A major novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the 1996 National Book Award for Fiction. Part adventure narrative, part love story, this unforgettable novel captures a crucial moment in the history of exploration, the mid-nineteenth-century romance with the mystery of the Arctic. Combining fact and fiction, Andrea Barrett focuses on Erasmus Darwin Wells, a scholar-naturalist accompanying the expedition of the Narwhal. Through his eyes we meet the various crew members and the expedition's blustery commander, obsessed ...
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A major novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the 1996 National Book Award for Fiction. Part adventure narrative, part love story, this unforgettable novel captures a crucial moment in the history of exploration, the mid-nineteenth-century romance with the mystery of the Arctic. Combining fact and fiction, Andrea Barrett focuses on Erasmus Darwin Wells, a scholar-naturalist accompanying the expedition of the Narwhal. Through his eyes we meet the various crew members and the expedition's blustery commander, obsessed with the search for an open polar sea. And through his eyes we experience the wild, disturbing beauties of that last unexplored region. In counterpoint to his views are those of the Esquimaux, witness to the expedition's exploits, and of the women left behind in Philadelphia, who can only imagine what lies beyond the north wind. Together, those who travel and those who stay weave a web of myth and history. In the real nineteenth-century expeditions, explorers' documents always cast the writer as hero. But what really happened up there, in the long winter darkness, entrapped in ice? On the Narwhal, everyone is frightened, nothing is certain, and heroes emerge in unexpected guises. Barrett's explorers discover-as all explorers do-not what was always there and never needed discovering, but the state of their own souls.
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Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $1.25, good condition, Sold by Once Upon A Time Books rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Tontitown, AR, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W W Norton & Co Inc.
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Good in good dust jacket. This is a used book in good condition and may show some signs of use or wear. This is a used book in good condition and may show some signs of use or wear.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $1.26, very good condition, Sold by More Than Words rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Waltham, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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Very Good. . All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofit job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $1.26, good condition, Sold by More Than Words rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Waltham, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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Good. . All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofit job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $1.73, good condition, Sold by Your Online Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Houston, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W W Norton & Co Inc.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $1.73, fair condition, Sold by Gulf Coast Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Memphis, TN, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W W Norton & Co Inc.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal: a Novel to cart. $1.99, like new condition, Sold by Gladewater Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gladewater, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $1.99, very good condition, Sold by Gladewater Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gladewater, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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Very good in fine dust jacket. Ex-library. jacket in plastic library cover, flaps taped to copy; copy has minimal library markings, very small stain on upper text block. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 399 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $2.34, good condition, Sold by BookHolders rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gambrills, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W. W. Norton & Company.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $2.88, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W. W. Norton & Company.
Add this copy of The Voyage of the Narwhal to cart. $2.88, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by W. W. Norton & Company.
The biggest reason I picked up this book, is the gorgeous cover. It's a great addition to the bookshelf, but after starting it, I don't feel too guilty that that is where I left it for so long. At almost four hundred pages, the ship's cabins are an awfully small space for the reader's mind. With some snipets going back and forth with the women waiting, and some interaction with the locals, most of the story takes place on the ship. It is a geniune feel, the restlessness, the dreams that don't live up, the deceit of leadership and crew mates. I would recommend this book for people interested in northern geography and ship lore, but not for the casual reader.
