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Between truth and legend, print the legend!" This sentence pronounced by James Stewart at the end of The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance sums up the purpose of Fabrice Humbert's new novel. The author tackles the fate of John Franklin (1786-1847), who became England's most famous explorer after an expedition north of Canada by mapping most of America's north coast.
"In atrocious conditions, he had walked, with his companions, from Hudson Bay to the Arctic, before embarking on two canoes to explore the coasts that opened the Northwest Passage, this mythical passage that had been sought for centuries (...)," says Humbert. So much for the feat. And there will be others - famine, cannibalism, deaths in numbers of an expedition ... - which will explain the fame of Franklin, the man who has been called "the man who ate his boots" to survive.
See alsoThe Pléiade of Jules Verne, "a journey under the sign of betting"
His biographers recall his childhood phrase: "I will build a ladder until...
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