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It must have been hugely frustrating for noted historical author Ken McGoogan to crack the spine of Pierre Berton's final work, 2004's Prisoners of the North, only to discover that Berton had devoted an entire chapter to England's Lady Jane Franklin in his otherwise male-dominated account of the Artic. While McGoogan's ardently researched tome Lady Franklin's Revenge is clearly the definitive work on the indomitable 19th-century woman and her peripatetic ways, Berton's offering presents two distinct advantages to the reader. It's snappier and it's shorter, thus avoiding the biggest hurdle facing McGoogan's book: his protagonist and her husband, the British explorer Sir John Franklin, were spectacularly unlikable people. The more we learn about them, the less agreeable they become. McGoogan concedes as much repeatedly. "Even sympathetic readers, such as ... Australian scholar Penny Russell, have admitted that 'it is not always easy to like' Lady Franklin," McGoogan writes. "Curious, brave, observant, articulate, and loyal, Jane could also be selfish, insensitive, and interfering. Like most upper-middle-class women of her time, she felt herself to be innately superior to the common run of humanity." That's putting it charitably. This, after all, was a woman who callously dumped her Aboriginal daughter-- adopted in an effort to "civilize" her--in a ramshackle state-run orphanage when she departed Australia. Broken and destitute, the girl was dead by age 21. Lady Franklin also advocated shaving the heads of female prisoners in Australia (then the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land) to further stigmatize them for their crimes, most of them petty. While some might argue that Lady Franklin's behaviour was consistent with her era, it was precisely her unwillingness to conform that paved the way to her most noted achievements, namely, traveling the world at a time when women didn't travel and tenaciously searching for her husband lost in the Artic, immortalizing him (rather unjustly) but opening the door to greater exploration there. Lady Franklin's Revenge is a thorough accounting of her life and legacy, but even the keenest and most forgiving reader might find the Lady herself a difficult companion for so long a journey. --Kim Hughes
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
With Lady Franklin’s Revenge, bestselling author KenMcGoogan (Fatal Passage, Ancient Mariner) delivers another pageturning biography that brings a remarkable historical figure vividly to life.Denied a role in Victorian England’s male-dominated society, Jane Franklin(1791–1875) took her revenge by seizing control of that most masculine ofpursuits, Arctic exploration, and shaping its history to her own ends.Arguably the greatest woman traveller of the 19th century, LadyFranklin rode a donkey into Nazareth, sailed a rat-infested boat up the Nile,climbed mountains in Africa and the Holy Land, and, wearing petticoats, beat herway through the Tasmanian bush. When Sir John Franklin, her husband, disappeared into the Arcticin 1845, she orchestrated an unprecedented 12-year search, contributing more tothe discovery of the North than any celebrated explorer. Having failed to rescuethe hapless Franklin, she turned failure into triumph by creating a legend.Richly detailed, panoramic in scope, this biography of theunforgettable Jane Franklin is destined to become a classic.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
More Editorial Reviews,
This review is from: Lady Franklins Revenge (Hardcover)
The Edmonton Journal:". . . belongs on the shelf next to such Arctic classics as Pierre Berton's The Arctic Grail . . . this is an unforgettable book." Quill & Quire: Globe and Mail: The Vancouver Sun: The Victoria Times-Colonist: The Bookseller, U.K.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Female explorer not to be missed!,
By Maria Hoeffer (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lady Franklins Revenge (Hardcover)
I found this book fascinating. Jane Franklin is an amazing, almost mythical woman. How refreshing to read about a commanding historical female! Her story is like a decadent cheesecake - best savoured in small slices. I found myself reading the short chapters one and two at a time to let them fully digest and swim around in my mind. I especially enjoyed the book spine. I would glance up at the bookshelf and see Lady Franklin gazing at me, daring me to read more. Delicious!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Woman,
By
This review is from: Lady Franklins Revenge (Paperback)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it after "To Rule the Waves" and before "How I Found Livingstone." While Lady Franklin did things that were not nice, it was remarkable to learn about an adventurous Victorian lady, and especially how her campaign to find her husband contributed so greatly to the exploration of the Canadian Arctic. It's very readable and I recommend it to amateur historians who are interested in any or all of the following: lives of Victorian women, the British Navy, the Canadian Arctic, and the fate of John Franklin and his ship, The Terror.
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