Whirlpool such violent tidal surges: Three of the most notable literary references to the Lofoten Maelstrom date from the nineteenth century. The first is the Edgar Allan Poe short story "A Descent into the Maelström" (1841). The second is "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1870), the famous novel by Jules Verne. At the end of this novel, Captain Nemo seems to commit suicide, sending his "Nautilus" submarine into the Maelstrom (although in Verne's sequel Nemo and the Nautilus were seen to have survived). The "Norway maelstrom" is also mentioned in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick". In the 'Life of St Columba', the author,
Jules Verne the "Jules Verne cult", a steadily growing group of scholars and young writers who took Verne's works seriously as literature and willingly noted his influence on their own pioneering works. Some of the cult founded the Société Jules Verne, the first academic society for Verne scholars; many others became highly respected avant garde and surrealist literary figures in their own right. Their praise and analyses, emphasizing Verne's stylistic innovations and enduring literary themes, proved highly influential for literary studies to come. In the 1960s and 1970s, thanks in large part to a sustained wave of serious literary study from well-known