ROALD AMUNDSEN, EXPLORER By Charles Turley
The Amundsen of this biography (Methuen, 5s.) is the conventional heroic figure. Almost no attempt has been made to present his character, and the details of his life outside the business of' exploration have little place. A hero-worshipper, Mr. Turley skirts round the Scott and Nobile controversies with the tact of an . epitaph writer. Hut if Amundsen the man is not here, there is a readable summary of his chief ventures, from the first youthful expe- dition with his brothers into the plateau west of Bergen, which nearly cost them their lives, to the final search for Nobile, on which Amundsen died, as he wished, in the Arctic. Amundsen's training began on the Belgiea ' expedition in the Antarctic, where he met and admired the afterwards notorious Cook ; and it was the Gjoa expedition in search of the magnetic north pole and the N.W. passage which made him famous. His change from sea to air was typical of his enterprise and vitality, and there is no doubt of his real greatness in the patience of his preparations and the imaginative quality of' his plans. Exploration is a monotonous grind ; its spec- tacular, though not its courageous quality, is largely the stny- at-home's illusion. One gathers Amundsen was in some respects a disappointed man who got what solace he could from the financially useful publicity he was given, but who suffered acutely from the sense of indifference which is the explorer's chief burden. A realistic picture of his character would be interesting, and there is no reason why it should not be done. It was done for Scott.
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