"Farthest North" combines Nansen's post-trip narratives of events with many verbatim daily journal entries. These passages, as in most diaries, are understandably highly repetitive and at times lack focus. (It's easy enough to skim until finding something more engaging.) I found Nansen's descriptions of the polar darkness lasting many weeks each winter and its effects on morale particularly compelling. Also well recounted was the nerve-wracking grinding and pressure of the ice upon the "Fram" with the underlying danger of shipwreck in the Arctic. I was also moved by Nansen's bitter frustrations at the forward-then-back progress north and at his exhaustion trying to move dog sleds across uneven tundra. The map of the journey is hard to read or to match with the text, unfortunately. Conversely, the trip's black and white photos that match faces to names add much to the book. This edition of "Farthest North" was abridged from an original two-volume set. I for one did not, however, want more text to read and would have appreciated additional editing. Even abridged and even as an historical document, this remains a very long book.

One caution not mentioned in other reviews here to date: attitudes of Nansen towards wilderness and wildlife will likely bother some readers. Nansen's view of an animal could be characterized as, "Shoot it... unless it's a sled dog we need... at the moment." Polar bears (including cubs), whales, fish, walrus, seals, birds, as well as non-wild sled dogs and puppies are killed frequently, every few pages on average, and without guilt (with the exception of a few favorite sled dogs whose demise did bother Nansen). One can rationalize a need for hunting because this well-stocked crew had to find additional food in a place where it couldn't be grown. But at other times, the killing seemed for diversion or because, in the case of the dogs, supplies were running short, and a faithful but hungry sled dog had one final service to perform for its comrades or master. In August 1894, Nansen noted with wonder and delight that he'd finally seen three "rare and mysterious" Arctic Ross' gulls, a species he'd been searching for. With no expression of irony balancing his happiness at his sighting, he gunned each one down, apparently ensuring that the species would be even more rarely observed in the future. These small birds, the size of snipe, would have had little food value. To readers who are sensitive to graphic descriptions of hunting that in today's culture may seem senseless, or to raw exploitation of animals for human needs, this book may be hard to take. Dog-training techniques are also notably unenlightened. One also misses crew attention to any need to carry out what was carried in to the wilderness. But these are objections in the context of current environmentalist values towards animals and wilderness-- values that have only come into prominence in recent years. The essential point to remember is that "Farthest North" reflects the attitudes of the era in which it was written and of the people who participated in this historic venture. As such, it offers a point-of-view and a look at cultural values of the 1890s that could not be matched by a modern third-person account of the trip. "Farthest North" is not the way we would choose to travel there now. To readers who can keep this perspective in mind, and can in fact appreciate the contrast and change in attitude towards wild places over the last century, the book is a journey they will be glad they made.