''The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak: a Tale of the Pacific'' is a
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
by
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought ...
first published in
1847. Cooper incorporated knowledge of ship construction he had acquired while working as a U.S. Navy midshipman in the 1810s.
From merely surviving the loss of his shipmates and the embayment of his ship within The Reef, protagonist and role-model Mark Woolston goes on to thrive by his own industry. Following a regional volcanic upheaval which raises new land, he founds a similarly industrious and thriving colony after escaping from, then returning to, The Reef. The outnumbered colonists must defend their new homes and possessions against natives who covet the new land. The novel concludes with the apocalyptic annihilation of the island colony by another natural disaster.
[John Hay, ''Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature'' (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 103.]
See also
* ''
The Coral Island
''The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean'' (1857) is a novel written by Scottish author . One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a ...
''
* ''
Lord of the Flies
''Lord of the Flies'' is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes ...
''
References
External links
1847 American novels
Novels by James Fenimore Cooper
Novels set on fictional islands
Novels set in Oceania
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