About book A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott And The Race To The South Pole (1999)
I was not very familiar with Robert Falcon Scott's story and the race to the South Pole before reading this book. I've got to say, I admire his gusto in wanting to explore unknown territory in the harshest climate possible. While I appreciated the journal entries used throughout the book to convey first person accounts, overall I felt the book read too much like a compilation of journal entries. I didn't feel as though I could truly get in to the book until probably 2/3 of the way in to it. Preston does a great job of presenting the facts and helping the reader envision what these men (and their spouses at home) must have been going through at the time, but I think one time reading it was enough for me.
Robert Falcon Scott was an arrogant imbecile, but I still wish he'd beaten Admundsen to the pole. For those who don't know the story: spoiler alert:Scott prepares badly and arrives late, finding the Norwegian flag already flying at the world's southernmost point. He turns around dejected and exhausted, makes a series of godawful decisions, and freezes to death among his men just a few short miles from the next supply depot. "Raise the children to believe in God," the devoted atheist wrote to his wife in his final dispatch, found beside his frozen corpse. "For I have seen what a comfort it is to the men."I mean geez. If that doesn't get to you.This is very well written.
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Although the author seems to be trying to portray Scott in an heroic light, it seems to me that Scott royally screwed up and that his legacy as a hero in Britain rests on the fact that he died trying to accomplish his goal and was beaten by a foreigner--a kind of negative heroism. He was unprepared, made some ridiculous choices, wouldn’t admit mistakes and was just generally stubborn, all of which led to his and four of his teams deaths. Where’s the heroism? An interesting history, but hardly an effective defense of Scott.
—Kevin
