Martyn Beardsley
Autor de Sir Gadabout
Sobre El Autor
Martyn Beardsley is a writer of children's fiction who became fascinated by the Franklin story while researching a children's novel inspired partly by the 1845 Northwest Passage expedition. He is a contributor to History for All magazine
Series
Obras de Martyn Beardsley
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Género
- male
Miembros
Reseñas
También Puede Gustarte
Autores relacionados
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 30
- Miembros
- 301
- Popularidad
- #78,062
- Valoración
- 2.8
- Reseñas
- 4
- ISBNs
- 67
- Idiomas
- 5
That will do as a summary of Sir John Franklin, and it perhaps reveals the problem one has in describing this book. When I learned of it, I went to LibraryThing to read reviews and found two, one a savage attack on its treatment of cannibalism and the other a defense by the author of his own work. Not exactly the greatest recommendations, either one.
The truth -- like the truth of Franklin's life -- lies somewhere in between. This is a well-written book, and it is, in fact, a life of John Franklin. That, in a way, is a limitation -- because what we all want to know about is roughly his last two years, when he made his final attempt to find the Northwest Passage. That gets relatively little attention in this book. After all, it was only 3% of Franklin's life, and it is the 3% about which we know the least. So the book is more about his early life, his naval career, his first two voyages of exploration, his marriages, his time as governor of Van Dieman's Land. Exciting times? Not really. But I have no reason to question the accuracy of the descriptions. There are some parts of Beardsley's reconstruction which I don't feel entirely confident about (such as Franklin's relationship with his wives), but the interpretations are reasonable; it's just that there are other possibilities. If you want "The Truth," you should read other sources as well, and form your own conclusions -- but that is always true when you want "The Truth."
Would I have wanted to know John Franklin? I'm not sure. That he was honest and hardworking and gentle is clear; that his devotion to his religion was rather obnoxious is also clear. On the other hand, he persuaded two opinionated, brilliant women (Eleanor Anne Porden and Jane Griffin) to marry him. That's certainly a positive.
So I think this book a helpful insight into the man.
I still wish there were more about the final expedition. I know, I know (I know better than most, because I've studied this in depth), we don't have enough information. And the book of course was written before the wrecks of Erebus and Terror were found, which proved that none of the earlier reconstructions of what happened were entirely right. I think author Beardsley is a little too hesitant to admit the high likelihood of cannibalism on the part of Franklin's men, but I also concede that the question isn't really relevant to a life of Franklin -- he was dead before any cannibalism took place. I wish there were more -- but I understand that that's not what this book is about. And I commend Beardsley for pointing out that most of the briefly popular explanations -- lead poisoning, botulism -- don't hold up.
So, unlike the savage reviewer, I think this a good book to have. Perfect? No. But like John Franklin himself, while not perfect, it is good.… (más)