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11 - Representing the Polar Regions through Historical Fiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2023

By
Elizabeth Leane
Edited by
Adrian Howkins  and
Peder Roberts
Adrian Howkins
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Peder Roberts
Affiliation:
University of Stavanger
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Summary

In this passage from Beryl Bainbridge’s 1991 novel The Birthday Boys, Robert Falcon Scott, leader of the Terra Nova Antarctic expedition, recalls the reflections of his fellow explorer and friend, the naturalist and physician Edward ‘Bill’ Wilson. The conversation occurs while the men are together in a tent during a depot-laying expedition in March 1911. Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates and Apsley Cherry-Garrard listen in on the exchange, which is broken by the entrance of Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers. Readers of Bainbridge’s novel, well aware of the fate of the historical Scott and his polar party, including Wilson, Oates, and Bowers, would recognize multiple ironies in this scenario.

Keywords

Antarcticaliteraturehistorycultureexplorationmemoryfictionmasculinityempireheroism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Polar Regions , pp. 252 - 278
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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