Kiera Vaclavik
198
conducive to health and various illnesses and symptoms are evoked
including colds, inflammation of the lungs, and the spitting of blood.
Few miners have the “health or strength” (p. 216) to go on working in
the mine after the age of forty-five, and even young men have “hollow
cheeks and bloodless lips” and an unshakeable cough (p. 381). Yet
underground labour is also repeatedly shown to bring out the very best
of the male body, as is clear from the following description of the
miners, referred to as “Herculean men” (p. 342), going to collect their
pay:
There was a free-and-easy swing about the movements of most of these men that
must have been the result of their occupation, which brings every muscle of the
body into play, and does not – as is too much the case in some trades – over-tax
the powers of a certain set of muscles to the detriment of others. (p. 381)
Descriptions of the miners abound with adjectives such as lean, wiry,
robust, muscular, and athletic. The splendour of the male body in its
prime is only emphasized by the environment:
Here two men were “driving” the level, and another – a very tall, powerful man –
was standing in a hole driven up slanting-ways into the roof, and cutting the rock
above his head. His attitude and aspect were extremely picturesque, standing as
he did on a raised platform with his legs firmly planted, his muscular arms raised
above him to cut the rock overhead. (p. 349)
This is a superb example of “muscular Christianity”, especially given
that the character in question is a preacher as well as a miner.
Finally, it is worth noting that the boys who work in the mine
in Deep Down are described as “diminutive but sturdy little urchins,
miniature copies of their seniors, though somewhat dirtier; proud as
peacocks” (p. 120), and that the main child protagonists grow up into
a “strapping youth” and a “lovely girl” respectively (p. 452). Ballantyne, it seems, cannot quite make up his mind about mining which is
at once dangerous and debilitative, but also elicits fine qualities.
Malot, for his part, is much clearer. Rémi’s first sight of the miners returning home does emphasize their suffering (“Ils s’avançaient lentement, avec une démarche pesante, comme s’ils souffraient dans les
198
conducive to health and various illnesses and symptoms are evoked
including colds, inflammation of the lungs, and the spitting of blood.
Few miners have the “health or strength” (p. 216) to go on working in
the mine after the age of forty-five, and even young men have “hollow
cheeks and bloodless lips” and an unshakeable cough (p. 381). Yet
underground labour is also repeatedly shown to bring out the very best
of the male body, as is clear from the following description of the
miners, referred to as “Herculean men” (p. 342), going to collect their
pay:
There was a free-and-easy swing about the movements of most of these men that
must have been the result of their occupation, which brings every muscle of the
body into play, and does not – as is too much the case in some trades – over-tax
the powers of a certain set of muscles to the detriment of others. (p. 381)
Descriptions of the miners abound with adjectives such as lean, wiry,
robust, muscular, and athletic. The splendour of the male body in its
prime is only emphasized by the environment:
Here two men were “driving” the level, and another – a very tall, powerful man –
was standing in a hole driven up slanting-ways into the roof, and cutting the rock
above his head. His attitude and aspect were extremely picturesque, standing as
he did on a raised platform with his legs firmly planted, his muscular arms raised
above him to cut the rock overhead. (p. 349)
This is a superb example of “muscular Christianity”, especially given
that the character in question is a preacher as well as a miner.
Finally, it is worth noting that the boys who work in the mine
in Deep Down are described as “diminutive but sturdy little urchins,
miniature copies of their seniors, though somewhat dirtier; proud as
peacocks” (p. 120), and that the main child protagonists grow up into
a “strapping youth” and a “lovely girl” respectively (p. 452). Ballantyne, it seems, cannot quite make up his mind about mining which is
at once dangerous and debilitative, but also elicits fine qualities.
Malot, for his part, is much clearer. Rémi’s first sight of the miners returning home does emphasize their suffering (“Ils s’avançaient lentement, avec une démarche pesante, comme s’ils souffraient dans les