A PASSION FOR DANGER

A portrait of the turn-of-the-century explorer, scientist, author, and all-round Norwegian öbermensch. Jacobs's portrayal is so adulatory that it might have made even an old swaggerer like Fridtjof Nansen wince. There's no doubting that his adventures (the first crossing of Greenland, tousling polar bears during polar wanderings) are the stuff of legend; but should readers be asked to believe that Nansen never groused, wore a coat, or experienced pain (``Even when his mother used a razor to cut him free [from a fishhook in his lip], he didn't flinch''). What's the message here? The hype, because it's so hard to credit, undercuts Nansen's real achievements in exploration and scholarship. Still, Jacobs is a good storyteller. She keeps up an exciting pace, handles the events with dramatic flair, and includes lots of fascinating details. Notes; bibliography. Photos and index not seen. (Biography. 10-14)