From Pole to Pole: A Book for Young People
Sven Hedin
Read by Steven Seitel
This book was first published in 1912. It is a simplified English translation of the author's Från pol till pol: genom Asien och Europa (Bonnier, Stockholm, 1911).
Part 1 tells of Hedin's own extensive travels across Europe and Asia. Hedin visited Turkey, the Caucasus, Tehran, Iraq, lands of the Kyrgyz people and the Russian Far East, India, China and Japan. He provides fascinating descriptions of cities and peoples and events in the closing years of the 19th century. It's a fascinating travelogue.
Part 2 recounts the stories of other great explorers/adventurers/villains: Gordon at Khartoum, Livingstone and Stanley in Africa, the destruction of the Inca empire by Pizzaro, hunting the blue whale in southern waters, Shackleton's near miss of the South Pole...even a mention of Alexander Selkirk, as an excuse for retailing the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. It's a very mixed bag, designed to appeal "to young people." (Summary by Steven Seitel) (17 hr 16 min)
Chapters
| Sec 1 Across Europe | 1:04:11 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 2 Constantinople to Teheran (1905) | 16:52 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 3 Through the Caucasus, Persia, and Mesopotamia (1885-6) | 33:04 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 4 The Persian Desert (1906) | 24:18 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 5 On the Kirghiz Steppe (1893-5) | 45:25 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 6 From Persia to India (1906) | 41:33 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 7 Eastern Turkestan (1895) | 33:31 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 8 The Western Waterway (1899) | 24:02 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 9 In the Forbidden Land (1901-2) | 49:36 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 10 India | 57:40 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 11 From India to China (1908) | 20:37 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 12 China | 1:03:08 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 13 Japan | 31:24 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 14 Back to Europe | 40:35 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 15 Stockholm to Egypt | 54:39 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 16 Africa, part 1 | 1:05:47 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 17 Africa, part 2 | 1:06:45 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 18 Africa, Part 3 | 47:00 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 19 North America, part 1 | 30:44 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 20 North America, part 2 | 56:40 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 21 South America | 42:53 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 22 In the South Seas | 50:56 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 23 The North Polar Regions | 1:07:19 | Read by Steven Seitel |
| Sec 24 The South Polar Regions | 7:58 | Read by Steven Seitel |