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The Voyage of the Narwhal
"A luminous work of historical fiction that explores the far reaches of the Arctic and of men's souls." ― Denver Post Capturing a crucial moment in the history of exploration―the mid-nineteenth century romance with the Arctic―Andrea Barrett's compelling novel tells the story of a fateful expedition. Through the eyes of the ship's scholar-naturalist, Erasmus Darwin Wells, we encounter the Narwhal 's crew, its commander, and the far-north culture of the Esquimaux. In counterpoint, we meet the women left behind in Philadelphia, explorers only in imagination. Together, those who travel and those who stay weave a web of myth and mystery, finally discovering what they had not sought, the secrets of their own hearts. 16 steel engravings and one map
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Andrea Barrett
41 books334 followersAndrea Barrett is the author of The Air We Breathe, Servants of the Map (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), The Voyage of the Narwhal, Ship Fever (winner of the National Book Award), and other books. She teaches at Williams College and lives in northwestern Massachusetts.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 434 reviews
November 23, 2016
This is a book of fiction and fact. While the background characters are real, the ones drawn in the plot are fictional. There are many who prefer having historical facts woven into an engaging fictional story. That is what this book achieves. There is a huge amount of research on polar flora, fauna, history, expeditions, literature and way of life packed into this book. You can read many books of non-fiction or you can read this book and rest assured that what happens here has somewhere, sometime happened in real life. This one book puts together all the diverse hardships explorers have encountered on innumerable polar expeditions.
Each chapter begins with a quote from literature on polar conditions, explorations, science or natural history. In this way other books of reference are provided. Darwin, Thoreau and Emerson we all recognize, but there are many, many more referred to here, men such as William Scoresby, Elisha Kent Kane, Jean Louis Agassiz. This one book is a trove of names and authors specializing on the arctic and natural history.
It is appropriate that a book focused on natural phenomenon should have lyrical prose. This does. Nature is beautiful and so the lines describing it must be beautiful too. The dialogs however are quite ordinary and sometimes anachronistic.
The book describes the era, the 1850s, well – views on scientific theories, enthusiasm for the discovery and exploration of new lands, mapping, discussion of the provenance of races, abolition and God versus science. The value of art and literature. Not only the explorers themselves but also their wives’ lives are woven into the story. When the men return, only half of the story is completed. What is done with all that discovered? Who is successful and who has failed? How does one deal with failure and what have the winners done to achieve success? The author does not shy away from pointing out moral ambiguities.
I feel the book deserves four stars for the immense amount of research and valuable information contained within its covers. The characters are credible. The topics covered are many. Yet, when I ask myself how I feel toward the book I say, “I liked it.” My head tells me I should have liked it more. While I admire the author’s skill, I can’t help but ask, “Why not just read the original non-fiction source material?” Get the facts straight so you know exactly what happened and when. If you have already read books of non-fiction, rather than being surprised and carried along you merely recognize what you have heard before! This explains my three stars.
I think it is a bit of a shame that the book does not take the opportunity to portray the strength of those left behind. Often the wives in communities of seamen, explorers and whalers are strong, independent and self-sufficient. Look at the women of Nantucket and Iceland, Norway and Denmark. Here the ship departs from Philadelphia in May 1855; they were looking for the British explorer Sir John Franklin who had departed in search of the Northwest Passage but never returned. There were in fact two American and ten British ships looking for him!
The audiobook narration is done by George Guidall. It is easy to follow and clear. His intonations fit the respective characters well. The central character is self-effacing, questioning and unsure. Guidall’s voice quavers when we follow Erasmus’ thoughts, and I guess it should, but it sure did make me want to shake him!
Books of non-fiction:
Arctic Dreams
The Worst Journey in the World
Race for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen
Arctic Explorations in the Years 1853, '54, '55: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin Vol 2
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (4 stars)
Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo (3 stars)
The Long Exile (4 stars)
Polar Dream: The First Solo Expedition by a Woman and Her Dog to the Magnetic North Pole (4 stars)
Of course, even in non-fiction what we are told is sometimes only one version of given events; there can be distortions and even untruths.
Each chapter begins with a quote from literature on polar conditions, explorations, science or natural history. In this way other books of reference are provided. Darwin, Thoreau and Emerson we all recognize, but there are many, many more referred to here, men such as William Scoresby, Elisha Kent Kane, Jean Louis Agassiz. This one book is a trove of names and authors specializing on the arctic and natural history.
It is appropriate that a book focused on natural phenomenon should have lyrical prose. This does. Nature is beautiful and so the lines describing it must be beautiful too. The dialogs however are quite ordinary and sometimes anachronistic.
The book describes the era, the 1850s, well – views on scientific theories, enthusiasm for the discovery and exploration of new lands, mapping, discussion of the provenance of races, abolition and God versus science. The value of art and literature. Not only the explorers themselves but also their wives’ lives are woven into the story. When the men return, only half of the story is completed. What is done with all that discovered? Who is successful and who has failed? How does one deal with failure and what have the winners done to achieve success? The author does not shy away from pointing out moral ambiguities.
I feel the book deserves four stars for the immense amount of research and valuable information contained within its covers. The characters are credible. The topics covered are many. Yet, when I ask myself how I feel toward the book I say, “I liked it.” My head tells me I should have liked it more. While I admire the author’s skill, I can’t help but ask, “Why not just read the original non-fiction source material?” Get the facts straight so you know exactly what happened and when. If you have already read books of non-fiction, rather than being surprised and carried along you merely recognize what you have heard before! This explains my three stars.
I think it is a bit of a shame that the book does not take the opportunity to portray the strength of those left behind. Often the wives in communities of seamen, explorers and whalers are strong, independent and self-sufficient. Look at the women of Nantucket and Iceland, Norway and Denmark. Here the ship departs from Philadelphia in May 1855; they were looking for the British explorer Sir John Franklin who had departed in search of the Northwest Passage but never returned. There were in fact two American and ten British ships looking for him!
The audiobook narration is done by George Guidall. It is easy to follow and clear. His intonations fit the respective characters well. The central character is self-effacing, questioning and unsure. Guidall’s voice quavers when we follow Erasmus’ thoughts, and I guess it should, but it sure did make me want to shake him!
Books of non-fiction:
Arctic Dreams
The Worst Journey in the World
Race for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen
Arctic Explorations in the Years 1853, '54, '55: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin Vol 2
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (4 stars)
Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo (3 stars)
The Long Exile (4 stars)
Polar Dream: The First Solo Expedition by a Woman and Her Dog to the Magnetic North Pole (4 stars)
Of course, even in non-fiction what we are told is sometimes only one version of given events; there can be distortions and even untruths.
July 10, 2025
A short story by this author lead me to this back read of 1999. 4.5 stars rounded up. There was so much in this book that I know I will be thinking about it for a long, long time. The story revolves around the voyage of a ship to the Arctic in the mid 1800's. It is on a mission to look for evidence of the "lost" Franklin expedition. This a true British exploratory expedition in 1845 in which all--129 men--were lost (not known where they died or how). Several ships "explored" looking for the fate of this expedition. The Narwhal is a fictional American ship that goes in search of clues to Franklin's fate and hoping to find any survivors or relics. The story is told primarily through the ship's naturalist. This view takes us into much of the beauty, seasons, people and natural wonders of the Arctic.
There is so much here about exploring and "discovering" of new lands, How men and women (later in the story) treat each other and the land and people that are encountered. Much of it seemed as relevant today (even more so) as it was then. The story followed predictable channels at times but the beauty of the writing always pulled me through. The author weaves actual history with the story of this fictional voyage so seamlessly I could not often tell the real historical figures from the fictional. What a fantastic book. Will be reading more of Barrett soon.
There is so much here about exploring and "discovering" of new lands, How men and women (later in the story) treat each other and the land and people that are encountered. Much of it seemed as relevant today (even more so) as it was then. The story followed predictable channels at times but the beauty of the writing always pulled me through. The author weaves actual history with the story of this fictional voyage so seamlessly I could not often tell the real historical figures from the fictional. What a fantastic book. Will be reading more of Barrett soon.
April 7, 2022
An immersive novel that brings alive the dangers, excitement and treachery of mid-nineteenth century exploration to the Arctic. Although at times slow moving, I enjoyed the beautiful writing and well-wrought characters. Plus it was very educational!
January 22, 2024
This is the story of a fictional 1855 expedition to the Arctic to search for a missing explorer who disappeared 10-years before. An expedition that will cost the lives of several men and change forever the lives of the others with guilt, anger and horror. Another way it can be described is that it is a story of scientific self-gratification and sheer hard-headed ambition. For more than half of the story the author pulls off an amazing feat of weaving the plot into a beautiful narrative that is filled with such vivid descriptions that the reader feels they are a part of the crew. Add the well-done suspense and you can almost cut it with a knife. Only in the novel's final pages does drama give way to moral dilemmas. There are two "heroes" in this story: Erasmus Wells, a middle-aged naturalist who hopes to use the voyage of the Narwhal for his own vindication. A way to try and forget, or at least to come to terms, with his experience on an earlier trip to the Arctic. Then there is Zechariah Voorhees who hopes to gain glory and fame as the commander of the Narwhal expedition. Never were there two men so different. Erasmus is shy, and cautious; Zeke is charismatic and impulsive. Erasmus is still mourning the death of the woman he loved, and sees himself as a loner...while Zeke, who is confident of the devotion of Lavinia, Erasmus' sister, comes across as what "bodice ripper" novels would call a "charming rake". Erasmus has promised Lavinia that he would "keep an eye" on Zeke, and make sure that he returns home safely. You know that was a promise that never should have passed his lips, since by the time the Narwhal had reached the polar waters, icebergs and shifting pack ice, was only the start of their troubles. The sled dogs had died of a mysterious illness...and one of the crew had died of lockjaw. The crew is split into feuding and sides have been firmly drawn... and Zeke had grown increasingly moody. He was anything but content with the information he had collected from the local Eskimos concerning the missing explorer; and he is determined to push ahead to try to reach, what he believes, to be an open ice-free polar sea. The last few chapters of the story... the until now well constructed plot...suddenly gives way to an overwhelming number of contrived events that seemed more a script for a Hollywood movie than to this novel. In spite of that, the story is still deserving of the 4.5-star rating. The author did an incredible job of conveying to the reader the indecisive role that chance and luck play in people's lives, as well as the raw, unpredictable, and unforgiving power of nature. Combined they help to produce a powerful and gripping novel that adventure enthusiasts will find intriguing.
Actual rating 4.5
Actual rating 4.5
April 12, 2012
Andrea Barrett's novel about the era of discovery and exploration in the Arctic is intoxicating. Especially for me after a diet of mysteries and thrillers that are often entertaining but rarely memorable, reading truly literary fiction by a master is like breathing pure oxygen.
What makes it "literary" is the combination of prose that is exquisite and robust at the same time; characters that are subtle and nuanced; and a riveting plot with emotional undercurrents that address basic human desires. Barrett puts this all in a package that is also seamlessly entertaining.
The main character is Erasmus Welles, a natural historian who in modern parlance would be called a loser. He picks the wrong expeditions to accompany, the ones deemed largely to be a failure and which are forgotten or remembered only with embarrassment. He is too self-effacing and honest in an age and profession where the self-aggrandizing egomaniacs willing to stretch the truth and even lie -- like the historical Kane or Erasmus's fictional nemesis Zeke -- are the ones who get the recognition and the glory.
The novel tells the tale of one of the many expeditions in the mid-19th century that set out to find the famous explorer Franklin, who was lost with his crew in the Arctic. It is Erasmus's childhood friend Zeke Vorhees who has raised the finance and planned the voyage who asks him to accompany the expedition as natural historian, collecting samples and documenting their trip into little-known Arctic waters.
The trick of Arctic exploration was to use the short window of late summer when ice packs had thawed enough to allow ships to pass and to find your way back before the onset of winter closed off all escape and forced an ice-packed crew to spend the long winter in the Arctic. The fact that Zeke wanted to be provisioned for the eventuality of spending the winter, Erasmus realized too late, indicated that he was willing to take that chance if it was necessary to fulfilling his ambition of either finding Franklin or exploring previously uncharted waters.
For these voyages were primarily about ambition. Barrett is a master at portraying the passion that motivated these 19th-century scientists, discovering and cataloging nature in all its aspects, as she displayed in the collection of novellas in Servants of the Map. This was Erasmus's main motivation. He grew up in a Philadelphia household where his father -- much like Indiana Jones' father as portrayed by Sean Connery -- was obsessed with arcane learning and indoctrinated his children -- especially the four sons Erasmus, Linnaeus, Humboldt and Copernicus -- in his love of learning and discovery.
But Erasmus is not immune to the ambition of getting the recognition and glory -- and indeed, money -- that accrued to these explorers who enthralled the public with their books and lectures after they returned. These adventurers, for all their self-aggrandizing faults, received the adulation then that we now give to celebrities with far less achievement. His earlier voyage to the Antarctic was a failure and he sees a chance to redeem his reputation in this new voyage.
The ship, the Narwhal, is named after the peculiar whales of the Arctic waters that have a single long horn protruding from their heads. It sets out with considerable fanfare from Philadelphia with Zeke as commander, Erasmus as natural historian and his second, a whaling captain as "sailing master," a surgeon, a cook, a carpenter and a small crew.
During the voyage to these exotic outposts in Greenland and northern Canada, the story is about the tension between Zeke and his crew, with Erasmus caught in the middle. Erasmus is drawn to the surgeon, Dr. Boerhaave, himself an amateur natural historian, and the young Irish immigrant cook, Ned Lynd, who apparently was a minor character in Barrett's earlier Ship Fever, which won a National Book Award. In harrowing detail, drawing on numerous journals of real explorers from that period, Barrett depicts the hardships of the voyage and the privations and dangers that set in once they are immobilized for the long, dark winter.
Interlaced through it is Barrett's wonderfully exact descriptions of the minutiae of flora and fauna that so impassioned the natural historians who filled those fusty museums with all those glass cases of bones and shells and produced all those engravings in lovingly crafted books. The reader learns to relish the very obscurity of the places and things described by the author.
But the end of the voyage and the return of the travelers is not the end of the story. It is in fact the aftermath of the voyage as it plays out again in Philadelphia where the themes of ambition and failure and betrayal so tellingly introduced in the harsh Arctic landscape come to fruition in an urban setting different than ours but easily recognizable.
Erasmus's sister, Lavinia, who was betrothed to Zeke, waits like Penelope for the return of her beloved. Another childhood friend of the Welles, Alexandra, whose family has fallen on hard times, stays with her as a paid companion. The artistically inclined Alexandra gets involved in producing the engravings for the book of an earlier Arctic explorer, the real-life Kane.
When the remnant of the Narwhal crew returns (given the hardship of the voyage it is not a spoiler to reveal that not every one makes it back), it is their interaction with the two women and Erasmus's brother Copernicus, a painter of some renown, that makes for a long second act.
A subtext to the human drama is the depiction of how these explorers, for all their human failings, enriched our understanding of the world. While the whalers who rescued the Narwhal crew derided city dandies like Zeke and Erasmus who made a big deal of "discovering" and naming places they were long familiar with, bringing back the knowledge was in fact an important contribution. No matter that some of these men were virtual charlatans in exaggerating or dissembling their discoveries, in glossing over their cruelties and errors. Their reports, their sketches, their specimens were nonetheless a vitally important contribution to the advancement of scientific understanding.
I went through my science phase as a child and can easily relate to the fascination of Erasmus for discovering and collecting things. It is in fact the childlike enthusiasm of these early explorers that provides much of the energy of Barrett's historical fiction.
But whether you share this enthusiasm or not, the harsh human lessons of Barrett's drama have a universal appeal that will reward any reader. The thrill of Arctic exploration, the discovery of new and unexpected places, the time travel to the Philadelphia and Washington of a young and energetic America -- all these are bonuses just to be enjoyed. I was a big fan of Barrett after Servants of the Map, and now I'm a devoted fan.
What makes it "literary" is the combination of prose that is exquisite and robust at the same time; characters that are subtle and nuanced; and a riveting plot with emotional undercurrents that address basic human desires. Barrett puts this all in a package that is also seamlessly entertaining.
The main character is Erasmus Welles, a natural historian who in modern parlance would be called a loser. He picks the wrong expeditions to accompany, the ones deemed largely to be a failure and which are forgotten or remembered only with embarrassment. He is too self-effacing and honest in an age and profession where the self-aggrandizing egomaniacs willing to stretch the truth and even lie -- like the historical Kane or Erasmus's fictional nemesis Zeke -- are the ones who get the recognition and the glory.
The novel tells the tale of one of the many expeditions in the mid-19th century that set out to find the famous explorer Franklin, who was lost with his crew in the Arctic. It is Erasmus's childhood friend Zeke Vorhees who has raised the finance and planned the voyage who asks him to accompany the expedition as natural historian, collecting samples and documenting their trip into little-known Arctic waters.
The trick of Arctic exploration was to use the short window of late summer when ice packs had thawed enough to allow ships to pass and to find your way back before the onset of winter closed off all escape and forced an ice-packed crew to spend the long winter in the Arctic. The fact that Zeke wanted to be provisioned for the eventuality of spending the winter, Erasmus realized too late, indicated that he was willing to take that chance if it was necessary to fulfilling his ambition of either finding Franklin or exploring previously uncharted waters.
For these voyages were primarily about ambition. Barrett is a master at portraying the passion that motivated these 19th-century scientists, discovering and cataloging nature in all its aspects, as she displayed in the collection of novellas in Servants of the Map. This was Erasmus's main motivation. He grew up in a Philadelphia household where his father -- much like Indiana Jones' father as portrayed by Sean Connery -- was obsessed with arcane learning and indoctrinated his children -- especially the four sons Erasmus, Linnaeus, Humboldt and Copernicus -- in his love of learning and discovery.
But Erasmus is not immune to the ambition of getting the recognition and glory -- and indeed, money -- that accrued to these explorers who enthralled the public with their books and lectures after they returned. These adventurers, for all their self-aggrandizing faults, received the adulation then that we now give to celebrities with far less achievement. His earlier voyage to the Antarctic was a failure and he sees a chance to redeem his reputation in this new voyage.
The ship, the Narwhal, is named after the peculiar whales of the Arctic waters that have a single long horn protruding from their heads. It sets out with considerable fanfare from Philadelphia with Zeke as commander, Erasmus as natural historian and his second, a whaling captain as "sailing master," a surgeon, a cook, a carpenter and a small crew.
During the voyage to these exotic outposts in Greenland and northern Canada, the story is about the tension between Zeke and his crew, with Erasmus caught in the middle. Erasmus is drawn to the surgeon, Dr. Boerhaave, himself an amateur natural historian, and the young Irish immigrant cook, Ned Lynd, who apparently was a minor character in Barrett's earlier Ship Fever, which won a National Book Award. In harrowing detail, drawing on numerous journals of real explorers from that period, Barrett depicts the hardships of the voyage and the privations and dangers that set in once they are immobilized for the long, dark winter.
Interlaced through it is Barrett's wonderfully exact descriptions of the minutiae of flora and fauna that so impassioned the natural historians who filled those fusty museums with all those glass cases of bones and shells and produced all those engravings in lovingly crafted books. The reader learns to relish the very obscurity of the places and things described by the author.
But the end of the voyage and the return of the travelers is not the end of the story. It is in fact the aftermath of the voyage as it plays out again in Philadelphia where the themes of ambition and failure and betrayal so tellingly introduced in the harsh Arctic landscape come to fruition in an urban setting different than ours but easily recognizable.
Erasmus's sister, Lavinia, who was betrothed to Zeke, waits like Penelope for the return of her beloved. Another childhood friend of the Welles, Alexandra, whose family has fallen on hard times, stays with her as a paid companion. The artistically inclined Alexandra gets involved in producing the engravings for the book of an earlier Arctic explorer, the real-life Kane.
When the remnant of the Narwhal crew returns (given the hardship of the voyage it is not a spoiler to reveal that not every one makes it back), it is their interaction with the two women and Erasmus's brother Copernicus, a painter of some renown, that makes for a long second act.
A subtext to the human drama is the depiction of how these explorers, for all their human failings, enriched our understanding of the world. While the whalers who rescued the Narwhal crew derided city dandies like Zeke and Erasmus who made a big deal of "discovering" and naming places they were long familiar with, bringing back the knowledge was in fact an important contribution. No matter that some of these men were virtual charlatans in exaggerating or dissembling their discoveries, in glossing over their cruelties and errors. Their reports, their sketches, their specimens were nonetheless a vitally important contribution to the advancement of scientific understanding.
I went through my science phase as a child and can easily relate to the fascination of Erasmus for discovering and collecting things. It is in fact the childlike enthusiasm of these early explorers that provides much of the energy of Barrett's historical fiction.
But whether you share this enthusiasm or not, the harsh human lessons of Barrett's drama have a universal appeal that will reward any reader. The thrill of Arctic exploration, the discovery of new and unexpected places, the time travel to the Philadelphia and Washington of a young and energetic America -- all these are bonuses just to be enjoyed. I was a big fan of Barrett after Servants of the Map, and now I'm a devoted fan.
aborted
March 27, 2013I gave up at p. 70. Historical fiction for me is a genre that has to be done superbly, otherwise count me out. The subject matter - a mid-nineteenth century arctic expedition - was potentially interesting, but Barrett's prose is leaden, dead, and uninspired. Who are these writers, who win Guggenheim fellowships and MacArthur Fellowships and National Book Awards, yet write novels I find unreadable?
April 9, 2024
A beautiful, immersive, historic novel about the forgotten age of ship exploration. Voyage of the Narwhal is heavily populated with actual historical persons, along with a handful of imagery folks for the sake of telling the tale, as well.
While reading this book, I actually felt like I, too, was an Arctic explorer in the mid 19th Century... experiencing all of the troubles, frustrations, perils, and joys that came along with this bygone period of history.
Heavily researched via the journals and memoirs of many 19th Century Arctic explorers, absolutely don't miss this one if you love history and/or nautical tales.
2024 update:
Great book; very engaging. Exited at 75% with the masturbation reference, though. 🤢
While reading this book, I actually felt like I, too, was an Arctic explorer in the mid 19th Century... experiencing all of the troubles, frustrations, perils, and joys that came along with this bygone period of history.
Heavily researched via the journals and memoirs of many 19th Century Arctic explorers, absolutely don't miss this one if you love history and/or nautical tales.
2024 update:
Great book; very engaging. Exited at 75% with the masturbation reference, though. 🤢
June 25, 2017
After posting this initially, I discovered some notes I made during the read, so I have done a bit of revision. 26/10/15
This story brings to life the world of arctic exploration, much in vogue in the nineteenth century.
I was expecting a tale of seafaring adventure, and while there is a very affecting evocation of the practicalities of sailing into the freezing waters of the north, with a rich picture of the provisioning, the conditions, the tasks of the voyagers, searching for traces of the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin, the charting of the coastline, islands and bays, and the efforts at natural history research, rather token as it turns out – the bulk of the time on board is taken up with
An interesting book about introspective psychology as much as the ice on the canvas and the frost bitten toes.
This story brings to life the world of arctic exploration, much in vogue in the nineteenth century.
I was expecting a tale of seafaring adventure, and while there is a very affecting evocation of the practicalities of sailing into the freezing waters of the north, with a rich picture of the provisioning, the conditions, the tasks of the voyagers, searching for traces of the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin, the charting of the coastline, islands and bays, and the efforts at natural history research, rather token as it turns out – the bulk of the time on board is taken up with
An interesting book about introspective psychology as much as the ice on the canvas and the frost bitten toes.
March 23, 2009
I discovered Andrea Barrett via this thoroughly researched narrative about 19th-century Arctic exploration, and she's now one of the authors whose work I snap up as soon as it appears in hardback. Her talent is in combining science with literature in a fascinating and accessible way. Here she manages to combine 19th-century concerns (emancipation of slaves, theories of evolution, an obsession with the Arctic) with more modern ones -- the role of women (who have to stay at home and wait), personal growth, cultural imperialism, and how 'truth' is relative. She reminds me of George Eliot in the way that she takes a generous view even of the least admirable characters. Early in the novel, her main character, Erasmus Wells, a repressed and unsuccessful 40-something naturalist, writes:[return][return]"If I drew that scene I'd show everything happening at once ... But when I describe it in words one thing follows another and everything's shaped by my single pair of eyes, my single voice. I wish I could show it as if through a fan of eyes. Widening out from my single perspective to several viewpoints, then many, so the whole picture might appear and not just my version of it."[return][return]This is how the novel is written -- it doesn't always work (notably in the case of trying to put across the experience of an Eskimo woman transplanted to Philadelphia). But it does give you a sense of the many different versions of reality, and it is beautifully written.
April 25, 2008
I chose to read this book because I have always been fascinated with polar exploration & doomed expeditions. I thought that this was what this book was about. And in a minor way, it is. But truthfully, it goes way beyond this expectation and way beyond this particular story line.
In 1855, all the news is about the missing Franklin expedition, gone to seek the north pole in the age of discovery. From Philadelphia, Zeke Voorhees is mounting an expedition to either find Franklin or find some evidence that Franklin is dead. Among the crew is Zeke's soon to be brother in law, Erasmus Darwin Wells. Erasmus is a naturalist; not a famous one by any stretch. This voyage would be a chance for Erasmus to make something of himself; he had earlier served on a Pacific/Antarctic expedition with a captain who tormented the crew & then stole the work Erasmus had done. Erasmus felt that there was nothing he could have done at the time to stop any of it. Erasmus has also been charged by his sister Lavinia to take care of Zeke no matter what happens and bring him back to her to marry so that she can find happiness in being his wife. This is a promise that Erasmus takes very seriously; as it turns out, much to his detriment.
Up in the Arctic waters, the expedition finds evidence of Franklin & of his death; thus everyone assumes that it is now time to go home & everyone is glad to be leaving. But out of nowhere, Zeke realizes that he has not left a mark by which to be remembered; so he orders the captain & crew to sail farther north, so that he can go well beyond the areas previously explored & find fame for himself. Everyone objects but since he is the leader of the expedition & all are paid by him, the crew is forced to follow his orders. Unfortunately, where he decides to stop the ship is just where the ice is the most impenatrable after the season starts; they are stuck there and must winter there. Tragedy ensues; at the point at which the crew wants to leave and the opportunity begins to present itself, Zeke refuses to let the expedition end; he asks for volunteers to go with him to seek help from the Eskimos that wander the Arctic in that area. No one will go with him. He tells them when he will be back; he doesn't return and the crew has to leave without him. On arriving home, Erasmus is filled with guilt & is shamed by everyone who believes he left Zeke to die, since Zeke had put him in charge if anything happened.
This is also a story about one man's ambition and its cost... I won't go into details but suffice it to say that decisions are made that affect each and every man not only aboard ship, but others too once the voyage is over. It also deals with one man's need to redeem himself, regardless of the consequences.
I can easily highly recommend this novel. It was incredible. Some readers may not like the tone of this novel...at no time do we "cozy up" to the characters, but I believe the author does this on purpose. So if you're looking for warm fuzzies, don't bother with this book. Otherwise, take your time and enjoy it.
In 1855, all the news is about the missing Franklin expedition, gone to seek the north pole in the age of discovery. From Philadelphia, Zeke Voorhees is mounting an expedition to either find Franklin or find some evidence that Franklin is dead. Among the crew is Zeke's soon to be brother in law, Erasmus Darwin Wells. Erasmus is a naturalist; not a famous one by any stretch. This voyage would be a chance for Erasmus to make something of himself; he had earlier served on a Pacific/Antarctic expedition with a captain who tormented the crew & then stole the work Erasmus had done. Erasmus felt that there was nothing he could have done at the time to stop any of it. Erasmus has also been charged by his sister Lavinia to take care of Zeke no matter what happens and bring him back to her to marry so that she can find happiness in being his wife. This is a promise that Erasmus takes very seriously; as it turns out, much to his detriment.
Up in the Arctic waters, the expedition finds evidence of Franklin & of his death; thus everyone assumes that it is now time to go home & everyone is glad to be leaving. But out of nowhere, Zeke realizes that he has not left a mark by which to be remembered; so he orders the captain & crew to sail farther north, so that he can go well beyond the areas previously explored & find fame for himself. Everyone objects but since he is the leader of the expedition & all are paid by him, the crew is forced to follow his orders. Unfortunately, where he decides to stop the ship is just where the ice is the most impenatrable after the season starts; they are stuck there and must winter there. Tragedy ensues; at the point at which the crew wants to leave and the opportunity begins to present itself, Zeke refuses to let the expedition end; he asks for volunteers to go with him to seek help from the Eskimos that wander the Arctic in that area. No one will go with him. He tells them when he will be back; he doesn't return and the crew has to leave without him. On arriving home, Erasmus is filled with guilt & is shamed by everyone who believes he left Zeke to die, since Zeke had put him in charge if anything happened.
This is also a story about one man's ambition and its cost... I won't go into details but suffice it to say that decisions are made that affect each and every man not only aboard ship, but others too once the voyage is over. It also deals with one man's need to redeem himself, regardless of the consequences.
I can easily highly recommend this novel. It was incredible. Some readers may not like the tone of this novel...at no time do we "cozy up" to the characters, but I believe the author does this on purpose. So if you're looking for warm fuzzies, don't bother with this book. Otherwise, take your time and enjoy it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2015
I put off reading this book for too long, so I perhaps wasn't in the mindset to read it, knowing it *had* to go back to the library as soon as possible. I started it on a Friday, which is never a good day to start a book for me, as the weekend is always distracting. But I gamely tried to get as much under my belt as I could that Friday.
I failed quite a bit that day. I just couldn't get into the book. It was dry, it was confusing. Barrett added in little unexplained details that you knew would be explained later, but this is an affectation that bothers me quite a bit, as my memory, distracted as I am by my life, isn't as great as I would like.
But then something changed, and I'm not sure where it did. All of a sudden, I could see the Arctic landscape in my eye, with Erasmus and Zeke and Ned and Dr Boerhaave and the other men surviving the brutal Arctic weather as best as they could. I found myself devouring words and pages, until I looked up after reading a hundred pages, thinking just a few minutes had passed. I became invested in what happened to Erasmus, both physically and emotionally, and that tied me to the story.
This isn't a quick, rollicking adventure story. It's much more of a slow burn that grabs you all of a sudden, but keeps on simmering. I could almost see the engravings Alexandra worked on, both while Erasmus was gone and the ones she created for him. I could nearly feel the bone-numbing cold of the Arctic, and see the grubs Erasmus and the others had to eat in order to survive. I felt so much for Erasmus, for all he had lost in his first adventure, the one that came before the Narwhal, and then on this voyage.
But it also reminds us of how far we have come in science. Not that long ago, we felt that different ethnicities were indeed a different species; Europeans could not fathom that a primitive nation like the Esquimaux could share a common ancestor with their advanced people, so of course they were a wholly different species. As a person fascinated by anthropology, it makes me sad to think of all the knowledge we lost of these so-called primitive people, before we realized that preserving or at least recording their way of life was a meaningful thing, as opposed to simply "civilizing" them. If only we could send anthropologists and ethno-linguists back in time...
I would highly recommend this book, with the caveat that it is a very slow start that some might not care to muddle through. I look forward to finding Barrett's other books.
I failed quite a bit that day. I just couldn't get into the book. It was dry, it was confusing. Barrett added in little unexplained details that you knew would be explained later, but this is an affectation that bothers me quite a bit, as my memory, distracted as I am by my life, isn't as great as I would like.
But then something changed, and I'm not sure where it did. All of a sudden, I could see the Arctic landscape in my eye, with Erasmus and Zeke and Ned and Dr Boerhaave and the other men surviving the brutal Arctic weather as best as they could. I found myself devouring words and pages, until I looked up after reading a hundred pages, thinking just a few minutes had passed. I became invested in what happened to Erasmus, both physically and emotionally, and that tied me to the story.
This isn't a quick, rollicking adventure story. It's much more of a slow burn that grabs you all of a sudden, but keeps on simmering. I could almost see the engravings Alexandra worked on, both while Erasmus was gone and the ones she created for him. I could nearly feel the bone-numbing cold of the Arctic, and see the grubs Erasmus and the others had to eat in order to survive. I felt so much for Erasmus, for all he had lost in his first adventure, the one that came before the Narwhal, and then on this voyage.
But it also reminds us of how far we have come in science. Not that long ago, we felt that different ethnicities were indeed a different species; Europeans could not fathom that a primitive nation like the Esquimaux could share a common ancestor with their advanced people, so of course they were a wholly different species. As a person fascinated by anthropology, it makes me sad to think of all the knowledge we lost of these so-called primitive people, before we realized that preserving or at least recording their way of life was a meaningful thing, as opposed to simply "civilizing" them. If only we could send anthropologists and ethno-linguists back in time...
I would highly recommend this book, with the caveat that it is a very slow start that some might not care to muddle through. I look forward to finding Barrett's other books.
April 29, 2018
Cannibalism would have improved this book significantly. Or character growth. Either one.
March 21, 2016
Meticulously researched novel of a fictitious Arctic expedition and its aftermath set roughly between 1850 and 1857, supposedly started as yet another gallant attempt to find the British explorer's John Franklin's lost expedition to chart a Northwest Passage(1845-1847).
The author brilliantly chooses a historical period where the craze and romance of Arctic exploration led to a point where there were ten British and two US ships searching for Franklin; as Wikipedia baldly puts it:
I must have been about eleven or twelve years old when I first read Edward Evans' mythical treatment of Scott's tragic expedition to the South Pole ( South with Scott, 1921). It would take me decades to come across Roland Hartford's controversial 1979 debunking of the myth in The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole. In fact some years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, the ultimate twentieth century expedition linguistically and tellingly turned into a manned mission, novelists like Per Olof Sundman in The Flight Of The Eagle(1972) about S. A. Andrée's, a Swedish engineer, disastrous 1897 attempt to balloon to the North Pole, and Thomas Keneally in Victims of the Aurora (2001) came up with darker, more damning accounts of some of the great polar region explorers of the nineteenth century.
What drove men to attempt ill-equipped indeed, sometimes foolhardy and almost suicidal attempts to explore these frigid regions? What sort of men embarked on these quests? The conventional, romantic view was that such men were heroes, braving the unknown, on Faustian quests for knowledge (charts, specimens, a shortcut across the Arctic) or simply the glory of discovering something “new”, something they could name or that could be named after them.
Many of these expeditions can be read as case histories in hubris, not only of particular men but of Western Civilization's “conquest” of Nature, of its metastasis of self-righteousness, of the thirst for power that would plunge it into World War I and shatter the illusion of moral progress. In this sense Andrea Barrett does not provide us with the warm glow of heroic myth, but rather projects modern day sensibilities, doubts and other, darker subtexts into this very well researched novel. The single-minded, larger than life heroes of exploration are shown to be men with uncommonly large feet of clay; anti-heroes and bullies who write themselves larger than life at the expense of those who served under them. Barrett undercuts them savagely: they confiscate their subordinates' work, plagiarize them, refuse to listen to good sense, thrust themselves shamelessly into the limelight, despise and ride roughshod over those they consider their inferiors, which is most of the rest of the world, and believe themselves invulnerable:
Finally, if you liked this novel, I would highly recommend Voss(1957) by the Australian novelist Patrick White (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1973), loosely based on a 1845 expedition to cross the Australian continent led, in real life, by the Prussian explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt, a novel which also traces the obsessions of an explorer, a woman who waits for him, the nineteenth century craze for exploration and the colliding worlds of Western and indigenous cultures.
The author brilliantly chooses a historical period where the craze and romance of Arctic exploration led to a point where there were ten British and two US ships searching for Franklin; as Wikipedia baldly puts it:
Eventually, more ships and men were lost looking for Franklin than in the expedition itself.The polar regions exploration craze had its ups and downs since at least the sixteenth century, reaching epic proportions in the nineteenth century which would eventually lead to nationalist races to reach both the North Pole (supposedly first reached by the American explorer Peary in 1909) and the South Pole (reached by the Norwegian explorer Amundsen in 1911, just five weeks ahead of Scott).
I must have been about eleven or twelve years old when I first read Edward Evans' mythical treatment of Scott's tragic expedition to the South Pole ( South with Scott, 1921). It would take me decades to come across Roland Hartford's controversial 1979 debunking of the myth in The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole. In fact some years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, the ultimate twentieth century expedition linguistically and tellingly turned into a manned mission, novelists like Per Olof Sundman in The Flight Of The Eagle(1972) about S. A. Andrée's, a Swedish engineer, disastrous 1897 attempt to balloon to the North Pole, and Thomas Keneally in Victims of the Aurora (2001) came up with darker, more damning accounts of some of the great polar region explorers of the nineteenth century.
What drove men to attempt ill-equipped indeed, sometimes foolhardy and almost suicidal attempts to explore these frigid regions? What sort of men embarked on these quests? The conventional, romantic view was that such men were heroes, braving the unknown, on Faustian quests for knowledge (charts, specimens, a shortcut across the Arctic) or simply the glory of discovering something “new”, something they could name or that could be named after them.
Many of these expeditions can be read as case histories in hubris, not only of particular men but of Western Civilization's “conquest” of Nature, of its metastasis of self-righteousness, of the thirst for power that would plunge it into World War I and shatter the illusion of moral progress. In this sense Andrea Barrett does not provide us with the warm glow of heroic myth, but rather projects modern day sensibilities, doubts and other, darker subtexts into this very well researched novel. The single-minded, larger than life heroes of exploration are shown to be men with uncommonly large feet of clay; anti-heroes and bullies who write themselves larger than life at the expense of those who served under them. Barrett undercuts them savagely: they confiscate their subordinates' work, plagiarize them, refuse to listen to good sense, thrust themselves shamelessly into the limelight, despise and ride roughshod over those they consider their inferiors, which is most of the rest of the world, and believe themselves invulnerable:
None of his reading taught him the crucial thing. He could imagine the hardships faced by the explorers preceding us; but not that anything bad might happen to himself. A boy's belief.The subtexts give an idea what the official, the scientific societies and the public newspaper histories leave out: whalers refer disparagingly to the “discovery men”:
”It's what we call you arctic exploring types,” he said. “All you men who go on exploring expeditions, with funding and fanfare and special clothes, thinking you'll discover something. When every place you go some whaling ship has already been. We know more about the land and the currents than you ever will, and more about the habits of the whales and seals and walruses.the firmly shut out womens' side of the stories; the racist slant of many “scientific theories”; the moral blindness that respected white men's graves and mortal remains but shows no similar compunction for other races or people; the Esquimaux refer disparagingly to the “sickly men in blue garments”:
[...]
“That's what discovery men do,” Captain Sturrock said. “Get lost. Lose things.”
She couldn't understand how these people survived. They'd been like children, dependent on her tribe for clothes, food, sledges, dogs; surrounded by things that were of no use to them and bereft of women. Like children they gave their names to the landscape, pretending to discover places her people had known for generations.The Esquimaux had a name for the expedition leader:
...a chain of soft syllables that meant The One who is Trouble. To his face, they'd said the syllables meant The Great Explorer.Yet, Andrea Barrett is very much alive to romance of exploration and science and we come away from the book with a sense of awe for the Arctic landscape, wonder at the wealth of detail and variety of living creatures studied by science, nostalgia and admiration for the delicately tinted and engraved period illustrations that accompanied scientific papers, and a keen, if anachronistic, sense of loss for more sensitive, less destructive roads Western culture missed as it reached into other worlds and other cultures. What Barrett unfortunately leaves out, is that, as one-sided, biased, hamstrung and blind as some of the scientific work was, it helped lay the ground for better work in the future -after all, how much would we know about the habits of whales and seals and walruses if, with all due respect to Hermann Melville, we depended only on the writings of whalers?
Finally, if you liked this novel, I would highly recommend Voss(1957) by the Australian novelist Patrick White (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1973), loosely based on a 1845 expedition to cross the Australian continent led, in real life, by the Prussian explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt, a novel which also traces the obsessions of an explorer, a woman who waits for him, the nineteenth century craze for exploration and the colliding worlds of Western and indigenous cultures.
June 15, 2022
Excellent mix of fact and fiction. I’m developing a good list of polar exploration books for some reason. They’ve all been wonderful and this one is no exception.
I read it years ago and listened this time. Either way is delightful.
I read it years ago and listened this time. Either way is delightful.
November 3, 2018
This book did what I hoped it would - it brought me out of myself into a totally different world. I know nothing about polar expedition but loved learning about it. Now next on my list is Endurance.
January 28, 2020
I picked up this book because it had been on my shelves too long and I was in the mood for a sea adventure. It didn’t take me long to struggle with whether or not I wanted to finish the book, but finish I did, and it did have a satisfying ending. I can’t put my finger on why I didn’t get caught up in the story, because I should have – it had all the right elements: deep characterizations, the lure of the sea and the unknown, historic interest, action, and although I didn’t find it to be a page-turner, it was well written. Perhaps I wasn’t too fond of the structure that had the writings of even minor characters telling the story, which felt like interruptions to me. I thought enough of the writer to consider trying another of her books, but I will not be in a hurry to do so.
March 28, 2021
If one could “plot” the points of the plot, it would be almost a flat line. While there are dramatic events, the author presents them in a low key way. The same treatment holds true for the characters. The story is presented from the point of view of a character who is a weakling. While there are surrounding characters that have stronger personalities, they are not given enough time in the novel to make the narrative more dramatic and interesting. The end result is story set during an interesting historical time and in a severe physical environment but presented in a muted way.
February 26, 2023
This blend of historical and literary fiction takes place during that unique time in the mid-19th century when people were obsessed with exploring the Arctic and would travel up there in their great big fur suits to discover new things. I can't say I'm very familiar with that part of history, or the history and culture of the indigenous people to the northern parts of Greenland and the like, but it all seemed pretty well researched and accurate. The book is split into two parts, the first follows the expedition of the Narwhal to the Arctic and how it goes wrong, and the second follow the main character grappling with all the repercussions of that voyage after he gets back. The first half especially has this quiet, sleepy haunting quality to it. It's not a fast-paced book, but time moves very quickly. Events are often stated more matter-of-factly, but there's enough imagery to make scenes feel vivid and horrible. Maybe it's this juxtaposition that makes horrific scenes even more dreadful.
In the second half, the book pivoted to explore the ways that the 19th century became crazy for the exhibition of people unlike the traditional white westerner. The book also starts to reflect on the voyage from the first half, exploring themes about ambition and success at any cost (in a lot of ways it reminded me of Frankenstein). Frankly, there's a lot to chew on from this second half, about failure and success and fame and recognition and racism and religion and discovery and interactions with foreign, unfamiliar groups. It's strength is laying the puzzle pieces out as the main character, Erasmus, works through them, but never quite fitting them together. It lets you do that yourself.
While thought-provoking and very engaging, I don't think it really stuck the landing in the last 10-ish pages, since I was left feeling like there were complex feelings and relationships still unresolved. I guess maybe the resolution was leaving them behind, but it was a smidge unsatisfying. The romance, as well, I didn't care for; it was that kind of weird that you sometimes get where nothing is inherently wrong with it, but it just feels strange and unnatural. Like I said before, a lot of things are presented in the story in a more matter-of-fact tone, which doesn't lend itself to creating romantic chemistry very well.
All that being said, if you like adventure stories or cerebral reflective books, this is one I would recommend checking out. It helps to read it in the wintertime, especially if your fingers and nose are just a little too cold.
In the second half, the book pivoted to explore the ways that the 19th century became crazy for the exhibition of people unlike the traditional white westerner. The book also starts to reflect on the voyage from the first half, exploring themes about ambition and success at any cost (in a lot of ways it reminded me of Frankenstein). Frankly, there's a lot to chew on from this second half, about failure and success and fame and recognition and racism and religion and discovery and interactions with foreign, unfamiliar groups. It's strength is laying the puzzle pieces out as the main character, Erasmus, works through them, but never quite fitting them together. It lets you do that yourself.
While thought-provoking and very engaging, I don't think it really stuck the landing in the last 10-ish pages, since I was left feeling like there were complex feelings and relationships still unresolved. I guess maybe the resolution was leaving them behind, but it was a smidge unsatisfying. The romance, as well, I didn't care for; it was that kind of weird that you sometimes get where nothing is inherently wrong with it, but it just feels strange and unnatural. Like I said before, a lot of things are presented in the story in a more matter-of-fact tone, which doesn't lend itself to creating romantic chemistry very well.
All that being said, if you like adventure stories or cerebral reflective books, this is one I would recommend checking out. It helps to read it in the wintertime, especially if your fingers and nose are just a little too cold.
June 7, 2022
3.5 stars
Erasmus Darwin Wells is a naturalist from Philadelphia and is excited to be able to head to the Arctic with his friend Zeke (who is engaged to Erasmus’s sister) in 1855, a number of years after Franklin’s expedition. They hope to be able to find traces of Franklin’s missing crew, as well as any artifacts left behind. Unfortunately, Erasmus doesn’t realize how bad things will turn with Zeke as commander.
This was good. It took a while to get going, so I really didn’t get interested until they were on their way. Even while they were away, the scenes with Erasmus’s sister, Lavinia, and her friend, Alexandra, back home bored me. That entire storyline did get more interesting later on, however. I sure didn’t like Zeke (along with the majority of the characters – at least the ones on board the Narwhal!).
Erasmus Darwin Wells is a naturalist from Philadelphia and is excited to be able to head to the Arctic with his friend Zeke (who is engaged to Erasmus’s sister) in 1855, a number of years after Franklin’s expedition. They hope to be able to find traces of Franklin’s missing crew, as well as any artifacts left behind. Unfortunately, Erasmus doesn’t realize how bad things will turn with Zeke as commander.
This was good. It took a while to get going, so I really didn’t get interested until they were on their way. Even while they were away, the scenes with Erasmus’s sister, Lavinia, and her friend, Alexandra, back home bored me. That entire storyline did get more interesting later on, however. I sure didn’t like Zeke (along with the majority of the characters – at least the ones on board the Narwhal!).
June 2, 2023
4.5
December 7, 2022
Excellent rendition of arctic explorers searching and discovering. What I liked the most was the not “role” of women in the middle 1850’s. It boggles my mind still to read how men were so thoughtless and so ego centric
and life revolved around them. It makes me glad that I live in this day and time when women have achieved so much.
Be prepared in this novel to be totally swallowed up in the lives of sailors, captains, cooks and more importantly- naturalists!
and life revolved around them. It makes me glad that I live in this day and time when women have achieved so much.
Be prepared in this novel to be totally swallowed up in the lives of sailors, captains, cooks and more importantly- naturalists!
May 25, 2012
I am still digesting.
I stayed up late last night to finish it, which I have not done in a while. The book is a little uneven in its pacing, and the last part feels like a whirlwind of revelations, discoveries, decisions, life and death issues playing out quick quick quick--to the point where I had to reread the last page three times and I still found myself filling in gaps on that quick sketch of what happened to two of the characters.
I continue to be fascinated by how Ms. Barrett deploys POVs. I might have to go back just to map out a few sections where the POV felt downright slippery. The sudden dive into one character's mind in particular was jarring yet somehow it worked, and I cannot for the life of me say why, save perhaps that caring--empathy, really--trumps structure. And many other things.
Overall, though? It felt, I think, like it needed one last round of polish. The early diary entries seemed stilted and mannered, all of them, no matter the diary keeper; the pace was sometimes ponderous, sometimes rushed, and the last section, as I said, was like a cascade of resolutions. Perhaps, after so many short stories, Ms. Barrett still felt the urge to tie every single thread, as neatly as possible--?
Or perhaps I'm just nitpicking because I'm seething with envy over the amount of research she accomplished for this one novel, for the Guggenheim that funded it, for all that she was able to bring into play to shape this lovely story. For much of it is lovely; some of it is stunning; and it is vivid, sometimes to the point where I could feel my own eyes smarting in sympathetic ice blindness.
It is, I am guessing (haven't looked into this yet), of a piece with "Ship Fever". Which is also highly recommended; there everything is polished to a high, high gleam.
But this book, despite its rough patches? It was just as moving, just as lingering. Satisfying.
I stayed up late last night to finish it, which I have not done in a while. The book is a little uneven in its pacing, and the last part feels like a whirlwind of revelations, discoveries, decisions, life and death issues playing out quick quick quick--to the point where I had to reread the last page three times and I still found myself filling in gaps on that quick sketch of what happened to two of the characters.
I continue to be fascinated by how Ms. Barrett deploys POVs. I might have to go back just to map out a few sections where the POV felt downright slippery. The sudden dive into one character's mind in particular was jarring yet somehow it worked, and I cannot for the life of me say why, save perhaps that caring--empathy, really--trumps structure. And many other things.
Overall, though? It felt, I think, like it needed one last round of polish. The early diary entries seemed stilted and mannered, all of them, no matter the diary keeper; the pace was sometimes ponderous, sometimes rushed, and the last section, as I said, was like a cascade of resolutions. Perhaps, after so many short stories, Ms. Barrett still felt the urge to tie every single thread, as neatly as possible--?
Or perhaps I'm just nitpicking because I'm seething with envy over the amount of research she accomplished for this one novel, for the Guggenheim that funded it, for all that she was able to bring into play to shape this lovely story. For much of it is lovely; some of it is stunning; and it is vivid, sometimes to the point where I could feel my own eyes smarting in sympathetic ice blindness.
It is, I am guessing (haven't looked into this yet), of a piece with "Ship Fever". Which is also highly recommended; there everything is polished to a high, high gleam.
But this book, despite its rough patches? It was just as moving, just as lingering. Satisfying.
March 15, 2015
Just one look at the cover of this book will give you an idea of the complexity and complications faced by the 19th century Arctic explorers. In this engrossing tale of the search for Franklin and his lost expedition, Andrea Barrett brings to the page the hidden motivations and desires that accompanied these men on their ships.
On the other hand, we get to know the women standing watch patiently at home waiting for the explorers to return safely. Andrea Barrett breathes life into these characters through her literary prose and her incredible knowledge of the era.
Erasmus Welles sets off in early summer on board the Narwhal with Ezekiel Vorhees, his friend and soon to be brother-in-law. When Ezekiel begins making unconscionable demands of the officers and crew, and goes deeper into his own personal quest, Erasmus is torn between his instinct for survival and the consequences of that survival.
The power of the ice, and the unrelenting landscape and seascape join forces to test the men beyond human limits. The Esquimaux come to their aid, but consider the explorers inferior and helpless. What Ezekiel brings back from his journeys is as cruel and shocking as can be imagined.
This book is a satisfying mix of historical fact, character development, and human psychology. The author leaves many questions unanswered, open to the interpretation of the reader. This is a serious work of fiction, a fulfilling tale of adventure and acrimony.
On the other hand, we get to know the women standing watch patiently at home waiting for the explorers to return safely. Andrea Barrett breathes life into these characters through her literary prose and her incredible knowledge of the era.
Erasmus Welles sets off in early summer on board the Narwhal with Ezekiel Vorhees, his friend and soon to be brother-in-law. When Ezekiel begins making unconscionable demands of the officers and crew, and goes deeper into his own personal quest, Erasmus is torn between his instinct for survival and the consequences of that survival.
The power of the ice, and the unrelenting landscape and seascape join forces to test the men beyond human limits. The Esquimaux come to their aid, but consider the explorers inferior and helpless. What Ezekiel brings back from his journeys is as cruel and shocking as can be imagined.
This book is a satisfying mix of historical fact, character development, and human psychology. The author leaves many questions unanswered, open to the interpretation of the reader. This is a serious work of fiction, a fulfilling tale of adventure and acrimony.
March 14, 2012
i had tried reading this some years ago and gave up about 30 pages in. i came back to give it another chance and forced myself to get to the end, but unfortunately it wasn't worth the second effort. this is a mess of a book: part adventure story, part romance, part history, part man vs. nature, part man vs. ambition.
other readers have noted and i have to concur that the characters are mostly uninteresting without implied depth, but when you try to understand them, there's really nothing there. nothing there to explain why they would have ever accepted Zeke as commander (excepting his money), nothing there to excuse Erasmus' constant whining, and the women are so transparent (and stock-like), they might as well not have been there at all (they added nothing).
plotwise the book is riddled with pacing problems. by the time Erasmus sorts out his life's disappointments and takes action, there's only 20 pages left in the story and it was hard to care. most of the crew was so ill-conceived i couldn't really tell you much about any of them.
a good contrast to Simmons' Terror, which covers a lot of this territory more aptly.
it's too bad. i think there was a good idea in here somewhere, but the rudderlessness of it all grounds it before it can even make open sea.
other readers have noted and i have to concur that the characters are mostly uninteresting without implied depth, but when you try to understand them, there's really nothing there. nothing there to explain why they would have ever accepted Zeke as commander (excepting his money), nothing there to excuse Erasmus' constant whining, and the women are so transparent (and stock-like), they might as well not have been there at all (they added nothing).
plotwise the book is riddled with pacing problems. by the time Erasmus sorts out his life's disappointments and takes action, there's only 20 pages left in the story and it was hard to care. most of the crew was so ill-conceived i couldn't really tell you much about any of them.
a good contrast to Simmons' Terror, which covers a lot of this territory more aptly.
it's too bad. i think there was a good idea in here somewhere, but the rudderlessness of it all grounds it before it can even make open sea.
June 18, 2008
I really enjoyed the first half of this book, but I think it went downhill a little towards the end. There were too many implausible moments and lazy character development that drags on and really never goes anywhere. One of the most intruiging aspects of this book was the simple idea of what it would be like to live in a world that is still unexplored. With Google Earth and the Discovery Channel I can go anywhere I want, but it wasn't that long ago that the world was a much larger place.
If I had to do it again I would pick up a good piece of fiction about the real artic exploration of the late 1800's. And if I could give this 2.5 stars I would, but 3 sounds a little too generous.
If I had to do it again I would pick up a good piece of fiction about the real artic exploration of the late 1800's. And if I could give this 2.5 stars I would, but 3 sounds a little too generous.
April 14, 2014
The Voyage of the Narwhal is so schematic, with the standard revelations (the oppressed heroine has to break out of society's conventions in order to follow her artistic dreams) and standard poetic stretches. There's lots of nice details about the food and the tedium and the illness -- each of the characters is a little raft of tactile human misery -- but these human details are often swamped by the impersonal flood of Important Themes and Momentous Symbolism. There are sections where the writing is perfectly lovely and clean and spare; there are other spots where sentences threaten to buckle under the weight of abrupt epiphanies.
August 19, 2009
In keeping with my seafaring survival theme (from just-read Skeletons Of The Zahara), this one had my attention! I initially thought that there was just too much character development, but the real problem was that more time was spent on the characters than the actual logistics of the voyage. The book is more about the events before and after -- so if you're looking for a good story about relationships between some quirky people in the 1850s, rather than an action/survival story, this book is for you..
September 25, 2016
Like other books by Andrea Barrett, this one is beautifully written against the backdrop of the known scientific and natural world in the 19th century. Many of the background characters are historical figures, whereas foreground characters are fictitious, yet the book reads like more than a historical novel. I was drawn in to the lives of the characters while also becoming engrossed in the Arctic explorations of the time. The book engaged both sides of my brain! Immensely pleasurable reading.
October 10, 2007
it started out as a four, but it got somewhat predictable and mired down in non-artic, non-adventure related stuff.
October 20, 2019
This books capture the Arctic exploration craze of the 1840s and 1850s by focusing on one ship, the Narwhal, and its crew, as they travel as far as the Smith Sound and winter there. The story is told (mostly) by Erasmus, a naturalist on board.
This book is superb for many reasons. The commander of the Narwhal is a great villain, but a villain whose character develops and changes. The research that Barrett put into the arctic explorations of the time is outstanding -- the list of books that she read (which she provides at the end) is extensive, so you can trust her to get it right. And the book made me think of deeper things -- why do we travel? why not just stay at home and explore the inner self and one's environs? In this age where people routinely share (brag about?) their travels on Instagram, this question that Barrett asks is especially relevant.
I read large chunks of this book in a sauna. I think that was a good idea. Oh, and my mom recommended this book to me. Shout out to mom.
This book is superb for many reasons. The commander of the Narwhal is a great villain, but a villain whose character develops and changes. The research that Barrett put into the arctic explorations of the time is outstanding -- the list of books that she read (which she provides at the end) is extensive, so you can trust her to get it right. And the book made me think of deeper things -- why do we travel? why not just stay at home and explore the inner self and one's environs? In this age where people routinely share (brag about?) their travels on Instagram, this question that Barrett asks is especially relevant.
I read large chunks of this book in a sauna. I think that was a good idea. Oh, and my mom recommended this book to me. Shout out to mom.
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