7 h 8 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In Canada’s far North, love must find its way through frozen rivers, long distances, and sudden danger.
In Isobel: A Romance of the Northern Trail, James Oliver Curwood brings a love story into the hard country of northern Canada. Forest, snow, and frozen rivers shape the journey. Travel is never simple, and danger comes from both the weather and other people. Against these pressures, a bond between people who have little but each other carries real weight.
Curwood tells the story in clear, direct prose, with strong scenes and rising tension. Feelings stand in the open, as vivid as the weather. Beneath the adventure lies a plain question: what do courage, patience, and loyalty mean when life is hard and the next human voice may be far away?
What you’ll discover
- A land that shapes lives Enter a world where frozen rivers and forest make every long journey a challenge.
- Love beyond the drawing room Follow a romance rooted in hardship, where a human bond matters amid danger and distance.
- Courage on the northern trail Explore a story that values bravery, patience, and staying true to your word.
- Weather with real force Feel the pressure of snow country, where the land is never merely a backdrop.
- Adventure with open feeling Discover direct storytelling that joins sudden danger, rising tension, and boldly expressed emotion.
Who will love it
Readers who love wilderness adventure, sled chases and storms, and those who enjoy a tender romance built on loyalty, honor and sacrifice, with a faithful friendship and a child at its heart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two Mounties at the top of the world
- A woman and a box on the Barren
- An empty box and a rival with a grudge
- Billy catches Deane and makes a choice
- Pelliter, the stranger and the child
- An unseen enemy and a desperate flight
- Loneliness is the real enemy here
- The Law against what is right
- How Curwood tells the tale
Who’s who
- Billy MacVeighA young sergeant of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, lonely and loyal, who longs for a woman's love and must choose between duty and honor.
- PelliterBilly's comrade at Point Fullerton, sick with loneliness, who dreams of marrying the girl waiting for him and finds new life in a child.
- Isobel DeaneA brave young wife with blue eyes and reddish-brown hair who will do anything to protect her husband and her family.
- Scottie DeaneThe hunted man the Mounties have chased for over a year, fearless and gentle, who is devoted to his wife.
- Bucky SmithA cruel corporal who hates Billy and wants the reward for capturing Deane, and who has sworn to settle an old score.
- Little MysteryA golden-haired child found half starved in an igloo, who brings joy to two lonely men and draws unseen enemies to the cabin.
- KazanPelliter's old one-eyed sled dog, a faithful leader who senses danger and leads the way when his master cannot.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 8 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Isobel
by James Oliver Curwood · 1913
A lonely Mountie hauls a sled across the frozen Barren beside a stranger, and the long box she carries hides a secret.
Easy read5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Isobel: A Romance of the Northern Trail is an adventure novel by James Oliver Curwood, who spent much of his life writing about the Canadian wilderness. It was written in the early years of the twentieth century and follows the men of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, the Mounties, who keep the law in the far north around Hudson's Bay.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two Mounties at the top of the world
The story opens at Point Fullerton, a thousand miles north of what Curwood calls civilization. Sergeant William MacVeigh, called Billy, finishes his half-yearly report for his chief in Regina. In it he owns that he has not yet caught a murderer named Scottie Deane. He adds a note about wolves that kill thousands of caribou each year.
His partner, Private Pelliter, lies sick in a bunk. Pelliter has gone nine months without seeing a white face but Billy's, and he believes the sickness is in his head. It is the fever of loneliness. He dreams of the girl who waits for him in the south and of the letters she must have written him.
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What is Isobel by James Oliver Curwood about?
It follows Sergeant Billy MacVeigh of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, who meets a mysterious woman on the Barren Lands and has to choose between his duty to the law and loyalty to her. A lost child and a loyal friend add to the adventure.
Who is Little Mystery in Isobel?
Little Mystery is the name Pelliter gives a golden-haired little girl he finds starving in an igloo. She saves him from fever and madness, and her unknown family draws danger toward the two Mounties.
What does the blue flower mean in Isobel?
The blue flower is a dried bloom Billy keeps for years, believing it holds the spirit of all that is purest and loveliest, and he thinks of that as woman. He gives it to Isobel, and it becomes a symbol of faith and sacrifice.
The author
James Oliver Curwood
1878–1927 · American novelist and conservationist
James Oliver Curwood was an American writer and conservationist born in Owosso, Michigan, in 1878. He wrote novels and short stories, often set in Canada and Alaska. His novel Isobel appeared in 1913. He lived in Owosso, where he built a writing studio, and died there in 1927.
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