The gold volcano
The gold volcano ( French Le Volcan d'or ) is a posthumously published novel by the French author Jules Verne . It was first published in 1906 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house under the name Le Volcan d'or (Le Klondyke) ; this version was heavily reworked by Michel Verne . The first German-language edition appeared under the title Der Goldvulkan bei Hartleben in Vienna in 1907. The English title of the novel is The Golden Volcano. A manuscript of the original version was found in Jules Verne's estate and published in 1989.
Action based on the version by Michel Verne
Summy Skim lives contentedly in Canadian Montreal . He is not rich, but lives in financially secure circumstances. He owns an estate with several employees, from which he hunts regularly in the summer months. His cousin Ben Raddle, an engineer, is constantly looking for new challenges and is profit-oriented. Therefore he does not share the tranquility and inner calm of the cousin. One day Summy and Ben are summoned by a notary. This tells them that they have inherited a claim from their deceased uncle Josias Lacoste on Miles Creek in northern Canada . An offer from a mining company for $ 5000 arrives and Summy wants to sell the claim. However, Ben plans to exploit the claim and make a lot more money from it. He convinces Summy to go to Klondike to see the property. Both set off on their journey north together.
They travel via Vancouver as passengers on the Football steamboat to Skagway . On the ship , the cousins meet the attractive cousins Jane and Edith Edgerton. These have the same destination. Edith wants to work as a nurse in Dawson's hospital there and Jane plans to try her luck as a gold digger. Summy takes a liking to the confident Jane. You meet the two Texans Hunter and Malone, who turn out to be notorious villains. Constantly provocative, they seek confrontation. When Hunter molested Jane, Summy intervened with a hook on the chin.
After arriving in Skagway, the only way to continue is by dog sledding. Ben gets the two Edgerton cousins to form a tour company with them. You travel with the Scout Bill Stell over the Chilkoot Pass towards Klondike. On the way they meet many immigrants who fell into the gold rush and risk their lives to get to Klondike.
In Dawson City, the cousins learn of border disputes between the United States and Canada. The mining company's purchase offer for its claim will only remain if the property remains Canadian. The border disputes are fueled by Hunter and Malone as they want to escape the closer surveillance of their activities by the Canadian police. At Miles Creek, the two cousins work on their claim as gold diggers in order not to let their rights to the property lapse. Edith Edgerton works as a nurse for Dr. Pilcox at Dawson City Hospital and Jane on their claim in the neighborhood of Summy and Ben. However, the success on the two claims is low. The claim of the two cousins lies directly on a river in the vicinity of the claims of Hunter and Malone. There is mobbing and arguments.
Nevertheless, the prospecting for gold is showing the first results. However, an earthquake and severe thunderstorms cause the river landscape to change its contours. The river is looking for its new bed over the claims of cousins and crooks. The gold extracted so far is being washed away by the river. The prospectors give up and return to Dawson City. They plan to return home after the end of winter.
Summy saves the life of a prospector on a hunting trip near Dawson City. However, he later dies in the hospital of Dr. Pilcox. Before that, he confides to his cousins that there is a volcano north of Klondike, the inner bottom of which is said to be covered with gold. You decide to go there next spring with the scout Bill Stell. Jane Edgerton wants to go with her.
The crooks Malone and Hunter also found out about the gold volcano from an Indian. They are also conducting an expedition there. The two cousins arrive at the volcano with Jane and discover that it is active. The engineer Ben has the idea of creating an artificial volcanic eruption in order to get to the gold after the volcanic activity has subsided.
The group builds a canal to the volcano to channel water into the volcanic crater and chimney of the volcano. Shortly after the construction project was completed, Malone and Hunter also reached the volcano. After a siege, they try to storm the cousins' camp. Ben ignites the fuses so that an explosion leads the water into the volcano. Most of the bad guys are killed in the process. Except for a smaller gold nugget, the gold from the volcano was washed into the nearby sea. With the gold nugget in their luggage, the group returns to the gold rush town of Dawson City. The gold nugget is just covering the cost of the expedition. In Dawson City, Summy and Ben learn that the artificial volcanic eruption has diverted the river again. It no longer flows over your claim. In the meantime, however, the water has deposited large amounts of gold on their property. Both will get rich after all. Summy marries Jane and Ben marries Edith. They all return to Montreal later.
literature
- Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): Jules Verne manual . Deutscher Bücherbund / Bertelsmann, Stuttgart and Munich 1992.
- Volker Dehs and Ralf Junkerjürgen: Jules Verne . Voices and interpretations of his work. Fantastic Library Wetzlar, Wetzlar 2005.
- Volker Dehs: Jules Verne . Jules Verne. A critical biography. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2005. ISBN 3-538-07208-6
Web links
- The gold volcano as an e-book in HTML on zeno.org
- The gold volcano in Andreas Fehrmann's Jules Verne Collection
- Original version of Le Volcan d'Or (French)