The Purchase of the North Pole

The Purchase of the North Pole
Author(s)	Jules Verne
Original title	Sans dessus dessous
Illustrator	Georges Roux
Country	France
Language	French
Series	The Extraordinary Voyages #34
Genre(s)	Adventure novel
Publisher	Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Publication date	1889
Published in English	1890
Media type	Print (Hardback)
ISBN	N/A
Preceded by	Family Without a Name
Followed by	César Cascabel

The Purchase of the North Pole (French: Sans dessus dessous, 1889) is an adventure novel written by Jules Verne. In it, the Baltimore Gun Club from From the Earth to the Moon attempt to purchase the North Pole to access large deposits of coal beneath it. Several countries attempt to buy it, but the United States proves to be the victor. The money was raised by the members of the Gun Club. Barbicane, Nicholl, and J.T. Maston plan on tilting the Earth's axis, making it similar to Jupiter's. There would be no more seasons (warm all year round), the North Pole would be brought farther south (about 67 degrees north), and many countries (mostly in Asia) would be overcome by floods. The United States would also gain much more land. They plan on creating a huge explosion in the Kilimanjaros using Nicholl's new invention, the powerful explosive, micro-meteorite. The world is in panic. The explosion causes huge damage in the area, but the axis does not tilt. A French engineer later concludes that this was because the explosion was too small. Barbicane, Nicholl, and Maston do not attempt this again.

Publication history

• 1890 USA: New York: J. G. Ogilvie and Company, published as Topsy-Turvy
• 1891, UK, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington. First UK edition.

External links

• Topsy-Turvy at Project Gutenberg
• Sans dessus dessous available at Jules Verne Collection (French)