Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Our Price: $181.92
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $33.41 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Alfred Lansing
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Published: 1994-06
ISBN: 1885283008
Number of pages: 274
Publisher: Adventure Library

Book Reviews of Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Book Review: "She was being crushed. Not all at once, but slowly . . ."
Summary: 5 Stars

Reading the reviews of this book, I expected a thrilling, well-told adventure. It exceeded my expectations and, like many other reviewers, I found that after a certain point in the book I simply couldn't put the book down. It would have been like leaving those brave men alone in the freezing ice and water. The events described in this book are so well known, suffice to say this is the story of Earnest Shackleton's 1914 Arctic expedition, in which Shackleton and his men hoped to cross the continent on foot. They never even made landfall, and their ship was trapped, and then slowly crushed in the ice. Thus begins the incredible story.

One of the strengths of the book is the elegant, slowly building power of Alfred Lansing's prose. He hits the perfect pitch, not sensational and yet not a dry retelling of facts. His writing is very clean, cuts right to the quick, and is full of perfect details. The book is also full of journal entries from several of the men, and most of these are masterpieces of understatement and courage. I won't even begin to describe the elements and details of the hardships these men faced. I simply don't know how they kept going, kept trying, in the face of such awesome, soul-crushing circumstances.

This book, to say the least, is a testament to the survival instinct in men - the surprising deep need the human animal has to simply stay alive, no matter what. And, of course, the book is a testament to the men of the Endurance. The author puts it best in the book's dedication: "In appreciation for whatever it is that makes men accomplish the impossible."

Summary of Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

In August 1914, explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew set sail from England for Antarctica, where Shackleton hoped to be the first man to cross the uncharted continent on foot. Five months later, the Endurance - just a day's sail short of its destination - became locked in an island of ice, and its destiny and men became locked in history. For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted until it was finally crushed, and Shackleton and his crew made an 850-mile journey in a 20-foot craft through the South Atlantic's worst seas to reach an outpost of civilization. Inspired by the ordeal that Time magazine said "defined heroism," author Alfred Lansing conducted interviews with the crew's surviving members and pored over diaries and personal accounts to create his best-selling book on the miraculous voyage. In Audio Partners' abridged recording of Endurance, reader Patrick Malahide renders a masterful portrayal of these courageous men.
In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. For five months Shackleton and his crew survived on drifting ice packs in one of the most savage regions of the world before they were finally able to set sail again in one of the ship's lifeboats. Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage is a white-knuckle account of this astounding odyssey.

Through the diaries of team members and interviews with survivors, Lansing reconstructs the months of terror and hardship the Endurance crew suffered. In October of 1915, there "were no helicopters, no Weasels, no Sno-Cats, no suitable planes. Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out--they had to get themselves out." How Shackleton did indeed get them out without the loss of a single life is at the heart of Lansing's magnificent true-life adventure tale.

World Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in World Books
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War ImageBlack Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
by Mark Bowden
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2000-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops: $13.95
Denying the Holocaust ImageDenying the Holocaust
by Deborah Lipstadt
Penguin Books; Published: 1995-03-02; Paperback; Book
Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475 ImageWestern Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475
by Brian Tierney, Sidney Painter
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 1998-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $103.04
Corrections in the 21st Century ImageCorrections in the 21st Century
by Frank Schmalleger, John Ortiz Smykla
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 2006-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.70
Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters ImageHighest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters
by Chesley B. Sullenberger, Jeffrey Zaslow
William Morrow; Published: 2009-10-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops: $25.99
Modern Times  Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (Perennial Classics) ImageModern Times Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (Perennial Classics)
by Paul Johnson
Harper Collins Publishers; Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2001-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.92
Price in other shops: $21.99
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide ImageA Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
by Samantha Power
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.88
Price in other shops: $17.95
1421: The Year China Discovered America Image1421: The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $15.95
"The Good Old Days" Image"The Good Old Days"
by Willi Dressen, Volker Riess
Free Press; Published: 1991-10-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.10
Price in other shops: $27.95
Wild Swans ImageWild Swans
by Jung Chang
Harpercollins Audio; Published: 2004-06-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $15.84
Similar Books and other products
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster ImageInto Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
Villard Books; Published: 1997-04-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops: $28.00
The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition ImageThe Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Sony; Release date: 2003-09-02; DVD
Best price: $119.95
Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone ImageInto Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
by Martin Dugard
Doubleday; Published: 2003-05-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $59.95
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage ImageEndurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
Blackstone Audio Inc.; Published: 2008-01-01; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops: $19.95
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe ImageOver the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe
by Laurence Bergreen
William Morrow; Published: 2003-10-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.95
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition ImageThe Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
by Caroline Alexander
Knopf; Published: 1998-11-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.38
Price in other shops: $35.00
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey ImageThe River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
by Candice Millard
Doubleday; Published: 2005-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.33
Price in other shops: $32.50
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West ImageUndaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
by Stephen E. Ambrose
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1996-02-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops: $30.00
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage ImageEndurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
Basic Books; Published: 1999-03-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.55
Price in other shops: $14.95
Shackleton - The Greatest Survival Story of All Time (3-Disc Collector's Edition) ImageShackleton - The Greatest Survival Story of All Time (3-Disc Collector's Edition)
A and E Home Video; Release date: 2002-04-09; DVD
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $19.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories