{{noref, date=November 2021 ''Lady Franklin's Revenge: A True Story of Ambition, Obsession and the Remaking of Arctic History'' is a non-fiction book by Canadian historian and writer

Ken McGoogan Kenneth McGoogan (born 1947). is the Canadian author of fifteen books, including ''Flight of the Highlanders'', ''Dead Reckoning'', ''50 Canadians Who Changed the World'', ''How the Scots Invented Canada'', and four biographical narratives focusing ...

. It was published in 2005.

Summary

Denied a role in Victorian England's male-dominated society, Jane, Lady Franklin took her revenge by seizing control of that most masculine of pursuits, Arctic exploration and shaping its history to her ends. The author, Ken McGoogan, tells two intertwined stories in this book. The first focuses on how Jane Franklin became the greatest woman traveler of the age. She rode a donkey into

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

, sailed a rat-infested boat up the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

, climbed mountains in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

, and beat her way through the

Tasmanian ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

bush—all at a time when few Victorian women ventured beyond the security of the home, much less beyond the country's borders and the world's known frontiers. The second began when her husband,

Sir John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through t ...

, disappeared into the Arctic in 1845. This book tells the story of how Lady Franklin orchestrated the ensuing twelve-year search, and so ended up contributing more to the discovery and mapping of the Canadian north than any explorer.

Awards

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

Medal for Canadian Biography *

Pierre Berton Award Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

for McGoogan's body of work including ''

Fatal Passage {{unreferenced, date=November 2021 ''Fatal Passage: The Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer Who Discovered the Fate of Franklin'' is a book by Canadian historian and writer Ken McGoogan. It was first published in 2001. The book formed ...

'', ''Ancient Mariner'', and ''Lady Franklin's Revenge'' (2006).

Editions

* McGoogan, Ken. ''Lady Franklin's Revenge: A True Story of Ambition, Obsession and the Remaking of Arctic History''. Toronto, HarperCollins. 2005

Summary

Awards

Editions

See also