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Żony polarników. Siedem niezwykłych historii
Josephine Peary, Eva Nansen, Eleanor Anne Franklin, wreszcie Marie Herbert… Kari Herbert w swojej najnowszej książce na pierwszy plan wysuwa nie słynnych polarników, lecz… ich kobiety. Zazwyczaj pozostające w cieniu, w książce Herbert ukazane są nie tylko jako wierne i oddane towarzyszki życia swych mężów, z utęsknieniem czekające na ich powrót do domu, lecz również jako kronikarki, powiernice, pielęgniarki, a nawet, nierzadko, członkinie ich ekspedycji bądź też kierowniczki misji ratunkowych.
Żony polarników to historia siedmiu niesamowitych kobiet. Skazane na samotne życie, często nawet przez kilka lat z rzędu, potrafiły znaleźć w sobie siłę, by przezwyciężyć tęsknotę i oddać się swoim pasjom (gdy Kathleen poznała przyszłego męża Roberta Falcona Scotta, była już uznaną rzeźbiarką, a nim mezzosopranistka Eva Sars wyszła za Fridtjöfa Nansena, już słynęła z udanych wykonań pieśni Schumanna). Jednakże nie zaniedbywały przy tym swych mężczyzn, wspieranie ich w dążeniu do celu uważały bowiem za swój obowiązek.
„Dla odkrywcy wytrwała żona była tak samo ważna jak każdy inny członek ekspedycji, jeśli nie bardziej. Powinna oczywiście podzielać jego pasje, być wyrozumiała, inteligentna i godna zaufania; sukces albo porażka wyprawy często zależały od jej umiejętności przewidywania i wsparcia”.
Książka Herbert skonstruowana jako zbiór epizodów, wspomnień i listów przybliża czytelnikom życie tych niezwykłych par i rzuca nowe światło na ich relacje i na rolę kobiet-żon polarników. Polarnicy często traktowali swe żony jak wyrocznie i uzależniali od nich powodzenie swych wypraw.
Żony polarników to historia siedmiu niesamowitych kobiet. Skazane na samotne życie, często nawet przez kilka lat z rzędu, potrafiły znaleźć w sobie siłę, by przezwyciężyć tęsknotę i oddać się swoim pasjom (gdy Kathleen poznała przyszłego męża Roberta Falcona Scotta, była już uznaną rzeźbiarką, a nim mezzosopranistka Eva Sars wyszła za Fridtjöfa Nansena, już słynęła z udanych wykonań pieśni Schumanna). Jednakże nie zaniedbywały przy tym swych mężczyzn, wspieranie ich w dążeniu do celu uważały bowiem za swój obowiązek.
„Dla odkrywcy wytrwała żona była tak samo ważna jak każdy inny członek ekspedycji, jeśli nie bardziej. Powinna oczywiście podzielać jego pasje, być wyrozumiała, inteligentna i godna zaufania; sukces albo porażka wyprawy często zależały od jej umiejętności przewidywania i wsparcia”.
Książka Herbert skonstruowana jako zbiór epizodów, wspomnień i listów przybliża czytelnikom życie tych niezwykłych par i rzuca nowe światło na ich relacje i na rolę kobiet-żon polarników. Polarnicy często traktowali swe żony jak wyrocznie i uzależniali od nich powodzenie swych wypraw.
360 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 19, 2018
Run, girl! Never marry an explorer! Don’t let their piercing “blue / deep blue, almost purple / beautiful hazel” eyes possess you!
Well, that’s what I might have said to my daughter, but these six women - Jane Franklin (Franklin’s first wife Eleanor hardly figures here), Jo Peary, Eva Nansen, Kathleen Scott, Emily Shackleton and Marie Herbert - despite their susceptibility to eye colour - seem to have coped resoundingly well with marriage to some of the world’s most extreme explorers.
These are well-written and interesting stories but they aren’t full biographies by any means. The Polar Wives are only seen through the lens of their husbands’ exploratory achievements, despite most of the women being interesting and accomplished in their own right: Jo Peary and Marie Herbert actually went Arctic themselves, and Jo’s first child was even born there; Kathleen Scott was a noted sculptor; Eva Nansen was Norway’s most celebrated opera singer; and the Second Mrs Franklin was famous for, well, elevating her husband into a national icon and organizing more rescue attempts than anyone else in history.
You can only marvel at their devotion and fortitude in the face of their mates’ heroics, ranging from Ernest Shackleton’s legendary sense of leadership and dedication to his men to Robert Peary, exhibiting a truly stunning level of arrogance, self-importance and maudlin sentimentality. Those two did make a fine contrast.
Despite that, the book was needlessly choppy in that each bio was broken, rather arbitrarily, into four eras. I know Herbert’s intention was to illustrate the commonality between them but it was a bit of a stretch to mould all of their lives into (I’m paraphrasing here) The Courting Years, The Waiting Periods, The Reunions, and the Ever Afters. I would much rather have read each one straight through.
And although it was a nice touch to include the author’s mother as one of the six, Wally Herbert’s more modern (1970’s) First Circumnavigation of Greenland didn’t quite seem to be in the same league when satellite phones and airlifting were in the picture - even though it was clearly as much of a challenge as the earlier expeditions. Herbert, understandably, didn’t quite achieve the same distance from her parents’ story so it had a more autobiographical flavour with many more minor incidents – some quite trivial ones, actually - included.
Still, in her epilogue, Kari Herbert wrote:
And she did.
Well, that’s what I might have said to my daughter, but these six women - Jane Franklin (Franklin’s first wife Eleanor hardly figures here), Jo Peary, Eva Nansen, Kathleen Scott, Emily Shackleton and Marie Herbert - despite their susceptibility to eye colour - seem to have coped resoundingly well with marriage to some of the world’s most extreme explorers.
These are well-written and interesting stories but they aren’t full biographies by any means. The Polar Wives are only seen through the lens of their husbands’ exploratory achievements, despite most of the women being interesting and accomplished in their own right: Jo Peary and Marie Herbert actually went Arctic themselves, and Jo’s first child was even born there; Kathleen Scott was a noted sculptor; Eva Nansen was Norway’s most celebrated opera singer; and the Second Mrs Franklin was famous for, well, elevating her husband into a national icon and organizing more rescue attempts than anyone else in history.
You can only marvel at their devotion and fortitude in the face of their mates’ heroics, ranging from Ernest Shackleton’s legendary sense of leadership and dedication to his men to Robert Peary, exhibiting a truly stunning level of arrogance, self-importance and maudlin sentimentality. Those two did make a fine contrast.
Despite that, the book was needlessly choppy in that each bio was broken, rather arbitrarily, into four eras. I know Herbert’s intention was to illustrate the commonality between them but it was a bit of a stretch to mould all of their lives into (I’m paraphrasing here) The Courting Years, The Waiting Periods, The Reunions, and the Ever Afters. I would much rather have read each one straight through.
And although it was a nice touch to include the author’s mother as one of the six, Wally Herbert’s more modern (1970’s) First Circumnavigation of Greenland didn’t quite seem to be in the same league when satellite phones and airlifting were in the picture - even though it was clearly as much of a challenge as the earlier expeditions. Herbert, understandably, didn’t quite achieve the same distance from her parents’ story so it had a more autobiographical flavour with many more minor incidents – some quite trivial ones, actually - included.
Still, in her epilogue, Kari Herbert wrote:
This book is not a definitive study of polar exploration; it is simply a collection of human stories. What sets them apart is the intensity of experience and emotion: love was profound, anxiety and loneliness became crippling; journeys were epic ordeals, at times almost mythic. Fear and hope accompanied every stage of these relationships. These heroes, it is important to remember, were fathers, husbands, sons and brothers and like the rest of us wanted to find their place in the world. My father used to say “tell the truth, but always be kind” and in my writing I have tried to stick to this principle.
And she did.
September 11, 2015
Who would want to be married to an explorer? Subject to danger and away all the time. That Jane Franklin was something else! It was quite interesting to learn that the absences and obsessions were really quite a strain on marriages. I really didn't know anything about these wives except for Jane Franklin who is quite famous for her determination to find her husband long after most people would assume he was gone.
January 23, 2017
A lot of interesting details about personal life of explorers and their families. Kathleen Scott is my favorite subject of the book.
Very inspiring and deep, thought provoking.
Enjoyed it very much
Very inspiring and deep, thought provoking.
Enjoyed it very much
January 13, 2026
Who would ever marry an explorer??
These women did. Eleanor Franklin, Lady Jane Franklin, Eva Nansen, Kathleen Scott, Josephine Peary, Emily Shackleton, and Marie Herbert were all such unique and strong characters in their own right. It was truly fascinating to see that it truly takes a strong woman to endure marriage to a man gone for years at a time. I know this to be true in my own life; for the first 15 years of my marriage, my husband was often gone for months at a time with the US Navy, and it was left to me to run the house and raise the children. Fortunately, I never worried that he may never make it home again.
I was most drawn to Kathleen Scott. She seems to be completely unique as an Edwardian lady, desperate to scratch her own wanderlust by traveling. She also seems very physically attracted to the men in her life, and it’s interesting to read how she appreciated the play of the muscles in the back of the man powering her rickshaw. We don’t usually see such things from women of that era.
If there is anything I wish Herbert had addressed a bit more, it would be Peary’s abuse of the young Inuit girls he lived amongst. It is mentioned in this book that he had at least two children by a young Inuit woman, but I have read other accounts in which he felt he could use the girls and women as he liked, since they weren’t civilized, like white women. My heart aches for Jo Peary, as she knew about her husband’s infidelities and lived with a woman who had borne him children.
I rather enjoyed that Herbert gave us slices of these women’s lives at a time, instead of a huge chapter of just one wife. While the timelines are different, what these women endured while their husbands were off exploring, and some of them having died years before, made sense as an organizational method for this book. As someone who is familiar with most of these explorers, having read quite a few books on them, I did learn new information, like that Franklin was married before he married Lady Jane Franklin.
Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in polar exploration.
These women did. Eleanor Franklin, Lady Jane Franklin, Eva Nansen, Kathleen Scott, Josephine Peary, Emily Shackleton, and Marie Herbert were all such unique and strong characters in their own right. It was truly fascinating to see that it truly takes a strong woman to endure marriage to a man gone for years at a time. I know this to be true in my own life; for the first 15 years of my marriage, my husband was often gone for months at a time with the US Navy, and it was left to me to run the house and raise the children. Fortunately, I never worried that he may never make it home again.
I was most drawn to Kathleen Scott. She seems to be completely unique as an Edwardian lady, desperate to scratch her own wanderlust by traveling. She also seems very physically attracted to the men in her life, and it’s interesting to read how she appreciated the play of the muscles in the back of the man powering her rickshaw. We don’t usually see such things from women of that era.
If there is anything I wish Herbert had addressed a bit more, it would be Peary’s abuse of the young Inuit girls he lived amongst. It is mentioned in this book that he had at least two children by a young Inuit woman, but I have read other accounts in which he felt he could use the girls and women as he liked, since they weren’t civilized, like white women. My heart aches for Jo Peary, as she knew about her husband’s infidelities and lived with a woman who had borne him children.
I rather enjoyed that Herbert gave us slices of these women’s lives at a time, instead of a huge chapter of just one wife. While the timelines are different, what these women endured while their husbands were off exploring, and some of them having died years before, made sense as an organizational method for this book. As someone who is familiar with most of these explorers, having read quite a few books on them, I did learn new information, like that Franklin was married before he married Lady Jane Franklin.
Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in polar exploration.
December 20, 2022
I don't understand this book at all. It skims over the lives of the women it's supposed to be about. I read one chapter and skimmed the second and then put it down.
Here's a rough quote from the first chapter: She hungered for venison, her favorite meat, and was sometimes knocked flat by a sudden wind while hunting. Four days after Bert got back they had a dinner of venison -- she'd shot two -- and she shot a narwhal with one bullet so she got to horn -- straight as an arrow and sharp as a stiletto.
The whole thing is that disjointed and shallow. No going along with her while she hunted those two deer nor when she shot the narwhal and the men were grumbling about her being there and about her taking that shot, before they learned to admire her skill, etc. No inner life of a woman left for long periods while her husband is off exploring. What were her dreams? How did she handle the loneliness? No history about her father teaching her to shoot (in a time when women rarely did that). The whole point was to get to know her and yet all we got was a tantalizing glimpse.
Amazing that she and her agent and the editors missed the whole point.
Here's a rough quote from the first chapter: She hungered for venison, her favorite meat, and was sometimes knocked flat by a sudden wind while hunting. Four days after Bert got back they had a dinner of venison -- she'd shot two -- and she shot a narwhal with one bullet so she got to horn -- straight as an arrow and sharp as a stiletto.
The whole thing is that disjointed and shallow. No going along with her while she hunted those two deer nor when she shot the narwhal and the men were grumbling about her being there and about her taking that shot, before they learned to admire her skill, etc. No inner life of a woman left for long periods while her husband is off exploring. What were her dreams? How did she handle the loneliness? No history about her father teaching her to shoot (in a time when women rarely did that). The whole point was to get to know her and yet all we got was a tantalizing glimpse.
Amazing that she and her agent and the editors missed the whole point.
June 3, 2023
Interesting read but confusing
I enjoyed the various accounts of the polar wives but found it confusing to not read the complete account of each lady straight through. Rotating between wives made me have to constantly refer to the previous read of each wife.
In looking at the whole, each of the men had a burning desire to achieve new things, including fame, and nothing could ultimately interfere with it. Some of the ladies also.
I enjoyed the various accounts of the polar wives but found it confusing to not read the complete account of each lady straight through. Rotating between wives made me have to constantly refer to the previous read of each wife.
In looking at the whole, each of the men had a burning desire to achieve new things, including fame, and nothing could ultimately interfere with it. Some of the ladies also.
October 5, 2022
This well-researched and very compelling book tells the stories of the interesting women who were married to famous polar explorers, adding depth and insights into the more well-known stories of the lives of the explorers themselves.
February 8, 2019
I started reading this when the Polar Vortex was big news in upper Midwest. Helped me imagine what polar explorers were experiencing in 19th and 20th century expeditions.
November 20, 2020
True stories, very interesting.
April 11, 2024
Most of these wives were adventurous for women of their era. It was interesting to read if the women behind these explorers. It had to be hard to be away from your husband for months and years.
February 3, 2025
fabulous
I’ve read considerably about polar explorers. This book gives greater insight into their lives and expeditions by introducing us to the heroic wives working behind and/or directly within the scenes .
Thank you for sharing this with us.
J Abnet
@separateboats
I’ve read considerably about polar explorers. This book gives greater insight into their lives and expeditions by introducing us to the heroic wives working behind and/or directly within the scenes .
Thank you for sharing this with us.
J Abnet
@separateboats
September 18, 2016
An incredible book, made all the more poignant having been written by a woman who had been part of the adventures.
All these women were extraordinary in their own ways, and as such I actually got a little confused, given the format, as we jumped between them and their trials. These women would have been remarkable had they never married explorers and it is perhaps because of that strength of character that they were able to weather the business of being "the wife of..."
This book seems only to shy away from the possible infidelity of Shackleton, hinting at rather than stating, unlike the well addressed affairs of Peary. Other than that, the book evokes the marital relationships of key polar explorers - their highs and lows - and we feel for these women in the keenest way, whilst also admiring their resilience and independence.
All these women were extraordinary in their own ways, and as such I actually got a little confused, given the format, as we jumped between them and their trials. These women would have been remarkable had they never married explorers and it is perhaps because of that strength of character that they were able to weather the business of being "the wife of..."
This book seems only to shy away from the possible infidelity of Shackleton, hinting at rather than stating, unlike the well addressed affairs of Peary. Other than that, the book evokes the marital relationships of key polar explorers - their highs and lows - and we feel for these women in the keenest way, whilst also admiring their resilience and independence.
June 4, 2012
Outstanding! I had read about the men in this title while in grad school but knew very little about the wives. Herbert organizes her chapters so readers progress a bit through each woman's life - their own childhoods, how they met their husbands, how they fared during explorations and what occurred after the men were lost or retired. These women are fascinating and their lives are enormously compelling. I was mightily impressed by what Kari Herbert did here - it's a great choice for book clubs especially and will spark a ton of discussion among fans of adventure books, women's history or anyone who has ever been interested in polar exploration.
March 11, 2013
Loved this book - the polar explorers are almost as interesting as mountain climbers. This was about the wives, of course, as well as the explorers themselves. It was set up in an unusual fashion - it covered about 5 different women and went kind of chronologically. Like it told about the courtship of each couple, even though they lived in really different times. Then the actively exploring years, etc. It was interesting how some overlapped in time and knew each other and some built on the knowledge gained by others who preceded them.
Now, I want to know more! And there is a book just out called Alone on the Ice - it's already on my library request list!
Now, I want to know more! And there is a book just out called Alone on the Ice - it's already on my library request list!
June 13, 2016
I did enjoy this book, especially reading about women whose lives were vastly different than the average woman of their day.
I would have enjoyed it more if it were structured differently. It told the stories of 6 different polar explorers and their wives in episodic chapters. Because we kept jumping back and forth between stories, poles and time periods, I ended up spending the beginning of each chapter trying to re-orient myself as to whose story I was reading and what the time period was.
I would have enjoyed it more if it were structured differently. It told the stories of 6 different polar explorers and their wives in episodic chapters. Because we kept jumping back and forth between stories, poles and time periods, I ended up spending the beginning of each chapter trying to re-orient myself as to whose story I was reading and what the time period was.
February 7, 2013
This was an amazing book about the wives married to some of the famous early polar explorers. Some of the wives accompanied their husbands on a few excursions but for the most part, they waited at home. Their stories of devotion and their sense of adventure make for a very good read.
September 14, 2015
A fascinating book, looking at the women who supported, and sometimes travelled with the great Polar explorers - all written from the perspective of the daughter of one... Wally Herbert. Very interesting indeed.
January 6, 2013
I loved the stories of each of the wives of famous explorers. The letters written from their husbands was a true testament to their love of their wives and the of the desire to explore.
September 6, 2013
A surprisingly quick read, I learned a lot. The book was well written and researched, albeit a bit cloying and too sentimental at times, especially when the author was talking about her own parents.
March 11, 2015
Fascinating material. Well written and meticulously researched
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews