[db105]

(10) Le Pays des fourrures (The Fur Country, aka Seventy Degrees North Latitude, 1873) (2 volumes) 139K words

The tenth novel in Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires takes us to the northern shores of America, in what is now Canada, just above the Arctic Circle. It's the second one taking place in the Arctic Circle, after The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. I was amused to see that the fictional Captain Hatteras was cited in this novel as one of the polar explorers, a rare reference to another novel in the series.


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me.


What is it about?: Lt. Jasper Hobson leads an expedition to the northern shore of the American continent, organized by the Hudson's Bay Trading Company. The employees of the company are hunters and pioneers, and their objective is building a trading post on the northern shore. This northernmost fort will be used as a base for hunting and fur trading, taking advantage of the recently discovered Northwest Passage that would allow ships to get there instead of having to carry the furs by land. The party also includes some guests of the company, the famous traveler Mrs. Paulina Barnett, and the astronomer Thomas Black, who wishes to witness a solar eclipse.


In my review of the previous book in the series (The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa) I commented that the adventures were rather conventional, the kind of incidents that we have seen in other Verne books. This one, although it's also an adventure tale, is quite original, although we won't get to that part until the end of the first volume.

The first volume covers the trip north, the building of the fort and the first winter. It has some elements in common with Captain Hatteras, where they also had to survive polar winters. It's certainly not boring, with a lot of adventures as expected of a Verne story. I think he is quite good at describing the harshness of these winters.

There's a lot of hunting, which is something that bothers some modern readers. Readers should expect that in many (not all) Verne novels. There was the mentality of the time that nature was there for humanity to exploit, although here there's acknowledgement that human exploitation can change nature, for example driving some species to extinction. But still there's no conscience that natural resources can simply be exhausted and there's need to be some concerted effort to protect them. To be fair, it was not really a problem in the 19th century. We are much more to blame nowadays.

We also have the novelty of the first Verne character that could correspond to the modern definition of "strong female character". In "In Search of the Castaways" we also had female characters that went along for the adventure, but here Paulina Barnett is different, since she is very capable and doesn't need to be protected.

The first volume ends with a bang, after the shocking outcome of the eclipse observation, in one of those iconic Verne moments. I won't get into it to avoid spoilers, but the situation of the fort changes radically and the second part of the novel becomes a frantic struggle for survival.

The Fur Country has good pacing, and Verne keeps his scientific info-dumping to a minimum. It's an adventure story rather than speculative, but it has some events that may be described as far-fetched (on the other hand, that allows it to be more original).


Enjoyment factor: I liked it a lot, finding it a better adventure than the previous novel in the series. The second volume was a welcome return to Verne's more imaginative side, even if it's a bit far-fetched. The pacing and the ending were good. At the end of the adventure I wouldn't have minded spending some more time with the characters, to see what's next for them, but Verne keeps the aftermath short. I kind of like his characters, but he's definitely focused on the adventure and not on character development.


Next up: Around the World in Eighty Days