9 h 0 minAudiobook13 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
What if a tale you dismiss as fiction becomes your only guide through Antarctic ice?
On the bleak, windy Kerguelen Islands, Mr. Jeorling meets Captain Len Guy, master of the Halbrane. Jeorling travels out of curiosity about science and nature. Guy has a more urgent purpose: he hopes to save his half-brother and the crew of the lost Jane. His guide is a book Jeorling does not quite believe.
In An Antarctic Mystery, Jules Verne continues Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Within Verne's story, Pym is a real man, and his account may hold clues to the missing ship. As the Halbrane sails south through drifting ice, the captain's hope meets growing resistance from sailors who expect an ordinary voyage, not a journey into the unknown.
What you’ll discover
- A captain's stubborn hope Follow Len Guy as loyalty to his half-brother drives him deeper into uncertain waters.
- A skeptic at sea See the voyage through Jeorling's careful eyes as he weighs an extraordinary claim.
- Ice in vivid detail Explore drifting ice, ocean currents, and weather through Verne's close attention to navigation.
- A crew under strain Feel doubt spread below decks as Hearne speaks against the captain's dangerous purpose.
- Poe's unanswered questions Enter a sequel that takes up the mystery where another writer's polar voyage breaks off.
Who will love it
For readers who love sea adventures, polar exploration and stories that continue another author's tale. A good pick for anyone who enjoys Verne's blend of science and suspense.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A stranger's mission at Kerguelen
- Poe's tale is claimed as true
- The Halbrane sails south
- Through the ice and into open water
- Doubt and fear among the crew
- The search for Tsalal and the Jane
- Loyalty, obsession and a brother's hope
- Science, magnetism and the unknown pole
- How Verne tells it, and what he borrows
Who’s who
- Mr. JeorlingA scientifically minded American from Connecticut who tells the story and joins the voyage, doubting Poe's tale at first.
- Captain Len GuyThe stern English master of the Halbrane, who sails south hoping to save his half-brother and the crew of the lost Jane.
- Jem WestThe Halbrane's first mate, a steady and trusted officer who helps the captain keep order as danger and doubt grow.
- Dirk PetersA powerful, silent man known from Poe's tale, who was Arthur Gordon Pym's companion and carries a heavy secret.
- HearneA discontented sailor who speaks against the voyage and tries to turn the crew away from the captain's goal.
- William GuyCaptain of the lost Jane and Len Guy's half-brother, whose fate the whole voyage hopes to uncover.
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- 15-minute summary
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An Antarctic Mystery
by Jules Verne · 1897
Captain Len Guy sails into the southern ice to find his missing half-brother, guided by a tale Jeorling doubts.
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In short
An Antarctic Mystery is a novel by Jules Verne, first published in French in 1897 under the title The Sphinx of the Ice. It is a sequel to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, the only novel by Edgar Allan Poe, which broke off in the middle of a voyage toward the South Pole.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A stranger's mission at Kerguelen
The story opens at the Kerguelen Islands in 1839. These are bleak, windy islands in the southern Indian Ocean, far from any busy port. Mr. Jeorling has come here to study the land and its wildlife. He is waiting for a ship that will carry him home, and he finds the place cold and lonely.
He is a man of science and good sense. He likes facts, and he says so plainly. He is not a sailor, and he has no wish to see the polar ice. He wants to look at rocks and birds and then go back to Connecticut, where he lives.
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What is An Antarctic Mystery about?
It tells of a voyage in 1839 on the schooner Halbrane, whose captain sails to the far south to find his half-brother and the crew of the lost Jane, a ship from Edgar Allan Poe's story.
Is An Antarctic Mystery a sequel to Poe's Pym?
Yes. Verne wrote it as a continuation of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe, treating Poe's tale as true and following up on the fate of its characters.
Who is Dirk Peters in An Antarctic Mystery?
Dirk Peters is a strong, silent man who first appears in Poe's Pym as the hero's companion. Verne brings him back aboard the Halbrane, where his past and his loyalty shape events.
The author
Jules Verne
1828–1905 · French adventure novelist
Jules Verne was a French writer born in Nantes in 1828. He lived in Paris and later in Amiens, where he died in 1905. His novels include Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).
More by Jules Verne
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