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Eine Frau Erlebt Die Polarnacht (1961)

by Christiane Ritter(Favorite Author)

4.38 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

3548372848 (ISBN13: 9783548372846)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Ullstein

review 1: In 1934, Austrian painter Christiane Ritter left Europe to join her husband for a year on Spitsbergen, an island off the arctic coast of Norway. This is not a book about the heart-stopping dangers of arctic exploration, but a quiet meditation on the wonders to be found at the farthest reaches of nature. To be sure, Ritter (with admirable humor and pluck) endures and survives a great many hardships, but she also experiences a deep and profound joy in observing the astonishments of the empty world around her. Compared to the shattering effect on the human mind and soul of the hallucinatory stillness of the long, frozen winter, and the unrelenting dark of the polar night, the challenges posed by living in a tiny hut in sub-zero temperatures with very little food seem like min... moreor annoyances. The book, beautifully written, offers insights into the powerful impact of the natural world on the human psyche, when it is experienced with reverence, and in the absence of the distractions, comforts, and stresses of modern life.
review 2: This remarkable story of Christine Ritter's stay in the Arctic with her husband one winter was written in 1938 in German. The translation to English by Jane Degras, reads like poetry as she describes the breathtaking beauty of this world. I can't even imagine wanting to experience it. The temperatures are often 25 to 30 degrees below zero, and on the day it was only 15 degrees below zero, they felt themselves sweating while doing their work. The diet was composed largely of seal meat and ptarmigan, with a few supplemental foods. But, one cannot help but wonder if I would end up feeling like Mrs. Ritter as she wrote, "It is true that in the encyclopedias they can read about the wonders of the polar world, but they have no idea that under this radiant heaven a man's spirit is also calm, clear, and radiant." She says this is different ways throughout the book. Still, it is something I will probably only read about. Too cold. less

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