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Loading... Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night (original 2021; edition 2021)by Julian Sancton (Author)
Work InformationMadhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton (2021)
   No current Talk conversations about this book.  kjuliff | Apr 2, 2024 |    ) cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |  ) KarenMonsen | Jan 9, 2024 |  ) sbenne3 | Nov 13, 2023 | MADHOUSE AT THE END OF THE EARTH was fascinating, but the writing left a bit to be desired. It was surprisingly dry for such an engaging topic. Sancton's writing style, described on the cover as having "novelistic flair," is sadly repetitive, monotonous and laborious. As much as I loved reading about de Gerlache and his men, the writing tested my patience. I'm glad I stuck with it, as the story was genuinely harrowing and remarkable, but I won't be in a hurry to pick up anything written by this author again. (  ) Elizabeth_Cooper | Oct 27, 2023 | no reviews | add a review
DistinctionsNotable Lists
Biography & Autobiography.
History.
Nonfiction.
HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? The ??exquisitely researched and deeply engrossing? (The New York Times) true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry??with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter ??The energy of the narrative never flags. . . . Sancton has produced a thriller.???The Wall Street Journal In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But de Gerlache??s plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters. De Gerlache sailed on, and soon the Belgica was stuck fast in the icy hold of the Bellingshausen Sea. When the sun set on the magnificent polar landscape one last time, the ship??s occupants were condemned to months of endless night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness and besieged by monotony, they descended into madness. In Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Julian Sancton unfolds an epic story of adventure and horror for the ages. As the Belgica??s men teetered on the brink, de Gerlache relied increasingly on two young officers whose friendship had blossomed in captivity: the expedition??s lone American, Dr. Frederick Cook??half genius, half con man??whose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica; and the ship??s first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, even in his youth the storybook picture of a sailor. Together, they would plan a last-ditch, nearly certain-to-fail escape from the ice??one that would either etch their names in history or doom them to a terrible fate at the ocean??s bottom. Drawing on the diaries and journals of the Belgica??s crew and with exclusive access to the ship??s logbook, Sancton brings novelistic flair to a story of human extremes, one so remarkable that even today NASA studies it for research on isolation for future missions to Mars. Equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror, Madhouse at the End of th No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)919.8904History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography of and travel in Australasia, Pacific Ocean islands, Atlantic Ocean islands, Arctic islands, Antarctica and on extraterrestrial worlds Polar regions AntarcticaLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.15)
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Wikipedia in English
2
Read by Vikas Adam
Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
This book is a narrative account of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99, its “planning”, execution, and aftermath. The expedition was Led by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery aboard the RV Belgica, and was the first Belgian Antarctic expedition. It is considered to be the first expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth is a well-researched and competently-written book, but for me it failed to convey the claustrophobia and dread that is so often engendered in such sea tales.
There’s a lot of detail of the members of the crew and their quarrels that threatened the success of the expedition, but I just didn’t get the feel of the sea and the extreme conditions of Antarctica that I was expecting. There was no fire for me in this book, despite the catchy title.
But perhaps I had unrealistic expectations. One of my earliest memories is of listening to Douglas Stewarts’s play, Fire on the Snow on the radio in Australia. Australians are perhaps more aware than others of Antarctica. Especially those of us from the southern coast. We feel Antarctica’s cold winds in winter. And even travelling by boat from the mainland to Tasmania can be a rough experience. All things considered please take my 3.5 rating with a grain of sand. (