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The Fur Country: A Romance of the High Arctic
The Fur Country A Romance of the High Arctic
Author: Jules Verne
Jasper Hobson was sure the trading post he and his Hudson's Bay company expedition had built overlooking the Arctic Ocean was set on solid ground. On his maps it was shown as Cape Bathurst, but in fact it was a huge ice shelf, covered with earth and vegetation, and attached to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. In the dead of winter a volcani...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780920053829
ISBN-10: 0920053823
Publication Date: 10/1987
Pages: 349
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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3.5 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: Univ of Toronto Press
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
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Typical of Verne, it consists of two parts sometimes referred to as Part 1, The Sun In Eclipse and Part 2, Through the Bering Strait. In The Fur Country, sometimes subtitles 70° North Latitude, Verne continues his exploration of the frozen north as a team of the Hudson Bay Company attempts to establish a trading post on the Arctic Circle in Canadas Northwest Territory (actually not too far from the final scene of The Golden Volcano). As with most of his novels, this one is replete with facts, figures, and scientific data. And, to some degree, it reads like a history or a journal. After establishing the trading post, Verne used a volcanic eruption and an earthquake to create the fantastic: the post breaks away from the continent as a giant ice floe. Even Pauline never had such perils as these stalwart adventurers are in for as the island drifts with the arctic currents from the Northwest Territory through the Bering Strait to the Aleutian Islands.

In The Fur Country, Verne continues his fascination with earthquakes and volcanoes. Both play important roles at the end of Part 1: a volcanic eruption followed by an earthquake set an arctic trading post adrift as a floating island of ice. These catastrophes follow that of many other novels. Volcanic eruption destroys Captain Nemo and the Nautilus at the end of The Mysterious Island. Captain Hatteras meets his doom in a volcano discovered on an island at the North Pole. In Journey to the Center of the Earth, the explorers enter the subterranean world through an inactive volcano in Iceland and return in another part of the globe through an active one when it erupts. The doomsday machine in Facing the Flag is contained in an inactive volcanic island. In Master of the World, a supposed volcano threatens towns in rural North Carolina. Earthquakes rent their havoc in several novels besides The Golden Volcano: An Antarctic Mystery (Sphinx of the Icefields), Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Invasion of the Sea.
This is an easy-to-read book: no deep philosophical asides to muddle through that interrupt the flow of the story; no complex scientific data and explanation to comprehend. There are, however, history and geography lessons throughout. Also typical of Verne are the countless redundancies of facts both within chapters and from one chapter to the next. It is almost as if he were writing a serial for a periodical that requires numerous recaps to keep the reader in pace with the story line. And, there is the usual plethora of questions posed by the author throughout the novel that are typical of Verne.


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