The bloody binding in this book is all messed up with the first 25 pages missing. That being said, it is an awe-inspiring story very well told. I enjoyed it all but am firmly convinced that we are all wimps these days. ( )

An interesting history of an Arctic Explorer in the early 1800's.

An enjoyable book in two parts. The first covers Rae's early life and in some detail his various Arctic expeditions. The second documents his subsequent life and the battles against Victorian English society. It's a book about an egalitarian versus the establishment with the backdrop being the North West Passage and all what that meant to Britain and its Empire. Although all the conflict occurs in the second part of the book perhaps the more enjoyable part was the first. Here we learn of Rae's prodigious abilities and his forward thinking in adapting to the ways of the natives. For example the use of snowshoes and igloos when these were still regarded (particularly by the Royal Navy) as the ways of backward savages and not appropriate for civilised men. The writing was good enough to have me feeling part of these expeditions to the frozen north. No small feat as I read this book while sunning myself by a pool in Tenerife. ( )

A fascinating story of John Rae, Canadian explorer who found remains of the Franklin Expedition and publish accounts of the cannibalism the lost members were forced to endure. ( )

This is a highly readable account of John Rae, the indefatigable explorer of the Arctic who discovered the first significant proof of what happened to the ill-fated Franklin expedition to the Northwest Passage. However, his report was not welcomed in the UK because the Admiralty refused to credit the accounts of the Inuit, especially when they claimed that they had found evidence of cannibalism. Rae was subsequently discredited, never received a knighthood despite others with lesser accomplishments receiving that honour, and was proven right only in the early 20th century. Rae is simultaneously awe-inspiring and irritating by his sheer physical prowess. He thinks nothing of walking 40 miles round-trip in snowshoes, and walks from Hamilton to Toronto to give a lecture and shows no signs of tiredness. He hauls more than his fair share of the loads on his various surveying expeditions, is a talented boatbuilder and skipper, and quickly masters the art of snowhouse building. But it is thanks to him that we have a lot of our initial information about the Northwest Passage, and of course knowing what happened to Franklin. He is well worth reading about, as is the part of the book where Lady Franklin orchestrates her campaign to discredit him -- she is a formidable adversary.

Recommended if you're interested in Canadian history and geographical exploration. Would go nicely with Pierre Berton's The Arctic Grail, a book about the Franklin expedition, or a book about Roald Amundsen's journey to the Northwest Passage -- Amundsen adopts Rae's approach of living off the land and working closely with the Inuit to help him and his crew survive. ( )