Ritter’s descriptions of the landscape, the polar night, the variations in light, the extremes of weather and cold, are richer because she is a painter. A Woman In The Polar Night is a fascinating memoir, one woman against and with nature, in an extremely inhospitable landscape takes a journey of self discovery.

I've been meaning to read this for years (I love me a good off-into-the-frozen-wilds real-life adventure story), but I'd been putting it off because I'd gotten it in my head that it would be a serious, grim account of survival in those frozen wilds, and instead it's.

Along with several trunks containing books, writing and art supplies, and other things important to her. She would refer to people as 'men' on almost every page, refer to herself as the housewife and at one point 'himself' (whaaaat? The book has never been out of print in Germany, and someday I'd like to try a reread in the original German.

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. Both a period piece and a travel memoir, in 1934, Ritter travels to Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic, to spend a year with her husband in a tiny hut. There were passages that were so sparse, that it felt like it was mimicking the world she was living in. She lets us imagine the play of endless light, receding sunlight, and 24 hour darkness for months at a time and the effect it has on humans.Eventually the sun sets and doesn't rise again for months, and as their food reserves dwindle they rely on their rifles to provide sustenance. It is the interaction of light on the landscape and respect for what nature offers that begins to grab us and pull us into her world. I've been vegetarian since I was four and cannot imagine hunting, especially for something under so much threat as polar bears; the attitudes toward hunting have to be taken within the context of the book's time. Dull as ditch - so I hated the sexism correct but also I found this book to be MIND NUMBINGLY boring - there was absolutely zero insight in to any of the people and their back stories, which therefore left me not caring about any of them. Sexism - okay so it was written in the 1930s blah blah blah, I can still be fuming about the clear mistreatment of women.