and their bodies aren't much help either. That aspect of the story is a little unsatisfying, although hardly unusual with polar exploration. Probably as a result of the relatively scarce data on what happened on the actual expedition, the book is padded out with tales of other Arctic endeavors by ship and sledge. I could have done without those parts, but I guess it provides some insight into what still remained to be explored, and what was at stake. Andree is a pretty well-developed presence, but his two companions remain mostly mysteries because they were younger and not as well-known before setting off (and hadn't caused as much controversy as Andree). With all stories like this, a reader has to resign him or herself to just not knowing everything or getting all the answers. (  )1  ursula | Apr 18, 2014 | Zeige 5 von 5 keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
AuszeichnungenPrestigeträchtige Auswahlen
History.
Travel.
Nonfiction.
HTML:In this grand and astonishing tale, Alec Wilkinson brings us the story of S. A. Andrée, the visionary Swedish aeronaut who, in 1897, during the great age of Arctic endeavor, left to discover the North Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen balloon. Called by a British military officer “the most original and remarkable attempt ever made in Arctic exploration,” Andrée’s expedition was followed by nearly the entire world, and it made him an international legend. The Ice Balloon begins in the late nineteenth century, when nations, compelled by vanity, commerce, and science, competed with one another for the greatest discoveries, and newspapers covered every journey. Wilkinson describes how in Andrée several contemporary themes intersected. He was the first modern explorer—the first to depart for the Arctic unencumbered by notions of the Romantic age, and the first to be equipped with the newest technologies. No explorer had ever left with more uncertainty regarding his fate, since none had ever flown over the horizon and into the forbidding region of ice. In addition to portraying the period, The Ice Balloon gives us a brief history of the exploration of the northern polar regions, both myth and fact, including detailed versions of the two record-setting expeditions just prior to Andrée’s—one led by U.S. Army lieutenant Adolphus Greely from Ellesmere Island; the other by Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer who initially sought to reach the pole by embedding his ship in the pack ice and drifting toward it with the current. Woven throughout is Andrée’s own history, and how he came by his brave and singular idea. We also get to know Andrée’s family, the woman who loves him, and the two men who accompany him—Nils Strindberg, a cousin of the famous playwright, with a tender love affair of his own, and Knut Fraenkel, a willing and hearty young man. Andrée’s flight and the journey, based on the expedition’s diaries and photographs, dramatically recovered thirty-three years after the balloon came down, along with Wilkinson’s research, provide a book filled with suspense and adventure, a haunting story of high ambition and courage, made tangible with the detail, beauty, and devastating conditions of traveling and dwelling in “the realm of Death,” as one Arctic explorer put it. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)910.911History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography and Travel History, geographic treatment, biography - Discovery. exploration Geography of and travel in areas, regions, places in general Frigid ZonesKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (3.41)
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6
I thought I would be prepared for this. I have read plenty about people freezing to death on mountains, and I loved The Expedition so I assumed it would be fine reading this. It's about the same thing as The Expedition after all!
Yeah, I was wrong. It is about the same expedition, but it also gives a lot of context (that is not in The Expedition) about Arctic Exploration in general. Other expeditions, why it was so important, stuff like that, which was super-interesting, don't get me wrong. Kinda hard to keep up sometimes with all the names, dates and different expeditions, but still interesting.
So what am I hinting about? The starvation. People freezing to death is not pleasant, but people starving to death? That's disgusting. Reading about people so starved, so desperate, that they're literally eating their own boots? For some reason the boots stuck with me more than the cannibalism, because if I were dead and someone else was starving I would not get mad or haunt them if they ate me, but imagine being so hungry that you're biting into the leather of your boots! I cannot get over that.
So yeah, not the same as reading about mountaineering accidents. But still interesting, though not as much about Andrée as maybe I would have preferred. (