Lady Franklin's Revenge A True Story of Ambition, Obsession, and the Remaking of Arctic History [Hardcover]

Ken McGoogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2005

Born into a wealthy London family in late-eighteenth-century England, Jane Griffin enjoyed nothing like the opportunities available to men of her class. And yet she became a world traveller, ranging far off the beaten path of Grand-Tour Europe to explore Russia, Greece, the Holy Land and northern Africa. She rode a donkey into Nazareth, sailed a rat-infested boat up the Nile River, and, at age of seventy, circumnavigated the globe in rough sailing ships. Jane married Captain John Franklin at thirty-six. She helped him seize the opportunity of a lifetime - leadership of a Royal Navy expedition destined, supposedly, to solve the final riddle of the Northwest Passage. After Franklin disappeared into the Arctic, she badgered the Admiralty into dispatching dozens of ships to locate him; she financed voyages through public subscription, paid for others out of her own pocket, and inspired even the president of the United States to contribute to the search. In 1854, when explorer John Rae returned from the Arctic with news that the final survivors of the Franklin expedition, while starving to death, had degenerated into cannibalism, Jane enlisted the celebrated Charles Dickens to repudiate him. She then sent Leopold McClintock to the area Rae had specified, and he brought back the evidence she sought, exonerating Franklin personally and opening the way to her creation of a legend.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

KEN McGOOGAN is a Canadian writer - historian, biographer, novelist and journalist. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller Fatal Passage about Scottish Arctic adventurer John Rae, which won the Writers' Trust of Canada Drainle-Taylor Biography Prize, the Canadian Authors' Association History Award and the Grant MacEwan Award. It also won a US Christopher Award as a work of artistic excellence that 'affirms the highest values of the human spirit'. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed Ancient Mariner, a biography of the British explorer, Samuel Hearne. The author lives with his family in Toronto, Canada. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Canada; 1st Canadian Edition edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002006715
• ISBN-13: 978-0002006712
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #812,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Maybe John Franklin needed revenge, October 17, 2009

By 

Kendall "reborn arctic explorer" (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews

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I read widely about arctic exploration, and I always wondered why Sir John Franklin set off for the arctic for the third time at the age of 59 when he was not in particularly good health. This book opened my eyes to his motivation. I will leave it to the readers to determine who they think was the driving force behind this unfortunate expedition.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent historical research . . ., July 17, 2011

By 

Beth Camp (Spokane WA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Lady Franklins Revenge (Paperback)

If you are interested in what shaped Sir John Franklin before his abortive exploration in the Arctic, McGoogan presents a tour-de-force portrait of his second wife, Jane, an indefatigable traveler and adventurer. I read this book for insights into 19th Century Tasmania and was not disappointed. Excerpts from letters and newspapers give a clear sense of public and private reflections on this colonial period, well complimented by maps, notes, appendices, and illustrations.

0 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, January 21, 2011

By 

Janlynn (Sussex, WI United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Lady Franklin's Revenge (Paperback)

I ordered this book through one of Amazon Marketplace sellers as it was no longer offered by Amazon itself. While the book is in the shape I ordered it (used-very good), I have not read it yet as I only just received it after ordering in it on 11/26/10. I received the book mid January, 2011.