Audiobook · read by volunteers
Fur Country
Jules Verne (1828–1905)
Read by Esther · 47 chapters · 13 h 36
About the book
In 1859, a party of officers of the Hudson's Bay Company sets out across the far north of Canada to found a trading post at the seventieth parallel, beyond the Arctic Circle. The mission seems straightforward, but nature has surprises in store. An earthquake shakes the region, and from then on the laws of the world seem to have changed: a total eclipse turns out to be only partial, and the tides can no longer be observed. Jules Verne mixes geography, science, and adventure in this tale of the Arctic, where winter and uncertainty close in on the explorers. Esther reads the forty-seven chapters of the English translation in about fourteen hours. Ice, mystery and the nerve of men far from home carry the story forward.
Introduction
Jules Verne was born in Nantes in 1828 and died in 1905. His long series of Extraordinary Voyages brought together adventure and the science of his day, and many of his books were translated into English soon after they appeared. The Fur Country is the English title of a novel first published in French in the 1870s under the title Le Pays des fourrures. The translation heard here is the work of N. D'Anvers, a pen name used by Nancy Bell.
The story is based on a real world of explorers, traders and trappers, and Verne draws on the reports of Arctic travellers for his scenes of life in the cold. Part of the interest lies in the technical detail, from the way men survive in the extreme north to the instruments used to measure the sky. Another part lies in the sense of the unknown, and in the strange events that overturn the explorers' expectations. The book also includes a long section on a journey made in difficult conditions.
This LibriVox recording is divided into 47 chapters and lasts almost fourteen hours. It is read by a single volunteer, Esther. It will appeal to fans of Verne and to listeners who enjoy tales of polar exploration.
As in many of his books, Verne combines a firm grasp of scientific facts with a story that stretches them. The cold, the isolation and the mystery of the changes in the sky give the novel a particular atmosphere, and the long run of chapters allows the tension to grow slowly and steadily.
Public domain
Jules Verne died in 1905: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text