It is August, 1616. The whaling ship Heartsease has ventured high into the Arctic, but the crew must return home before the ice closes in. All, that is, save Thomas Cave. He makes a wager that he will remain there alone until the next season, though no man has yet been known to have survived a winter this far north. So he is left with provisions, shelter, and a journal - should he not live to tell the tale. As the light recedes, so begins Cave's lonely contest with the realities and the phantasms of the Arctic winter. He is ...
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It is August, 1616. The whaling ship Heartsease has ventured high into the Arctic, but the crew must return home before the ice closes in. All, that is, save Thomas Cave. He makes a wager that he will remain there alone until the next season, though no man has yet been known to have survived a winter this far north. So he is left with provisions, shelter, and a journal - should he not live to tell the tale. As the light recedes, so begins Cave's lonely contest with the realities and the phantasms of the Arctic winter. He is vulnerable to blizzards, avalanches, bears - and his own demons: his fear, his apathy, his superstition and his memory. For in this wilderness that is without human history his own past returns to him: the woman he had loved, the grief that drove him north. Beautiful, strange and haunting, The Solitude of Thomas Cave is an unforgettable first novel.
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Add this copy of The Solitude of Thomas Cave to cart. $4.16, good condition, Sold by HR1Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hereford, HEREFORDSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Add this copy of The Solitude of Thomas Cave to cart. $4.64, very good condition, Sold by Reuseabook rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester, GLOS, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
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Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine.
Add this copy of The Solitude of Thomas Cave to cart. $56.99, like new condition, Sold by Lou Panelli Fine Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by BloomsburyUK.
Add this copy of The Solitude of Thomas Cave to cart. $67.00, new condition, Sold by Books Of Choice rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bloomington, MN, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Bloomsbury.
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As new book in an as new dust jacket. Signed by the author. 237 pages. First English edition, first printing. Dust jacket by Will Webb. Signed by Harding on the title page. Her 3rd book & 1st novel. The story of a 1616 whaling ship that is leaving arctic waters before the ice closes in. One sailor is left behind to face the ice & cold. As new book in an as new dust jacket. A beautiful copy!
Add this copy of The Solitude of Thomas Cave to cart. $33.87, new condition, Sold by Media Smart rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hawthorne, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
Add this copy of The Solitude of Thomas Cave to cart. $41.88, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Bloomsbury.
The Solitude of Thomas Cave is non-fiction author, Georgina Harding?s first foray into fiction. It is set in the summer of 1616, on a whaling ship off the Island of Svalbard in the North Atlantic. The crew argues whether a man could survive the winter alone in the arctic wilderness. One sailor, Thomas Cave, insists that he could survive. His shipmates promptly bet £100 that he won?t. Cave accepts the wager. His shipmates leave Cave on the treeless, uninhabited island, promising to return for him the following year. Cave initially thrives in his frozen Eden, rising to the challenge of wilderness survival. However, after ingesting toxic polar bear liver, Cave becomes ill and falls into a coma. When he regains consciousness, his pregnant wife is with him. At first, he welcomes the hallucination, chatting amiably with his phantom mate. When she disappears, he longs for her return. With each successive hallucination, Cave becomes more anxious and disturbed. Soon his phantom infant son starts appearing as well, so lifelike Cave can feel the warmth of his body. The first two-thirds of the novel concern Cave?s efforts to survive the arctic winter and the mind-bending loneliness he experiences. This portion of the book is written in the third person, as if the reader is an undetected presence observing all that Cave goes through. Enough of Cave?s past is revealed to explain why an intelligent, resourceful man such as Cave might agree to such a foolhardy wager. This portion of the book is written very beautifully and convincingly. If I were to rate the book based upon this first section alone, it would merit an unqualified five stars. There is a sharp break in the story two-thirds of the way through. The final third of the novel concerns the aftermath of the wager. This portion is told in the form of a narrative written by one of Cave?s shipmates twenty-four years later in 1640. The shipmate is struggling to understand the incident and the changes it wrought in Cave?s personality. The writing in this portion of the novel is uneven and is somewhat of a letdown after the fine writing and dramatic storytelling in the first section of the novel. The language and manner of speaking employed in the first portion of the novel are roughly in keeping with 17th Century England. Surprisingly, the shipmate?s narrative in the second portion is written in a more contemporary style. For example, the shipmate uses an anthropological term that wasn?t coined until the late 19th Century. Still, I am favorably impressed with this debut novel. This psychological study of loneliness, human need and mankind?s relationship with nature is quite compelling. I look forward to more fiction by this author.
