the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Leopold M'Clintock : The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas: A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions

'The last words unveiling the mystery of the Erebus and Terror expedition were brought home and disclosed to the world by Sir Leopold M’Clintock in his book "The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas". It is a little book but it records with manly simplicity the tragic ending of a great tale. It so happened that I was born in the year of its publication. Therefore I may be excused for not getting hold of it till ten years afterwards. I can only account for it falling into my hands by the fact that the fate of Sir John Franklin was a matter of European interest, and that Sir Leopold M’Clintock’s book was translated I believe into every language of the white races. My copy was probably in French. But I have read the work many times since. I have now on my shelves a copy of a popular edition got up exactly as I remember my first one. It contains the touching facsimile of a printed form filled in with a summary record of the two ships, with the name of “Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition” and written in ink, and the pathetic underlined entry “All well”.[...]. There can hardly have been imagined a better book to let in the breath of the stern romance of Polar exploration into the existence of a boy[...]

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      Print: Book

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