The Endurance : Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

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Summary: Read it from cover-to-cover in an evening
Review: Truly inspiring. What a story of survival. The pictures were amazing. Written in a way that makes you feel as if you were sitting at the table in "the Ritz."

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Summary: Highly recommended.
Review: I was rivited to this book for it's portrayal of human sacrifice and what a group of 28 men had to endure to survive in a horific climate. The planning, strategizing, and sacrificing that these men were forced into made you feel like you've never come close to the kind of suffering that these men experienced while on The Endurance. Photo's were excellent. There's an exibit in March of 1999 at the American Museum of Natural History. I wish I lived close enough to drive and see it...

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Summary: A Marvelous Account of Unparalleled Courage and Endurance
Review: One finishes this beautiful little book with a profound respect for the dedication of these courgeous explorers. I automatically placed myself in their desperate predicaments and wondered if I would have had the fortitude to survive. Alexander does a marvelous job of revealing the successive challenges faced by these men. The sequential photographs tell their own story. For those who enjoy historical accounts of great attempts at exploration, this book is a must.

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Summary: Captivating, true reading and a beautiful gift book.
Review: This book is the perfect starter for those just getting interested in this true saga. The writing is easily read and the story so compelling that I actually forgot to look at the numerous photos as I went along, which are fantastic by themselves! The book itself is extremely attractive and I have given it as a gift with great reception. From here I have ordered other books about the same topic from Amazon.com and I'm learning more with each novel. I highly reccomend this title.

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Summary: The Endurance: A test of faith
Review: At the beginning of the first world war, Ernest Shackleton led a party of 28 men into the Antarctic to attempt setting a new record: crossing Antarctica on foot. Their wooden but sturdy ship, the Endurance, was trapped in pack ice during the journey, and despite fervent efforts by the crew to chip away at it to freedom, escape became impossible. The crew lived comfortably inside the Endurance until building pressure from the pack ice proved too much for the ship to withstand, and the Endurance broke up. The crew was left on the barren and frigid surface of Antarctica, no one in the world knowing where they were. This began the men's herculean attempt at survival, part of which included rowing 800 miles on the open sea to the nearest whaling station. Recording the events that took place for the 20 months during which they were stranded, Hurley, the ship's photographer went to great lengths to accurately depict the crew's experience. The survival of his film was truly a miracle--he retrieved it from a section of the Endurance that had been submerged underwater. It contributes extensively to this book.

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Summary: Read this if you can't make it to Alexander's exhibit
Review: Slogging through Shackelton's own account of this expedition is a feat of endurance in itself; Alexander's book, on the other had, juxtaposes vivid, modern narrative with Hurley's excellent photographs. It would be hard to believe such an ordeal occured, but that there is this book to document it. I loved it, and I am thrilled with Alexander's work.

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Summary: Brilliant writing! The treachery and thrill were palpable!
Review: I was absolutely entranced by Shackleton's story, and Caroline Alexander's brilliant interpretation of what surely must have been a tremendous amount of written material to sift through. Alexander presents the story with brevity and without embellishment or exaggeration. To do so would have been redundant since the experience itself was extraordinary enough. I strongly recommend this book to everyone who wants to read a real story of survival, and a tale of true hardship in words and images. The story will stay with you always.

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Summary: amazing
Review: This book was certainly a quick read. I was drawn into the ordeal and couldn't wait to find out how it all ended. This true tale is a testament to the sheer will of man to persevere against terrific odds.

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Summary: Hurley's photos are what make the book; not the writing
Review: It's Frank Hurley's photos that make this book--not Alexander's writing which is dry and dreary (a difficult task to do given the gripping nature of this adventure, so unreal that it's hard to believe it really happened) Too bad Alfred Lansing didn't have Hurley's photos to go with his 1959 book. That's how this book should be used--to go with Lansing's book. Read his words and look at Hurley's photos and the survival of the Endurance crew becomes all the more amazing.

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Summary: A pure adventure; a tale of unforgetable hope and courage!!
Review: The Most compelling adventure since the story "Alive'. Beautiful pictures taken by Hurley showed the ruged conditions that these few men survived in. An ordeal of courage, hope, strength and above all a tale of true leadership. Deffinately a story worth the telling over and over, always to be remembered!