Dickens in Antarctica

Captain Scott and his crew chose to take a Dickens novel with them on their expedition to Antarctica — this copy of David Copperfield. When they were stranded in an ice cave, the remaining crew read a chapter every night for 60 nights to keep them company. On finishing David Copperfield one man wrote they were ‘very sorry to part with him’. The book is blackened with their fingerprints, likely due to the seal blubber fire that heated the cave.