I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780312220815)

Francis Spufford explores the British obsession with polar exploration in a book that Jan Morris, writing in The Times, called, "A truly majestic work of scholarship, thought and literary imagination . . ." The title, a last quote from one explorer to his party as he left their tent never to return, embodies the danger and mystery that fueled the romantic allure of the poles and, subsequently, the British imagination. Far from being a conventional history of polar exploration, I May Be Some Time attempts to understand what was going on in the minds of the polar explorers as they headed toward destinies like Terra Nova. Serving up a heady brew of Captain Perry, Jane Eyre, gastronomic obsessions with iced desserts, and the daily lives of Eskimos, Spufford treats the reader to one of the most satisfying and imaginative contemporary works dealing with exploration and human need.

Author: Francis Spufford
ISBN-10: 0312220812
ISBN-13: 9780312220815
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Language: English
Published: 07/30/1999
Pages: 388
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.54w x 1.09d

Review Citation(s):
Ingram Advance 08/01/1999 pg. 66
New York Times 08/29/1999 pg. 32