
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 2: The Field of Ice
by Jules Verne
'The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 2: The Field of Ice' Summary
The novel, set in 1861, described adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. Hatteras is convinced that the sea around the pole is not frozen and his obsession is to reach the place no matter what. Mutiny by the crew results in destruction of their ship but Hatteras, with a few men, continues on the expedition. On the shore of the island of "New America (Actually New Foundland)" he discovers the remains of a ship used by the previous expedition from the United States. Doctor Clawbonny recalls in mind the plan of the real Ice palace, constructed completely from ice in Russia in 1740 to build a snow-house, where they should spend a winter. The travellers winter on the island and survive mainly due to the ingenuity of Doctor Clawbonny (who is able to make fire with an ice lens, make bullets from frozen mercury and repel attacks by polar bears with remotely controlled explosions of black powder).
When the winter ends the sea becomes ice-free. The travellers build a boat from the shipwreck and head towards the pole. Here they discover an island, an active volcano, and name it after Hatteras. With difficulty a fjord is found and the group get ashore. After three hours climbing they reach the mouth of the volcano. The exact location of the pole is in the crater and Hatteras jumps into it. As the sequence was originally written, Hatteras perishes in the crater; Verne's editor, Jules Hetzel, suggested or rather required that Verne do a rewrite so that Hatteras survives but is driven insane by the intensity of the experience, and after return to England he is put into an asylum for the insane. Losing his "soul" in the cavern of the North Pole, Hatteras never speaks another word. He spends the remainder of his days walking the streets surrounding the asylum with his faithful dog Duke. While mute and deaf to the world, Hatteras' walks are not without a direction. As indicated by the last line "Captain Hatteras forever marches northward".
Book Details
Authors

Jules Verne
France
Verne is considered to be an important author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism. His reputation was markedly different in an...
Books by Jules VerneDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad
The Shadow-Line is another one of Conrad’s stories that deals with a hero who is faced by a problem that comes from an unexpected source, and for whic...

An Outcast Of The Islands by Joseph Conrad
It follows the story of Willems, a European trader who finds himself in the middle of a dangerous and complex situation in a remote island community....

Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Benito Cereno takes place in 1799. The captain of a sealing ship Bachelor’s Delight, Captain Amasa Delano, spots another ship drifting listlessly towa...

Abandoned by William Clark Russell
As she walks up the aisle to her waiting husband, a young bride undergoes a sudden change of heart. She goes through the marriage ceremony in a daze,...

Redburn: His First Voyage by Herman Melville
The book is semi-autobiographical and recounts the adventures of a refined youth among coarse and brutal sailors and the seedier areas of Liverpool. M...

Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat
Mr. Midshipman Easy is an 1836 novel by Frederick Marryat, a retired captain in the Royal Navy. The novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars, in which...

20000 Leguas de Viaje Submarino by Jules Verne
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1870. The story follows the journey of Professor Pierr...

The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 1: The English at the North Pole by Jules Verne
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras is an adventure novel by Jules Verne in two parts: The English at the North Pole and The desert of ice. The...

The Wreck of the Golden Mary by Charles Dickens
The story follows the passengers and crew of the Golden Mary, a ship bound for California during the Gold Rush. The ship is shipwrecked on an iceberg,...

Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas by Herman Melville
Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas is the second book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1847, and a sequ...
Reviews for The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 2: The Field of Ice
No reviews posted or approved, yet...