INTO THE FROZEN NORTH

Stables, Gordon (1840–1910)

Wild Adventures Round the Pole; or, The Cruise of the 'Snowbird' Crew in the 'Arrandoon'

New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1885.

ADVENTURE AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD.
A late-Victorian Arctic adventure combining sea travel, polar exploration, danger, and the imaginative possibilities of the still largely unknown Far North. Gordon Stables sends the 'Snowbird' crew north aboard the Arrandoon, continuing the adventures begun in The Cruise of the Snowbird.

Originally published in London in 1883, the novel appeared during a period when Arctic exploration held a strong place in the popular imagination. This 1885 New York edition is the first U.S. edition and is particularly appealing in its elaborate publisher's pictorial cloth.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: VICTORIAN PICTORIAL CLOTH.
Publisher's sea-blue pictorial cloth, the front board dramatically decorated with an Arctic maritime scene showing the Arrandoon amid ice and heavy seas, stamped in black, white/silver, and gilt. The pictorial design continues onto the spine with polar imagery and decorative lettering. Octavo, approximately 7.5 inches tall. vii, 333 pages. Illustrated with eight inserted plates. First U.S. Edition.

CONDITION: GOOD; ATTRACTIVE DESPITE WEAR. Publisher's decorative cloth remains attractive, with shelf handling wear, Bindings tight and square. Text clean with even age-toning and occasional foxing. rubbed corners and extremities, and wear at the spine ends. Spine age-darkened with some fading and rubbing to the decoration and lettering. Small circular remnant/mark at the upper corner of the front free endpaper.

LITERARY AND POLAR SIGNIFICANCE: THE ARCTIC AS BOYS' ADVENTURE.
 Gordon Stables was a prolific Victorian writer particularly associated with juvenile adventure, maritime fiction, and tales of exploration. Wild Adventures Round the Pole belongs directly to the nineteenth-century tradition that transformed contemporary fascination with polar exploration into adventure literature for younger readers.

The story was originally serialized in The Boy's Own Paper from October 1881 through May 1882 before its London book publication in 1883. The A. C. Armstrong edition followed in New York in 1885.

THE SNOWBIRD SERIES.
The book continues Stables's Cruise of the Snowbird and was subsequently incorporated into Armstrong's 'Library of Arctic Adventures.' The narrative combines nautical adventure with Arctic travel and even balloon travel, placing it at an interesting intersection of Victorian juvenile fiction, polar literature, and technologically imaginative adventure.

SUBJECTS: Arctic exploration, polar regions, sea voyages, maritime adventure, sailing ships, exploration, survival, nineteenth-century adventure stories, nautical fiction, Victorian literature.

Item #22429

Price: $45.00