Rediscovering W.H.G. Kingston’s Arctic Narrative : ethnical Encounters and Generic Experimentation

This article examines a forgotten nineteenth-century boys’ adventure novel, "Peter the Whaler" (1851), written by William Henry Giles Kingston. After briefly introducing the author and his changing fortune, the article focuses on two specific aspects of Peter the Whaler, namely, its generic complexity and its thought-provoking representation of Inuit characters. A first aspect taken into account is the remarkable generic hybridity of Kingston’s novel, which sheds light on the complex narrative experimentation conducted by Victorian writers and, especially, on their development and commercialisation of popular forms, such as the juvenile adventure novel. Besides merging realism with romance, Kingston makes an interesting use of gothic paraphernalia, and he combines elements of adventure fiction with a religious discourse that marks the distinction of his whole oeuvre. Worthy of attention are also the novel’s pictures of Inuit people and culture. These pictures contrast with the racial assumptions endorsed by Victorian anthropologists and writers, including Charles Dickens, who famously disparaged Inuit testimonies in his 1854 articles to defend John Franklin and his men from allegations of cannibalism. The comparison between Kingston and Dickens offered in the article confirms the innovativeness of the ethnocultural encounters narrated in Peter the Whaler, suggesting further reasons why this novel deserves to be rediscovered and reinterpreted in our age.