Arctic Exploration in the Nineteenth Century:

Discovering the Northwest Passage

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Editor: Frédéric Regard

Empires in Perspective

Focusing on nineteenth-century attempts to locate the northwest passage, the essays in this volume present this quest as a central element of British culture.

Readership

Exploration and Discovery, Gender Studies, the British Empire and Nineteenth-Century Studies

Contents

Introduction: Exploration and Sacrifice: The Cultural Logic of Arctic Discovery – Russell Potter
Part I: Conflicts and Desires
1 Arctic Boomerang: The Ross/Barrow Controversy (1819) – Frédéric Regard
2 Official and Clandestine Logs Aboard the Investigator, 1850–4: The Conflicting Narratives of Captain Le Mesurier McClure, Alexander Armstrong and Johann Mierstching – Catherine Pesso-Miquel
Part II: Sir John Franklin: Power, Heroism, Gender
3 The Myth of the Passage: Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea by Sir John Franklin (1823) – Catherine Lanone
4 Miss Porden, Mrs Franklin and the Arctic Expeditions: Eleanor Anne Porden and the Construction of Arctic Heroism, 1818–25 – Janice Cavell
5 Jane Franklin's Northwest Passage: History, Honour and Heroism in a 'Woman's Quest' – Penny Russell
Part III: The Northwest Passage in Nineteenth-Century Culture
6 'A Scene at Once Sublime and Terrific': William Edward Parry in Quest of the Northwest Passage – Jan Borm
7 'Is this the End?': Swinburne's Poetic Tribute to Sir John Franklin – Charlotte Ribeyrol
8 A Certain 'Want of Arch-Inscape'? The Critical Reception of Millais' North-West Passage (1874) – Laurent Bury

Related titles

• British Narratives of Exploration: Case Studies on the Self and Other
• Nineteenth-Century Travels, Explorations and Empires: Writings from the Era of Imperial Consolidation, 1835–1910
• The Quest for the Northwest Passage: Knowledge, Nation and Empire, 1576–1806
• Romantic Marginality: Nation and Empire on the Borders of the Page
• The Narrative of the Beagle Voyage, 1831–1836

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