Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
The Giant of the North, or, Pokings Round The Pole, by R.M. Ballantyne.
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Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in 1825 and died in 1894. He waseducated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerk withthe Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement in NorthenCanada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848. The letters hehad written home were very amusing in their description of backwoodslife, and his family publishing connections suggested that he shouldconstruct a book based on these letters. Three of his most enduringbooks were written over the next decade, "The Young Fur Traders","Ungava", "The Hudson Bay Company", and were based on his experienceswith the H.B.C. In this period he also wrote "The Coral island" and"Martin Rattler", both of these taking place in places never visited byBallantyne. Having been chided for small mistakes he made in thesebooks, he resolved always to visit the places he wrote about. Withthese books he became known as a great master of literature intended forteenagers. He researched the Cornish Mines, the London Fire Brigade,the Postal Service, the Railways, the laying down of submarine telegraphcables, the construction of light-houses, the light-ship service, thelife-boat service, South Africa, Norway, the North Sea fishing fleet,ballooning, deep-sea diving, Algiers, and many more, experiencing thelives of the men and women in these settings by living with them forweeks and months at a time, and he lived as they lived.
He was a very true-to-life author, depicting the often squalid scenes heencountered with great care and attention to detail. His young readerslooked forward eagerly to his next books, and through the 1860s and1870s there was a flow of books from his pen, sometimes four in a year,all very good reading. The rate of production diminished in the lastten or fifteen years of his life, but the quality never failed.
He published over ninety books under his own name, and a few books forvery young children under the pseudonym "Comus".
For today's taste his books are perhaps a little too religious, and whatwe would nowadays call "pi". In part that was the way people wrote inthose days, but more important was the fact that in his days at the RedRiver Settlement, in the wilds of Canada, he had been a littledissolute, and he did not want his young readers to be unmindful of howthey ought to behave, as he felt he had been.
Some of his books were quite short, little over 100 pages. These booksformed a series intended for the children of poorer parents, having lesspocket-money. These books are particularly well-written and researched,because he wanted that readership to get the very best possible fortheir money. They were published as six series, three books in eachseries.
While Ballantyne had some acqaintance with the Eskimo during his yearswith the Hudson Bay Company, this book runs a little into thefantastical. The head of the family who are the heroes of the book hasthe belief that there is a sea of ever-warm water surrounding the NorthPole, and that there are islands there abounding in animal life, andcolonised by the Eskimos. The plan is to visit these islands, and standupon the actual North Pole, which they find to be a low eminence near tothe hut of a descendant of a seaman of the original Hudson expedition in1611.
The story is very well-told, and you find yourself almost believing theCaptain's logic. The tension is maintained right up to the lastchapter, so much so that we do not learn whether the family, who have bythis time all become endeared to us, ever get home to England, and whatthe father and mother of the Captain's nephews have to say about theirsons' adventures.
Created as an e-Text by Nick Hodson, August 2003.
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THE GIANT OF THE NORTH, OR, POKINGS ROUND THE POLE, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.