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(13) Le Chancellor (The Survivors of the Chancellor, 1875) (1 volume) 53K words


The 13th novel of the Voyages Extraordinaries deviates from the typical style of the series. Previous novels typically had an adventure plot with some some twists and turns, comical and serious elements, situations providing a pretext for scientific digressions. Overall, they are optimistic about what human spirit, knowledge and genius can accomplish. This one, however, is a darker tale, tinted with horror. Not supernatural horror, but the horror that can emerge when people are faced with privations and suffering.


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


What is it about?: Mr. Kazallon thought that booking passage on a cargo ship from Charleston to Liverpool would be a charming way to return to his English homeland. If he only knew! A crazed sea captain, a disaster in the hold, storms, oppressive heat, sharks, and starvation are just some of the many travails that beset both passengers and crew. Will any of them survive the wreck of the Chancellor?


The story is told in first person, in the form of diary entries written by J.R. Kazallon, one of the passengers aboard the Chancellor. This choice of format, and the fact that it is written in present tense give a feeling of immediacy to the story. It also means we have less dialogue, which is something I miss, since I enjoy the formality and politeness of Verne's dialogues, even if some readers may find them stilted.

In any case, beyond these stilistic choices, the novel differs in tone from previous entries in the series. In the previous novel (The Mysterious Island), for example, we had castaways who are masters of their own fate. They don't call themselves castaways, but settlers. Armed with their hard work and their knowledge, they hunt, fish and cultivate food, they build tools, and in general they make a reasonably good life for themselves.

In this story, on the other hand, nature is not generous, but cruel and unforgiving, a death trap. The characters go through indescriptible sufferings, and we find out what their human natures become when faced with such privations. Verne's style is completely recognizable, but the kind of story being told is something I would expect from Edgar Allan Poe more than from Verne. Of course, Verne himself was an admirer of Poe, and decades later would write a continuation of Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.

The main characters are:
J.R. Kazallon, the narrator of the story
M. Letourneur, a French man, and his son André, a disabled young man. They are cultured, generous, and devoted to each other.
Mr. Kear, a wealthy and conceited American businessman, and his wife.
Miss Herbey, the young and abnegated lady's companion of Mrs. Kear, who has had a harsh life. Most of Verne's characters are male, but this one is a strong female character, although strong morally rather than physically.
William Falsten, an English engineer, who spends much of his time engrossed in his mental calculations.
John Ruby, a Welsh merchant whose sole goal in life seems to be the pursuit of profit.
John Silas Huntly, the captain of the Chancellor, whose strange behavior puts the ship in jeopardy.
Robert Curtis, the first mate on the Chancellor, an able seaman and leader.
And several other sailors and officials, some of them brave and loyal, some unreliable and dangerous.

The story is inspired in part by the events surrounding the wreck of the French frigate Méduse, which had taken place in 1816. Verne was particularly proud of this novel. He wrote to Hetzel, his editor, "So I will bring you a volume of frightening realism." The sales, however, were disappointing.

I would like to mention that this book has another very good ending, with a Vernian twist as dramatic as the one at the end of Around the World in Eighty Days. The kind of twist that only an author so knowledgeable about geography as Verne could devise.


Enjoyment factor: Very high. Verne usually does not focus on the psychology of the characters, but in this story the way the different characters deals with adversity and suffering is as important as the plot, or more, and I enjoyed that.


Next up: Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar