The gold Volcano

the gold Volcano is a novel of Jules Verne writes in 1899 and whose version altered by his/her son Michel Verne appears in 1906. Thanks to Piero Gondolo beyond Rivetted, a not modified version is published by it in 1989.

The history proceeds in full period of the Gold rush and puts in scene two Canadian cousins inheriting a concession on banks of the Klondike.

Circumstances of creation

In 1886, date of died of Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Jules Verne is partially released from the constraints which weighed on the nature of its novels (scientific and geographical). It benefits from this new freedom to create more original, satirical novels or with more philosophical contents. In 1896, the banks of Klondike are invaded by the gold diggers. Jules Verne can only be attracted by this phenomenon, more especially as his/her own son launches out in the prospection. However, Jules Verne does not carry in his heart this thirst for gold. He believes it at the origin of a retreat of civilization. Besides one finds this thesis evoked in other novels like In Magellanie , Hunting for the meteor and Second fatherland . The novel is thus an attack conducted against this plague.

Novel sinks

In this novel, Jules Verne is voluntarily pessimistic. Pessimist on the human nature: even one of the heroes cannot resist this fever of gold " who made already and who will still do so many victims ". Pessimist on successes of such a company: Ben and Summy will return from their forwarding without one ounce of gold after by having twice come very close to fortune and death. That which is touched by the fever of gold never does not give from there completely and Ben will feel a certain bitterness forever. No lighter character comes to brighten work: no the Paganel, not of Passepartout to add a comic note to this novel. The characters die there of cold, disease or during confrontation for some nuggets. It is a world of men, trappers, prospectors and gangsters. Only two women appear in the novel, two nuns whose vocation is to work at the hospital of Dawson-city.

Far North

Without having the art of Jack London to describe the beauty and the roughness of the Far North, Jules Verne succeeds in making us pass the shiver for these big spaces. How can one survive the snowstorms of Dawson-City or the crossing of the master key of Chikoot? " it was not rare to see some poor emigrant, killed by the cold and tiredness, given up under the trees… " . The cities of the Far North are described there with all the precision of which Jules Verne with the practice. What a perfume of adventure in these attacks of bear or these huntings for the moose!

Forces of nature

In this novel, as in Five weeks in balloon, the Children of the captain Grant and the mysterious Island, one can discover the fascination of Jules Verne for the great natural phenomena. These are two natural cataclysms which reduce to nothing the hopes of the two cousins: the earthquake in Forty Creek Miles and the explosion of gold volcano. It is remarkable that these two manifestations of nature intervene at the exact time when our two heroes are determined to come to the hands (and the weapons) with rival prospectors, perfect examples of what the corruption of gold can produce on the human being, as if nature set up as a referee and decided to return the protagonists on their premises, punishing the malicious ones and driving out the innocent ones.

Modifications of Michel Verne

The dark character of the novel, the unambiguous judgment of the thirst for gold make of it a work which is detached very clearly from the series of the extraordinary Voyages. It is extremely probable that Jules Verne had not been able of alive sound to publish this work in shift compared to what the public awaited from him. The modifications of Michel Verne, by affadissant the novel, thus could allow its edition. In the version of Michel Verne, the two nuns become two cousins prospectrices and, obviously, all this ends in a double marriage. A lighter character is created: the servant of the cousins while the expert Indian and silent Néluto, more caricatured, loses his dignity. Lastly, a more serious distorsion is made in the message of Jules Verne: the heroes do not completely return from this tour the empty handeds. Cheap metal would then not be so cheap only that? It is thus happy that the company Jules Verne could find an original manuscript of the almost completed work of Jules Verne.

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