South with Scott

Mountevans, Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans,Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 479K words
Chapters: 48

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.South with Scott by baron Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans MountevansAuthor: Mountevans, Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, baron, 1880-1957,Language: English, Class: G: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation, Release Date: Apr 7, 2006

Editor's review

This book is Lord Evans's memoir of Scott's Antarctic expedition. Evans, a British explorer and a participant in the journey, offers a firsthand account that stands among early twentieth-century polar exploration literature. Writing as a fellow expedition member, he describes the team's organization, the voyage, sledging journeys, and daily life under extreme conditions, providing a perspective distinct from Scott's own diaries for the study of the expedition. The prose retains period vocabulary and narrative rhythm, allowing readers to sense the character of polar writing from a century ago and to read it alongside Scott's diaries and later scholarship, identifying narrative stance and lapses of memory. It will appeal to readers interested in Antarctic exploration history, imperial-era expedition culture, and natural history and geographical writing, and may serve as a reference text for narrative nonfiction history. Read slowly, noting names, places, and chronology; with maps and background material at hand, the text's historical layers and narrative warmth become more apparent.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Antarctic exploration history and polar expedition literature
Students of early twentieth-century British expedition writing and imperial culture
General readers who enjoy firsthand memoirs and narrative nonfiction history
Historians or geographers seeking background material on polar exploration

Not a good fit for

Readers looking for a contemporary guide to Antarctic research or a practical travel handbook
Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and strongly story-driven narratives
Readers with little patience for archaic English vocabulary and long sentences

Reading tips

Begin by reviewing the basic timeline and cast of characters of Scott's expedition to make the names easier to follow.
Consult a map of Antarctica marking the routes and sledging journeys to build a sense of space.
Read alongside Scott's diaries or later histories of Antarctic exploration, noting the stance and selections of a retrospective account.
After each chapter, briefly note key events and figures to help trace the book's overall structure.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How does this book differ from Scott's own diaries?

This book is a memoir by a fellow expedition member, Lord Evans, offering a perspective from within the team and focusing on the organization, voyage, and journeys he experienced. Scott's diaries are the expedition leader's own immediate record. The two differ in stance, focus, and time of writing; read together, they reveal different layers of the same events.

Can I understand it without background knowledge of Antarctic exploration?

Yes, but it helps to learn the basic background, main figures, and historical context of Scott's expedition first. The book retains much period vocabulary and the names of people and places from the era, which can be confusing without context; with a timeline and map in hand, the reading goes much more smoothly.

Is this book suitable as a historical research source?

It can serve as one of the firsthand references for studying Scott's expedition and early twentieth-century polar writing, but it is a retrospective account subject to lapses of memory and personal bias. Researchers should cross-check it against Scott's diaries, official reports, and later historical scholarship rather than relying on it alone.

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About the author

Mountevans, Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, Author · British · 1881–1957

Mountevans, Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans (1881–1957), was a British admiral and Antarctic explorer, often referred to in Chinese sources as "Evans of the Broke." He travelled to the Antarctic with Robert Falcon Scott's expedition, an experience that became the most memorable public fact of his life and made him one of the important witnesses to the Scott expedition narrative. His representative work, South with Scott, recounts that Antarctic venture from a participant's perspective, focusing on the voyage, the polar environment, and the experiences of the team members. It has the character of a memoir and expedition report, written in plain language and attentive to firsthand observation. Because public information is limited, a full account of his writing and its literary assessment cannot be fully developed, yet the book, as a firsthand record of the Scott expedition, has long been cited by historians of Antarctic exploration and general readers.