Adventure of Captain Hatteras

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Book cover of the magnificent French edition
Map of the expedition
The volcano (illustrations by Édouard Riou and Henri de Montaut )

The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (also The Adventures of Captain Hatteras or Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras ) is a novel by the French author Jules Verne . The novel was first published in 1866 under the French title Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras by the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel . The first German-language edition appeared in 1875 under the title Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras .

action

The novel begins in Liverpool . At the behest of a stranger who signs his letters with the abbreviation KZ , the captain Richard Shandon has a brig built, which is named Forward . At the request of the stranger, Shandon hires a crew and takes over the post of first officer himself . The post of ship's doctor is given to the plump Doctor Clawbonny , who has been hired in writing by the stranger himself. The stranger has reserved the post of captain himself.

When the time announced by the unknown to leave Liverpool comes, a dog appears on board. The dog has a letter in its mouth; the letter contains instructions to take a north course. So the Forward leaves Liverpool without the captain coming on board. The crew thinks the dog is the captain. During the journey, Richard Shandon finds a letter in his cabin with further instructions; so the captain is on board.

The journey continues northwards. The mood among the sailors is getting worse. They are afraid of the "dog captain" and try to leave him in a hole in the ice, but he manages to break free and returns aboard the Forward . Only when an open mutiny threatens and the Forward is in danger in the pack ice does the captain, who came on board wearing the mask of sailor Gary , identify himself . He saves the ship through his prudent action.

He introduces himself to the crew as Captain John Hatteras . Captain Hatteras is obsessed with the idea of reaching the North Pole , which in his opinion should be in an ice-free sea (see also the theory of the ice-free Arctic Ocean ). He has already tried several times in vain to get a ship as far north as possible. The sailors suffered unspeakably on his expeditions; he was the only survivor to return to England from his last expedition.

The appearance of the captain improves the mood on board. The Forward continues its journey north. After all, the travelers are forced to hibernate in the pack ice on board the Forward . When the coal supplies on board run out, Hatteras, Doctor Clawbonny and two sailors - Simpson and Bell - leave the brig for a scouting march. During the march, Simpson dies of the exertions. The travelers find the cry for help from the captain of the Porpoise , whose wreck lies in the pack ice not far from the Forward . A short time later they find the motionless body of Altamont , the captain of the Porpoise .

When Hatteras and his companions return to the Forward , the ship burns. Only the sailor Johnson is waiting for them by the burning ship. Richard Shandon and the rest of the crew had already started their way back south over the pack ice 48 hours beforehand; they set the ship on fire beforehand. The travelers replenish their supplies in the rubble of the brig and go in search of the wreck of the Porpoise , which they also find after long, torturous days.

They spend the winter in a large igloo that they build near the Porpoise . Altamont regained its strength during the march over the ice. Like Hatteras, the American Altamont tries to reach the North Pole; they decide to move north together. During the long winter months, travelers relax. The hibernation is only interrupted by an invasion of polar bears .

In the spring they continue their march north. As predicted by Hatteras, you reach an open, ice-free sea and embark on the sloop of the Porpoise . The journey north ends on a volcanic island (see also Magnetberg ). The North Pole is on the summit of the still active volcano, as Hatteras' calculations show. Hatteras leaves his companions. He climbs the mountain and tries to hoist the English flag on the summit while the volcano erupts. When his companions find him on the summit, Hatteras has gone mad.

Nevertheless, the three manage to return safely to their homeland. Hatteras spends his final years in a sanatorium without recognizing or communicating with his visitors. On his long walks he only knows one direction: north .

style

Captain Hatteras' Adventure is an exciting and colorful adventure novel. The characters involved are exclusively men; Women do not appear. The novel contains no utopian elements. The reader is instructed in the course of events about the history of exploration of the North Pole region up to the year 1860. This role is taken over by Doctor Clawbonny, who as a doctor is not only well versed in the field of medicine, but also studied many areas of natural science of his time. Volcanoes also play an important role in other works by Jules Verne.

Factory history

The Adventures of Captain Hatteras was Verne's third novel in the 20th century after five weeks in a balloon and Paris, which remained unpublished during his lifetime . It was created in the course of 1863. The preprint of Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras took place from March 20, 1864 to December 5, 1865 in the magazine Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation . The book edition was published in two parts on May 4, 1866 by Pierre-Jules Hetzel . The first part is entitled Les Anglais au Pole Nord ( The English at the North Pole ), the second part is entitled Le Désert du Glace ( The Ice Desert ). On November 26, 1866 it followed under the title Voyages et Aventures du capitaine Hatteras. Les Anglais au pôle Nord. Le Désert de glace an edition illustrated with 259 drawings by Édouard Riou and Henri de Montaut . The first German translation appeared in 1875.

On behalf of Hetzel, Théophile Gautier praised the novel in a review of the novel in 1866 in the Revue des théâtres Jules Verne as an artist who, beyond Edgar Allan Poe , Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, “found his own way of expression and took it to the highest level from the start Perfection ”.

The play Le Pôle Nord , written together with Édouard Cadol (1831–1898) based on motifs from the novel, was never performed from 1871 to 1872 . The manuscript of the piece was not published until 1991. Hattera's son is the main character in the piece Voyage à travers l'impossible, written together with Adolphe d'Ennery between 1879 and 1882 . The play premiered on November 25, 1882 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin . It had only moderate success, was played until 1883 and performed 97 times.

Film adaptations

The first film adaptation was made in 1903 under the title The Adventurous Voyage of "The Arctic" ( The adventurous journey of the "Arctic" ) directed by the British Walter Robert Booth (1869-1938). In 1909 Vers le Pôle Sud ( To the South Pole ) was published (directed and written by Louis Feuillade ). Four years later, the film The Discovery of the North Pole (original title: À la conquête du pôle ) was released, for which Georges Méliès wrote the script and also directed.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation Volume 1, p. 18
  2. ↑ Entry in The Complete Jules Verne Bibliography (accessed June 2, 2010)
  3. ↑ Volker Dehs : Jules Verne. A critical biography . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-538-07208-6 , p. 308.
  4. ↑ Le Pôle Nord in The Complete Jules Verne Bibliography (accessed July 19, 2010)
  5. ^ Voyage à travers l'impossible in The Complete Jules Verne Bibliography (accessed July 19, 2010)
  6. ^ The Adventurous Voyage of "The Arctic". Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Vers le Pôle Sud. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  8. ↑ [1]
  9. ↑ À la conquête du pôle. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .

Web links

Commons : Adventure of Captain Hatteras  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files
Wikisource: Les Aventures du capitaine Hatteras  - Sources and full texts