PDF I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination by Francis Spufford in History

Review

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Different perspective on polar explorationBy James C. CasterlineThis book sounded more interesting in a bibliography in another book I read about arctic life and exploration than it proved to be. I found the honesty with which some exploration failures were treated refreshing when it comes to heroic failures in the Scott and Franklin expeditions. On the other hand I wasn't at all excited by some of the silliness regarding hollow earth and holes in the poles which I felt were; at the least; over represented and perhaps could have been dealt with as footnotes. The book did broaden my knowledge of British efforts. On a recent visit to Auckland I saw replicas from Scott's expedition in a museum setting and felt I had a greater appreciation because of this book. That being said; this book wasn't right for me.7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. A Well Argued Thesis; but One that Must be Critically EvaluatedBy Roger D. LauniusFrancis Spufford's "I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination" seeks to show the relationship between polar exploration and English literature. He asks why British polar explorers willingly placed their lives in jeopardy in the harsh polar environment; was it gold or glory or something else? The answer; Spufford believes; rests not with the explorers themselves but with the English imagination as expressed in the writings of such the Brontës; Edmund Burke; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Charles Dickens; and others.At a sublime level this book is about the power of ideas to shape imperial ambitions. Romance about the Arctic distorted perceptions both of reality in England and in the far-off lands of the North. The concept of the sublime in the works of Edmund Burke and Samuel Coleridge found themselves deployed to explain the inspiration and terror of the Arctic ice and the environment of the cold. Arctic explorers transmogrified the sublime into a nostalgic identification of the Poles with the best of the human imagination. Conquest of the Arctic in Spufford's estimation might be equated with virtue and destiny. It propelled the British Empire into an unending quest for knowledge about the Polar region.Spufford's argument is quite useful; but it tends to downplay what I view as the critical component of English exploration of the Arctic; the quite mundane and practical desire to find a water route around the Americas to foster trade with Asia. The search for the Northwest Passage had motivated English Arctic expeditions since the sixteenth century and while imagination certainly aided in sustaining those efforts in the face of failure; there was a clearly understood and delineated rationale for undertaking them that had little to do with the sublime and philosophies. A fascinating account nonetheless; that requires serious consideration by anyone seriously interested in the history of Arctic exploration.5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A wonderful--and moving--book.By BonneeleveI May Be Some Time is a wonderful--and moving--book. Readers who were disappointed in it may have been looking for an adventure story. Well; it is that at the end; but the end comes as the climax of a long; complex; and fascinating cultural history. Readers interested in English culture in the 19th century--the world that gave rise to much Arctic and Antarctic exploration--will find this book compelling. Spufford examines imaginative literature of the period; the impact of new developments in the sciences; changing ideas of history and culture; British pride in the empire; and the roles expected of and actually played out by men and women whose lives involved them in exploration. He concludes his study with a profoundly moving narrative account of Scott's doomed final journey. This is a book that requires patience and attention on the part of the reader; but it is also a book that offers real rewards.