His person attracted attention, but above all, the boldness of his look, which gave a singular expression to his face. Ned Land was about forty years of age he was a tall man … strongly built … occasionally violent, and very passionate when contradicted. Ned Land of course fits the limits of imagination for what a Canadian could constitute in the 19th century: Farragut displays Ahab-like qualities in his bizarre determination for the destruction of the natural world:Įither Captain Farragut would kill the narwhal, or the narwhal would kill the Captain. The United States navy, concerned about rogue narwhals (the Emancipation Proclamation has already been signed so don’t worry), has commissioned the Abraham Lincoln (the year is 1869 so it is a posthumous title) to track down and kill this pesky beast lest it bother another steamship.
The book introduces us to a very Victorian world with international steamship lines, a Professor Aronnax with his trusty manservant Conseil, a comically one-dimensional Canadian whaler named Ned Land, a Commander Farragut, and a putative narwhal that is attacking (accidentally?) ships in divers places. Well’s books started and Verne’s ended were somewhat fuzzy in my brain. My memory about Verne and his cultural impact were somewhat obfuscated both because: Captain Nemo was in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (an Alan Moore graphic novel), and where H.G. In addition to Alice in Wonderland and T hrough the Looking Glass, Little Women, and The Hound of the Baskervilles, I picked up Verne’s classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I recently found a very handsome collection of classic children’s books published by the Vancouver Sun.
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