Kiera Vaclavik
196
Les portes de bois se refermaient brusquement sous ces violentes poussées. Dans
les tunnels inférieurs, les trains de wagonnets, mus mécaniquement, passaient
avec une vitesse de quinze milles à l’heure, et les timbres automatiques
prévenaient les ouvriers de se blottir dans les refuges. Les cages montaient et
descendaient sans relâche, halées par les énormes tambours des machines
installées à la surface du sol. Les disques, poussés à plein feu, éclairaient
vivement Coal-city. (pp. 279-80)
Both the engineer, James Starr, and Harry Ford refer to the
work accomplished by the miners as being “dur” (pp. 13, 51), and the
older man later speaks of the various risks faced in the mine: “le danger des éboulements, des incendies, des inondations, des coups de grisou qui frappent comme la foudre!” (p. 51) Yet for both Harry and
Starr it is precisely these dangers which make the work interesting and
appealing: “C’était la lutte, et, par conséquent, la vie émouvante!” (p.
51) Moreover, with an interesting play on words given the mining
context, the narrator later makes clear that “l’homme, au fond, aime sa
peine” (p. 71). In the course of the text, however, virtually no such
dangers make themselves felt; the deaths or accidents which do occur
are the direct result of Silfax’s malevolent actions. Not only are there
no real disadvantages associated with underground labour, but various
factors in its favour are also outlined: for example mining, unlike agriculture, is both regular and lucrative. If, then, MacDonald is rather
more ambivalent about life in the underground than is Verne, it is
clear that working in the underground is not a negative experience in
the text of either writer.
But in English and French texts for young readers which do
focus on mining as an occupation, the underground is clearly a perilous place which causes deaths, accidents and physical debilitation.
One of the most memorable, popular and critically acclaimed episodes
in Hector Malot’s Sans Famille (1878) is the hero’s visit to the mining
community of Varses in the Cevennes. Six weeks before Rémi’s arrival in Varses an explosion had killed about ten men, and, on entering
the town, his first encounter is with the deranged widow of one of the
victims. Rémi’s friend, the magister, whose hand was crushed in the
mine when he was a young man, lives with the widow of a miner
killed in an accident. It is, in similar fashion, because of an injury to
the hand of Rémi’s friend, Alexis, that the young hero himself temporarily takes up the mantle of miner. As he is working, the mine is
flooded, and although after two weeks trapped below ground, Rémi
196
Les portes de bois se refermaient brusquement sous ces violentes poussées. Dans
les tunnels inférieurs, les trains de wagonnets, mus mécaniquement, passaient
avec une vitesse de quinze milles à l’heure, et les timbres automatiques
prévenaient les ouvriers de se blottir dans les refuges. Les cages montaient et
descendaient sans relâche, halées par les énormes tambours des machines
installées à la surface du sol. Les disques, poussés à plein feu, éclairaient
vivement Coal-city. (pp. 279-80)
Both the engineer, James Starr, and Harry Ford refer to the
work accomplished by the miners as being “dur” (pp. 13, 51), and the
older man later speaks of the various risks faced in the mine: “le danger des éboulements, des incendies, des inondations, des coups de grisou qui frappent comme la foudre!” (p. 51) Yet for both Harry and
Starr it is precisely these dangers which make the work interesting and
appealing: “C’était la lutte, et, par conséquent, la vie émouvante!” (p.
51) Moreover, with an interesting play on words given the mining
context, the narrator later makes clear that “l’homme, au fond, aime sa
peine” (p. 71). In the course of the text, however, virtually no such
dangers make themselves felt; the deaths or accidents which do occur
are the direct result of Silfax’s malevolent actions. Not only are there
no real disadvantages associated with underground labour, but various
factors in its favour are also outlined: for example mining, unlike agriculture, is both regular and lucrative. If, then, MacDonald is rather
more ambivalent about life in the underground than is Verne, it is
clear that working in the underground is not a negative experience in
the text of either writer.
But in English and French texts for young readers which do
focus on mining as an occupation, the underground is clearly a perilous place which causes deaths, accidents and physical debilitation.
One of the most memorable, popular and critically acclaimed episodes
in Hector Malot’s Sans Famille (1878) is the hero’s visit to the mining
community of Varses in the Cevennes. Six weeks before Rémi’s arrival in Varses an explosion had killed about ten men, and, on entering
the town, his first encounter is with the deranged widow of one of the
victims. Rémi’s friend, the magister, whose hand was crushed in the
mine when he was a young man, lives with the widow of a miner
killed in an accident. It is, in similar fashion, because of an injury to
the hand of Rémi’s friend, Alexis, that the young hero himself temporarily takes up the mantle of miner. As he is working, the mine is
flooded, and although after two weeks trapped below ground, Rémi