Les cœurs les plus farouches

by James Oliver Curwood

"Les cœurs les plus farouches" by James Oliver Curwood is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in the Canadian Arctic, it follows Sergeant William Mac Veigh of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police as a hunt for the fugitive Scottie Deane collides with themes of isolation, loyalty, and conflicting duties, especially after Mac Veigh encounters Isabelle, the outlaw’s devoted wife. The opening of the novel shows Mac Veigh stationed at desolate Pointe Fullerton, caring for his companion Pelletier, who is unraveling from loneliness, and preparing a grueling sledge run to Fort Churchill for medicine and mail. After hearing of a mysterious white couple in the barrens, he ventures out and meets a young woman hauling a “coffin,” whom he aids and protects through a storm—only to learn at dawn that she is Isabelle Deane and the coffin was a ruse to shield her living husband, Scottie; they have taken his weapons and slipped away, leaving a note appealing to his compassion. A blizzard drives in a second pursuit party led by the hard, untrustworthy Bucky Smith; Mac Veigh misleads them, then secretly follows the trail alone, determined to outfox Bucky and safeguard the couple even as he tracks them. He reads the snow for signs of their passage—fires, brief rests, and difficult crossings—closing the distance until the chase reaches a treacherous slope where the terrain itself becomes perilous.