The Arctic has always held fascination as well as terror: the glory of the midnight sun, and the nameless cold and dark of polar night. In this extraordinary book, Christoph Ransmayr explores this fascination, revealing the psyche of man at the extremes of experience. Two stories are told, separated by one hundred years of time: the fictitious journey of Joseph Mazzini to the Polar Sea, and the expedition whose route he follows, the Austro-Hungarian Arctic expedition of 1873.

“I .. stand here in the middle of my paper seas, alone with all the possibilities of a story, a chronicler who lacks the comfort of an ending.”

Christoph Ransmayr “The Terrors of Ice and Darkness”. First published in German in 1984. Published in English by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1991. Donated to the library by Emma Lees ❤️

Photos by Anna Iltnere / Sea Library