An Antarctic Mystery
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''An Antarctic Mystery'' (french: Le Sphinx des glaces, ''The Sphinx of the Ice Fields'') is a two-volume novel by Jules Verne. Written in
1897 Events January–March * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puni ...
, it is a continuation of
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
's 1838 novel ''
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'' (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the ''Grampus' ...
''. It follows the adventures of the narrator and his journey from the Kerguelen Islands aboard ''Halbrane''. Neither Poe nor Verne had actually visited the remote Kerguelen Islands, located in the south
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
, Kauffmann, Jean-Paul ''The Arch of Kerguelen: Voyage to the Islands of Desolation'' Translated by Patricia Clancy. Edinburgh. Four Walls Eight Windows (November 5, 2000) but their works are some of the few literary (as opposed to exploratory) references to the archipelago.


Plot


Volume 1

The story is set in 1839, eleven years after the events in ''Arthur Gordon Pym'', one year after the publication of that book. The narrator is a wealthy American Jeorling, who has entertained himself with private studies of the wildlife on the Kerguelen Islands and is now looking for a passage back to the United States. ''Halbrane'' is one of the first ships to arrive at Kerguelen, and its captain Len Guy somewhat reluctantly agrees to have Jeorling as a passenger as far as
Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena a ...
. Underway, they meet a stray iceberg with a dead body on it, which turns out to be a sailor from ''Jane''. A note found with him indicates that he and several others including ''Jane's'' captain William Guy had survived the assassination attempt at Tsalal and are still alive. Guy, who had talked to Jeorling earlier about the subject of Pym, reveals himself to be the brother of William Guy. He decides to try to come to the rescue of ''Jane''s crew. After taking on provisions on Tristan da Cunha and the Falklands, they head South with Jeorling still on board. They also take aboard another mysterious sailor named Hunt who is eager to join the search for undisclosed reasons. Extraordinarily mild weather allows the ''Halbrane'' to make good progress, and they break the pack ice barrier, which surrounds an ice-free Antarctic ocean, early in summer. They find first Bennet's islet, where ''Jane'' had made a stop, and finally Tsalal. But the island is completely devastated, apparently by a recent massive earthquake, and deserted. They find the remains of Tsalal's natives, who apparently died long ''before'' the earthquake, and the collar of Pym's dog, Tiger, but no trace of ''Jane''.


Volume 2

At this point, Hunt is revealed to be Dirk Peters. On their travel south of Tsalal, he and Pym had become separated, and only Peters made it safely back to the States where he, not Pym, instigated the publication of their voyage. Pym's diary, in Peters' possession, had apparently been significantly embellished by Poe. Upon returning home, Peters took on a new identity, because he was too ashamed of having resorted to cannibalism on the wreck of ''Grampus''. Guy and Peters decide to push further south, much to the chagrin of a part of the crew led by one seaman Hearne, who feels they should abandon the rescue attempt and head home before the onset of winter. Not much later, in a freak accident, ''Halbrane'' is thrown upon an iceberg and subsequently lost. The crew makes it safely onto the iceberg, but with only one small boat left, it is doomed to drift on. The iceberg drifts even past the South Pole, before the whole party is cast ashore on a hitherto unknown land mass still within the pack ice barrier. Hearne and his fellows steal the last remaining boat, trying to make it to the open sea on their own, and making the situation even bleaker for those left behind who now face the prospect of wintering in the Antarctic. They are lucky, however, as shortly thereafter they see a small boat of aboriginal style drifting by. Peters is the first to react as he swims out toward the boat and secures it. But Peters finds more: In the boat, there are captain William Guy and the three surviving seamen of his crew, semiconscious and close to death by starvation. Peters brings them ashore, and the men from ''Halbrane'' nurse them back to life. William Guy then recounts their story. Shortly after the explosion of ''Jane'' (and presumably the departure of Pym's company), Tiger appeared again. Rabid, he bit and infected the natives who quickly fell victim to the new disease. Those who could fled to the neighboring islands, where they perished later in the course of the earthquake. Up to this point, William Guy and his men had lived fairly comfortably on Tsalal, which was now their own, but after the earthquake found their position untenable and made a desperate attempt in the boat to escape north. The combined crews of ''Halbrane'' and ''Jane'' decide to try to make it north in their newly acquired boat. They make good progress, until they notice the appearance of strong magnetic forces. They find the source of it, the Ice Sphinx: A huge mountain magnetically "charged" by the particle streams that get focused on the poles through Earth's magnetic field. Here, they find the remains of Hearne's team, which came to grief when the Ice Sphinx's immense magnetic forces attracted their iron tools and boat components to it and smashed them on its rocks. The boat of Joerling and the others only escaped destruction because, being built by the natives, it contained no iron parts. At the foot of the Sphinx, they also find the body of Pym, who came to death the same way. Peters dies from grief on the same spot. The others embark again in their boat, and finally reach the open ocean and are rescued.


See also

*''
A Strange Discovery ''A Strange Discovery'' is an 1899 novel by Charles Romeyn Dake and is a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'' which was published in 1838. It follows the experiences of the narrator, an Englishman, duri ...
''


Footnotes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Antarctic Mystery, An 1897 French novels 1897 science fiction novels Novels set in the 1830s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Novels by Jules Verne Novels set in Antarctica Lost world novels Kerguelen Islands Fiction set in 1839 Sequel novels Works of Edgar Allan Poe in popular culture Novels set in the Indian Ocean Novels set on ships