Name: Cassell's Tales of Endurance
ISBN: 9780304357475

Fergus Fleming

The 40 gripping accounts of the most amazing feats in the history of exploration are divided into three sections - The Age of Reconnaissance, The Age of Inquiry and the Age of Endeavour. Each section is prefaced by an essay introducing key aspects of the age in question and identifying themes that are developed in greater detail in the stories that follow.

Cassell's Tales of Endurance

Gordon McLean

To call this book a history of exploration may seem at once both overly optimistic and slightly redundant. It is by no means a complete account of the expeditions it covers, nor is it a history per se, focussing more on the will, desire, and often the tyranny and arrogance of the early explorers. Men who forged their way across uncharted seas, walked across vast continents, and suffered at the hands of nature at every turn. Glorifying these early-day explorers is easy and thankfully something that Fergus Fleming steers clear of, preferring to give an accurate portrayal of their character no matter how loathsome.

For their in lies the fascination, what drives these men?