A year in the Arctic wilderness in 1934. We review A Woman In The Polar Night.
Polar Night – the blurb
In 1934, the Austrian painter Christiane Ritter travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen to spend a year with her husband, an explorer and researcher. They are to live in a tiny ramshackle hut on the shores of a lonely fjord, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement.
At first, Christiane is horrified by the freezing cold, the bleak landscape the lack of equipment and supplies… But as time passes, after encounters with bears and seals, long treks over the ice and months on end of perpetual night, she finds herself falling in love with the Arctic’s harsh, otherworldly beauty, gaining a great sense of inner peace and a new appreciation for the sanctity of life.
This rediscovered classic memoir tells the incredible tale of a woman defying society’s expectations to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime.
Are you mad?
When you start reading Polar Night your first impression, as indeed it seemed to be of those around Ritter, was the woman must be mad. To drop a comfortable life in Europe, to leave your child for a place where toothpaste seems a luxury item and perpetual night is a thing must be madness. Yet from the bat you realize you are dealing with someone of sterner stuff. This isn’t merely a lady who lunches. On boarding the ship, she confronts the Captain about being let off at the appropriate stop and does not take no for an answer. However even the bold would quake when faced with permanent darkness and minus 30. Ritter wobbles for barely a moment then takes it in her stride. I was awestruck.
All the colours of the rainbow
It was fascinating to read about the living conditions the trio faced. The food, the hassle just to make a cup of coffee. I’m not really a nature reader but there is plenty in this book which I enjoyed. I found it difficult to get my head around the Arctic. Its vastness, its coldness, its remoteness. Believe it or not Ritter didn’t much complain about the cold – something that I think would make me permanently miserable. She did however wonder at the endless colours the sun, or lack of, produced. I so wanted to see pictures of the world she was describing. She did a fantastic job but I just couldn’t conjure it. There are a couple of photos at the back of the book but they are black and white and of Ritter rather than the Polar Night. Heads over to Google images…
1934!
Which reminds me. All of this was happening in 1934. A time when women were still expected to stay at home and keep the house. Which Ritter did, excellently, but she also skied to collect water, dug herself out of multiple snow drifts and helped skin a polar bear. What a truly remarkable lady. The situation back home and whether war would come was mentioned but only briefly and I suppose that was because their news was so limited. How tempting it must have been upon returning home and seeing what Europe had/was about to become to simply turn around and go back. The Arctic v World War Two, I know which I would have preferred.
You had to be there
I was tempted by the beautiful cover and was not disappointed. It’s a fascinating read about a fascinating woman. The hardships she willingly endured – not only endured but thrived in. I’m pretty sure I will never experience the Arctic but I’m pleased I kind of did via A Woman In The Polar Night.