I may be some time

Alternate Titles

• Ice and the English imagination

Description

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.

First Sentence

We had better begin with the question asked by every reader of the standard accounts of the great expeditions, the urgent question that floats irresistibly to the surface of one's mind as the contrast grows stronger and stronger between the safe, sensible surroundings in which one is reading, and the scenes that are being described.

Excerpt

We had better begin with the question asked by every reader of the standard accounts of the great expeditions, the urgent question that floats irresistibly to the surface of one's mind as the contrast grows stronger and stronger between the safe, sensible surroundings in which one is reading, and the scenes that are being described.

Subjects

Links

• Contributor biographical information
• Publisher description
• Table of contents
• Book review (H-Net)
• Book review (H-Net)
• URL
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Other Editions

• I may be some time: ice and the English imaginationSt. Martin's Press1997-01-01
• I may be some timeFaber and Faber1996-01-01
• I may be some timeFaber1997-01-01
• I May Be Some TimeHardcoverSt. Martin s Press1997-03-01
• I may be some timePicador USA1999-01-01
• I May Be Some TimePaperbackPalgrave Macmillan1999-07-30