The Worst Journey In The World

| 4.23 | 6,589 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Paul Theroux, Sara Wheeler, and 2 others. See all reviews

Ranked #8 in Exploration, Ranked #64 in Travelogue — see more rankings.

In his introduction to the harrowing story of the Scott expedition to the South Pole, Apsley Cherry-Garrard states that 'Polar Exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.' The Worst Journey in the World is his gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. One of the youngest members 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 him on the final push to the Pole. Prior to this sad denouement, Cherry-Garrard's account is... more
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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Worst Journey In The World from the world's leading experts.

Paul Theroux The worst journey in the world which he describes isn’t Scott’s race to the pole, it’s Cherry-Garrard’s trip with two other men to find the emperor penguins. The book is framed by Scott’s expedition, but the quest for the penguins is the centre of it. (Source)

Sara Wheeler It is ostensibly the story of Captain Scott’s 1912 expedition to the Antarctic, but it’s really about all places in all times and is possibly the best book ever written. (Source)

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