The North Pole - The History of an Obsession

<''Extraordinary'' ANNE APPLEBAUM
''Thrilling . . . a record of an infatuation'' ''The book of a lifetime'' ELIF SHAFAK
''The North Pole proves to be the perfect subject for him'' MICHAEL PALIN
''Heart-catching . . . fabulous''
''A beautiful book'' ALAIN DE BOTTON

The epic adventure story of humanity''s obsession with the North Pole, from Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge who travelled there in 1990

Throughout recorded human time, few places on Earth have inspired as much fascination as the North Pole. This is an otherworldly place where the sun rises and stays aloft for six whole months before setting, plunging the expanse of ice and water into darkness for half a year.

Foot-stepping alongside Erling Kagge, who ventured to the North Pole in the spring of 1990, we hear the story of the North Pole as never told before. From Herodotus who first wondered what the northernmost point of our planet might be like, to the intrepid early cartographers who mapped the world, and the legendary expeditions led by Fridtjof Nansen and Robert Peary - the first polar explorer global celebrities - who were in the grip of a dangerous obsession to get to the North Pole first. What emerges is a new history of the world, spanning thousands of years, as seen from the ''silver-shining vacantness'' of the North Pole.

Blending memories from Kagge''s own 1990 trip with this epic history,

About the author

Erling Kagge

Product details

• Authors: Erling Kagge, Kagge Erling
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Release: 05.02.2026
• EAN: 9780241999646
• ISBN: 978-0-241-99964-6
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 35 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; NATURE / General, SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change, TRAVEL / Essays & Travelogues, Biography: general, Climate Change, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Adventurers & Explorers, Memoirs, HISTORY / Polar Regions, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Environmentalists & Naturalists, natural history, TRAVEL / Polar Regions, Travel writing, Popular philosophy, Nature and the natural world: general interest, Polar regions, Arctic regions, Biography: adventurers and explorers, History of other geographical groupings and regions, History of other lands, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs, PHILOSOPHY / Nature