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The Worst Journey in the World (Penguin Classics) Paperback – February 28, 2006

by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (Author), Caroline Alexander (Introduction)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 999 ratings
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A firsthand account of Scott's disastrous Antarctic expedition

The Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard—the youngest member of Scott’s team and one of three men to make and survive the notorious Winter Journey—draws on his firsthand experiences as well as the diaries of his compatriots to create a stirring and detailed account of Scott’s legendary expedition. Cherry himself would be among the search party that discovered the corpses of Scott and his men, who had long since perished from starvation and brutal cold. It is through Cherry’s insightful narrative and keen descriptions that Scott and the other members of the expedition are fully memorialized.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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  1. Print length
    640 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Classics
  4. Publication date
    February 28, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    0.6 x 6 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0143039385
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0143039389
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Worst Journey in the World is to travel writing what War and Peace is to the novel... a masterpiece." —The New York Review of Books

From the Back Cover

Perhaps the greatest first-hand account of polar exploration.
In his introduction to the harrowing story of the Scott expedition to the South Pole, Apsley Cherry-Garrard states that "Polar Exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." This is his gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong.
One of the youngest members of Scott's team, the author was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. Prior to this sad denouement, Cherry-Garrard's account is filled with details of scientific discovery and anecdotes of human resilience in a harsh environment, supported by diary excerpts and accounts from other explorers.
Summing up the reasons for writing the book, Cherry-Garrard says:
"To me, and perhaps to you, the interest in this story is the men, and it is the spirit of the men, "the response of the spirit," which is interesting rather than what they did or failed to do: except in a superficial sense, they never failed... It is a story about human minds with all kinds of ideas and questions involved, which stretch beyond the furthest horizons."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; Penguin Classics edition (February 28, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 640 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143039385
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143039389
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.6 x 6 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 999 ratings

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Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Apsley Cherry-Garrard

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
999 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the story quality amazing, powerful, and captivating. They also say it's one of the best accounts of Antarctic exploration and delights with brilliant insights on travel. However, some readers find the book very long and heavy going. Opinions are mixed on readability and illustrations, with some finding them legible and meticulously detailed, while others say they're not worthy of this great literary work.

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Story qualityAntarctic explorationCharacter studyReadabilityIllustrationsLength
50 customers mention "Story quality"44 positive6 negative

Customers find the story powerful, wonderful, and captivating. They say it's a detailed review of Scott's expedition. Readers also mention the structure of the book is literary.

"...The book is very readable and not dry as I had expected. This seller has a large and eclectic selection of books - well worth checking out!" Read more

"Wonderful adventure story with interesting character studies. Main Complaint no maps to follow the journey" Read more

"...so with a modicum of humor, but mostly with just the right combination of detailed observation, descriptive power, and narrative flair...." Read more

"...from Shakespeare, Browning, Huxley, etc.. even the structure of the book is literary, re-telling the same events from different perspectives,..." Read more

4 customers mention "Antarctic exploration"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book one of the best accounts of Antarctic exploration. They appreciate the brilliant, insightful views on travel, man, and the meaning of life.

"...This book is one of the very best accounts of Antarctic exploration. It is little wonder that it has become a classic of adventure literature." Read more

"...Cherry himself often delights with brilliant insightful views on travel, man, the meaning of life...." Read more

"...by military buildings. Fortunately, the Antarctic continent remains largely unspoiled, just as Scott and Cherry-Gerrard found it." Read more

"The best book written on Antarctic exploration.The author was part of Capt. Scott's expedition to the South Pole" Read more

4 customers mention "Character study"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's character study incredible. They also appreciate the memorable portrait of Captain Scott.

"Wonderful adventure story with interesting character studies. Main Complaint no maps to follow the journey" Read more

"...experience with animation and you can tell with the incredible character design and composition. It's very cinematic...." Read more

"...Chapter 6, a masterpiece on life in Antarctica and a memorable portrait of Captain Scott...." Read more

"...This book is about character, endurance, hope, tragedy, and ultimately, wonder and awe !" Read more

36 customers mention "Readability"20 positive16 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the readability of the book. Some mention it's amazing, rewarding, and well worth checking out. Others say the writing is dry and not easy to read.

"...This seller has a large and eclectic selection of books - well worth checking out!" Read more

"...It's very cinematic. Cherry's narration is a little dry at times, (it's from his real memoir after all) but I think the illustration makes it..." Read more

"Interesting read...." Read more

"...My complaint is with this particular print edition, which I found difficult to read because of the very small print, which is smaller and fainter..." Read more

6 customers mention "Illustrations"2 positive4 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the illustrations in the book. Some mention that the backgrounds are meticulously detailed, while others say there are no illustrations and only five images.

"Like many other reviewersmentioned, there are no pictures in this reprinted version...." Read more

"...(it's from his real memoir after all) but I think the illustration makes it legible even for younger readers...." Read more

"...It's labelled as "illustrated" copy but there are only 5 images, two of them being portraits...." Read more

"I was very disappointed with this copy. No illustrations, just a cheaply typeset copy with many type errors like you would expect for a manual for a..." Read more

5 customers mention "Length"0 positive5 negative

Customers find the book very long and heavy going.

"...If I had one criticism to make, I'd say that the book is slightly too long and fails to retain the reader's interest throughout...." Read more

"...It is a long book, and the writing style has dated a little...." Read more

"...It is a long read, Cherry-Garrard is well organized but undisciplined in his writing, often getting away from the expected thread of the narrative...." Read more

"...This book is unforgettable. Yes, it is long, and yes, it's written in the gentlemanly British style of a bygone era, but between the encyclopedic..." Read more

A cinematic, well-researched adventure on the high seas!
5 out of 5 stars
A cinematic, well-researched adventure on the high seas!
I was waiting for the physical copy of this book to come out, and it has surpassed ALL my expectations. The author has experience with animation and you can tell with the incredible character design and composition. It's very cinematic. Cherry's narration is a little dry at times, (it's from his real memoir after all) but I think the illustration makes it legible even for younger readers. It has informational asides about the environment and ship navigation between scenes of fighting storms and exploring new shores.In the foreword, the author acknowledges that she's made some changes to the phrasing of the original work for pacing, and that her goal is bringing these men back to life. I think she excelled at that. The personality of the crew really shines through in the dialogue and expressions. The backgrounds are meticulously detailed. The overall effect feels like getting a glimpse back in time.(If you are buying this book for a younger reader, know that the expedition DID end in the tragic death of three crew members and there are subtle references to that throughout Volume 1, nothing graphic. That being said, later volumes will likely deal more directly with dark subject matter.)
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Top reviews from the United States

Scholar
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible journey!
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2024
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What an incredible journey, that few, if any of us can imagine. The book is very readable and not dry as I had expected. This seller has a large and eclectic selection of books - well worth checking out!
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joe c
4.0 out of 5 stars Where are the maps
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2024
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Wonderful adventure story with interesting character studies. Main Complaint no maps to follow the journey
One person found this helpful
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Charlotte
5.0 out of 5 stars A cinematic, well-researched adventure on the high seas!
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2024
Verified Purchase
I was waiting for the physical copy of this book to come out, and it has surpassed ALL my expectations. The author has experience with animation and you can tell with the incredible character design and composition. It's very cinematic. Cherry's narration is a little dry at times, (it's from his real memoir after all) but I think the illustration makes it legible even for younger readers. It has informational asides about the environment and ship navigation between scenes of fighting storms and exploring new shores.

In the foreword, the author acknowledges that she's made some changes to the phrasing of the original work for pacing, and that her goal is bringing these men back to life. I think she excelled at that. The personality of the crew really shines through in the dialogue and expressions. The backgrounds are meticulously detailed. The overall effect feels like getting a glimpse back in time.

(If you are buying this book for a younger reader, know that the expedition DID end in the tragic death of three crew members and there are subtle references to that throughout Volume 1, nothing graphic. That being said, later volumes will likely deal more directly with dark subject matter.)
Customer image
Charlotte
5.0 out of 5 stars A cinematic, well-researched adventure on the high seas!
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2024
I was waiting for the physical copy of this book to come out, and it has surpassed ALL my expectations. The author has experience with animation and you can tell with the incredible character design and composition. It's very cinematic. Cherry's narration is a little dry at times, (it's from his real memoir after all) but I think the illustration makes it legible even for younger readers. It has informational asides about the environment and ship navigation between scenes of fighting storms and exploring new shores.

In the foreword, the author acknowledges that she's made some changes to the phrasing of the original work for pacing, and that her goal is bringing these men back to life. I think she excelled at that. The personality of the crew really shines through in the dialogue and expressions. The backgrounds are meticulously detailed. The overall effect feels like getting a glimpse back in time.

(If you are buying this book for a younger reader, know that the expedition DID end in the tragic death of three crew members and there are subtle references to that throughout Volume 1, nothing graphic. That being said, later volumes will likely deal more directly with dark subject matter.)
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MoseyOn
5.0 out of 5 stars The Title Says it All
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2011
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"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." So begins Apsley Cherry-Garrard's account of his experience with Captain Scott. I was exhausted when I finished reading this book. Not because it is long (though at 564 pages it is not short), and not because it is tedious (there were only a couple of passages that I might describe that way). It's just that Cherry-Gerrard describes his journeys in Antarctica so compellingly that it is impossible not to feel that in some way you are along for the ride. At the same time, the chasm between his experiences and anything the average person is likely to experience is so enormous that you can't possibly think you have really experienced--even vicariously--what he went through.

I have read many books about Antarctic exploration, and this one easily ranks with the best of them. In 1910, at the age of 24, "Cherry," as he was known, joined famed explorer Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition aboard the Terra Nova. Their objective was to be the first men to reach the South Pole, thereby winning glory for England and themselves. The story of the race that ensued between Scott and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen is well known: Amundsen's secret voyage to Antarctica when most people thought he was going north; the two groups' different routes, different modes of travel, and different types of preparation; Scott's decision to make the final leg of the journey to the Pole with four companions rather than three; the disappointment on arriving at the Pole only to find that the Norwegians had beaten them by a month; the death of Edgar Evans and the subsequent death of the entire Polar party on the return journey, just a few miles from a large cache of food and supplies; the discovery of their frozen bodies (with the exception of Oates, who apparently sacrificed himself for the others and was never found); and the posthumous transformation of Scott into a hero at home in England. What Cherry adds is not just a first-person account of polar exploration (there are many of those), but a bone-chilling description of hardships faced and endured. He does so with a modicum of humor, but mostly with just the right combination of detailed observation, descriptive power, and narrative flair.

The most noteworthy part of the expedition for Cherry as an individual was the famous "Winter Journey," a grueling three-man slog in the dead of the dark Antarctic winter to Cape Crozier (67 miles one-way from their base camp). The purpose of the trip was to collect emperor penguin embryos for scientific examination, but the fact that it had to be done in winter, and that this particular winter brought weather unbelievably inhospitable for traveling, made for an ordeal that Cherry describes with such a chilling matter-of-factness that it is hard to read without gasping. Take this: "It was the darkness that did it. I don't believe minus seventy temperatures would be bad in daylight, not comparatively bad . . ." Minus seventy? Not "comparatively" bad? How in the world did they make it back to their base at Hut Point alive, let alone keep journals along the way? And that is one of the most amazing things about so many of the explorers of the "golden age" of Antarctic exploration. Carrying out tasks that required the most arduous exertions, facing life-or-death situations almost daily, and ending each day in a state of utter exhaustion, they somehow found time to record their activities and their thoughts. And eloquently, too. Scott, of course, famously recorded his doomed party's activities and his own benedictory thoughts right up virtually to the moment of his death. So read Apsley Cherry-Garrard's book for his account of the polar party and the search for their bodies (a search in which he participated). Read it for the account of the incredible winter journey for the embryos. Read it for the sketches of the various characters that made up the Terra Nova's complement of officers and men. And if for no other reason, read it for gems like Chapter 6, a masterpiece on life in Antarctica and a memorable portrait of Captain Scott. This book is one of the very best accounts of Antarctic exploration. It is little wonder that it has become a classic of adventure literature.
9 people found this helpful
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Stephen Balbach
5.0 out of 5 stars Information about editions
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2009
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`The Worst Journey in the World` (1922) is often cited as a masterpiece of travel literature. It is number one on National Geographic's list of 100 all time best travel literature, and is the first title in the prestigious Picador Travel Classics series. A. Alvarez has praised its "perfect prose: lucid, vivid, bone-simple, and full of feeling." The expedition was literary from the start and the "good modern fiction" the party brought along included Thackery, Charlotte Bronte, Bulwer-Lytton and Dickens. The poetry packed to the pole on the final fateful journey was Browning and Tennyson. Authors who stirred discussions included Shaw and Wells. Authors who were friends with members of the expedition included Galsworthy and Barrie. Robert Louis Stevenson is often mentioned. Each of the chapters of the book begins with poetry fragment from Shakespeare, Browning, Huxley, etc.. even the structure of the book is literary, re-telling the same events from different perspectives, building up to the climatic discovery of the fate of Scott. Cherry himself often delights with brilliant insightful views on travel, man, the meaning of life. This is Travel "Literature" with a capital L.

Apsley Cherry-Garrad ("Cherry") was the wealthy heir of two estates who joined Scott's team as an assistant zoologist at the age of 24. He was educated at Oxford in Classics and modern history. In the tradition of the British amateur explorer he took on multiple roles, ultimately becoming the expeditions historian. He wrote Journey using the diaries of the team in the years after WWI while recovering from an illness.

From their base camp at McMurdo Sound the three-year expedition made a number of trips composed of different groups. The trip to the pole by Scott is the most famous, but there were others. The title of the book, "Worst Journey", actually refers to a 67-mile 5-week trip by three members, including Cherry, in what at the time was twice as long as any previous Antarctic journey on the open ice. It only composes about 1/8th of the books length but is probably the most remarkable. They survived -70 degree temperatures and hurricane storms with primitive gear made from leather and canvas while man-hauling multi-hundred pound sleds and living on 4000 calories or less per day of nearly vitamin-free biscuits and pemmican (considered "adequate" at the time, today twice that is usual for explorers). Cherry interlaces his narrative with allusions to Dante, The Pilgrims Progress and Walt Whitman all the while maintaining that plucky cheery Edwardian foolhardiness that would run aground in the trenches of WWI. Cherry's teeth shattered from the cold, killing the nerves.

The retelling of Scott's trip to the Pole is equally gripping, and "horrific", also living up to the books title. In later years Cherry suffered from survivors guilt and wrote `Postscript to the Worst Journey in the World` (1948) in which he severely reproaches himself for not doing more to save Scott and the party. Cherry died in 1959.

EDITIONS: Only some editions contain this Postscript. The Penguin edition does not. Officially it was re-printed in the 1951 edition, and maybe in the 1994 Picador Travel Classics edition with an Introduction by Paul Theroux (Update: probably not. See comments to this review below). It should also be noted the 1951 edition was "corrected by the author" so it probably contains other changes - these changes I think might be reflected in the Picador edition (although not sure), but for sure not in the Penguin edition which is based on the 1922 text, as most are since it is now in the public domain.
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Top reviews from other countries

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manuel briseño
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect book in perfect condition
Reviewed in Mexico on January 8, 2023
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Book in perfect condition. It actually has the date when they print your copy!!!
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Linda Elmslie
5.0 out of 5 stars You could feel the cold
Reviewed in Spain on December 16, 2019
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So immersive that I needed a good blanket. A good read for anyone unable to make the trip themselves.
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chris
5.0 out of 5 stars Wahrscheinlich die Beste Expeditionserzählung die es gibt?!
Reviewed in Germany on January 23, 2019
Verified Purchase
Sehr beeindruckende Erzählung, man ist damit erster Hand in der Antarktis mit dabei. Unglaublich, was Menschen aushalten können und bereit sind in Kauf zu nehmen um ein Ziel zu erreichen.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Epic
Reviewed in Australia on October 18, 2023
Verified Purchase
Truly staggering. Humbling, inspirational and a pleasure to read. Such a raw, authentic and honest voice from over a century ago that could have been written yesterday.
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MattCat
4.0 out of 5 stars An important, if occassionally dry account of an epic adventure
Reviewed in Japan on October 8, 2020
Verified Purchase
Definitely an interesting read for anyone interested in the early days of polar exploration. Lots of interesting details of discovery and hardship, although it does get bogged down in details of equipment logs and weather reports a bit too much at times to be a proper 'page turner'.
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