Jules Verne Forum

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Re: North against South

From: thomas mccormick <tom_amity~at~hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:52:29 +0000
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il

Thanks to Norm Wolcott for giving me an opportunity to read North Against
South! This is certainly a capital yarn.

Interesting indeed is the interplay of Verne's sincere Abolitionist sympathy
with the ubiquitous racism of his time and place.

One cannot fail to see that whenever Verne requires an intelligent slave he
makes that slave a "half-breed".

Nor that he cannot resist creating the ridiculous - and, to the story he
tells, gratuitous - character Pygmalion. And the fact that the latter is
called Pyg for short makes me wonder if Verne knew a bit more English than
we thought. Did he get that one from a minstrel show?

...Or from Fenimore Cooper? (After all, it was Cooper who created the black
character Nebuchadnezzar Clawbonny, half of whose absurd name went to a
black sychophant in Mysterious Island, and the other half to a caucasian
medical man in Hatteras!)

Especially grating on a modern reader's nerves must be the highly negative
portrayal of the Seminoles - although Osceola comes off well. But then,
Osceola was another "half-breed"!!

Interesting. Again, thanks to Norm Wolcott for a look at yet another side of
Verne.

Tom McCormick


>From: "Norm Wolcott" <nwolcott2ster~at~gmail.com>
>Reply-To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
>To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
>Subject: North against South
>Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 02:13:22 -0400
>
>In honor of the forthcoming meeting of the NAJVS in Norfolk, VA, I have
>posted the pdf file of North against South, a Tale of the American Civil
>War on ibiblio. This is a 47 Meg pdf file, it would be nice to have a few
>CD's at the conference if anyone has the capability of making them.The
>ibiblio website is:
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/sherwood/
>
>It is entirely fortuitous that I have discovered this file just in time for
>the NAJVS meeting. This is the Sampson Low version made from the original
>and includes the illustrations which print out quite well.
>
>The Blockade Runners is also there and also available with illustrations
>for free download from the Lulu site (47 meg download)
> www.lulu.com Also see the jpeg of the title page of The Baltimore Gun
>Club on ibiblio for more local color.
>
>nwolcott2~at~post.harvard.edu

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Received on Sun 30 Apr 2006 - 03:52:43 IDT

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