Reading Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires

[farseer2]

How many originally credited to Jules were really by or mostly by his son?

I intended to talk in more detail about that once I get to the posthumous novels, but in short, Michel Verne had a hand in all of then. The modifications he made are important enough that I think it's fair to call them collaborations between Jules and his son Michel.

Michel was actually a decent writer, because he had everyone fooled. The eight posthumous novels were published with Jules Verne's name only, and for almost a century people thought they were 100% his. However, near the end of the 20th century, scholars found the archives of the Hetzel publishing house, with all the Verne manuscripts. Therefore, for those eight posthumous novels, they could see what Jules Verne had originally written and the modifications Michel had made when making them ready for publication after his father's death.

The first posthumous novel (The Lighthouse at the End of the World), had only slight modifications by Michel Verne, and the published version and Jules Verne's manuscript are very similar. All the others have more important modifications by Michel, who normally added characters or plot incidents, and sometimes changed the ending.

There is one posthumous novel (The Thompson Travel Agency) which scholars believe may have been written entirely by Michel, because a Jules Verne manuscript has not been found. So we can't know for sure (maybe there was a manuscript and it has been lost), but the working hypothesis is that Michel wrote that one from scratch.

There's also the last posthumous novel (The Barsac Mission) where Jules Verne only wrote the first five chapters, and Michel wrote the rest, although he integrated into the plot another posthumous short story that Jules Verne had written. In any case, that novel is more Michel than Jules.

The others were written completely by Jules, but Michel made significant modifications.

The original versions of those novels, as Jules Verne wrote them, have also been published, so people can read both and compare if they want. Opinions among Verne fans are divided regarding Michel's modifications:

Some people think that Michel's modifications are an artistic betrayal, more so in the case of The Golden Volcano, where the ending was changed. Jules' original ending was bitter and nothing good came out of the gold fever (Verne's novels often have little sympathy for greed), while Michel changed it to a more conventional happy ending and the heroes do not return empty-handed.

Others think that Michel came along at the right moment, as those posthumous manuscripts were lacking in action and not up to Jules' usual standards, and Michel's changes made the plots more entertaining and adventurous. One also has to remember that Jules' posthumous manuscripts had not been submitted for publication yet, so Jules might have edited or modified them himself if he had lived (he also made modifications sometimes following suggestions from his editor).

I care more about entertaining stories than about artistic integrity, so I'll be reading and reviewing the versions modified by Michel, which are the ones that were published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages series.

As a reminder, these are the eight posthumous Voyages:

(55) Le Phare du bout du monde (The Lighthouse at the End of the World, 1905) 41K words
(56) Le Volcan d’or (The Golden Volcano, 1906) (2 volumes) 115K words
(57) L’Agence Thompson and Co (The Thompson Travel Agency, 1907) (2 volumes) 126K words
(58) La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor, 1908) 59K words
(59) Le Pilote du Danube (The Danube Pilot, 1908) 60K words
(60) Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (The Survivors of the "Jonathan", 1909) (2 volumes) 142K words
(61) Le Secret de Wilhelm Storitz (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz, 1910) 54K words
(62) L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac (The Barsac Mission, 1919) (2 volumes) 122K words

 

[suciul]

As a reminder, these are the eight posthumous Voyages:

(55) Le Phare du bout du monde (The Lighthouse at the End of the World, 1905) 41K words
(56) Le Volcan d’or (The Golden Volcano, 1906) (2 volumes) 115K words
(57) L’Agence Thompson and Co (The Thompson Travel Agency, 1907) (2 volumes) 126K words
(58) La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor, 1908) 59K words
(59) Le Pilote du Danube (The Danube Pilot, 1908) 60K words
(60) Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (The Survivors of the "Jonathan", 1909) (2 volumes) 142K words
(61) Le Secret de Wilhelm Storitz (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz, 1910) 54K words
(62) L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac (The Barsac Mission, 1919) (2 volumes) 122K words

Very interesting - I knew about Barsac Mission as being the last Verne novel and actually one I really liked 40 or so years ago when I read it and then reread it a few times during my teen years in the 1980's (I still remember the sense of impending disaster that builds during the African journey of the mission and while the last part was maybe more predictable and weaker, it was still a very good Verne novel imho), but didn't really know about the others being posthumous - there are some I also really liked and read a few times like The Lighthouse at the End of the World (pirate adventure with a dash of castaway trying to survive stuff too) and The Golden Volcano (which was another Arctic adventure with stronger female characters for once), with The Chase of the Golden Meteor (this was really funny and the recent discovery of the gold meteor in the Solar system shows Verne's inspiration again) one of the better comical relief novels of Verne also and The Thompson Travel Agency decent too (this was a bit by the numbers, partly romantic-comic, partly adventure with a strong compentent French hero saving the day), but I still remember enjoing it); only the Wilhelm Storitz one I didn't really care for from the ones above as I didn't read #59 and #60

 

[farseer2]

Very interesting - I knew about Barsac Mission as being the last Verne novel and actually one I really liked 40 or so years ago when I read it and then reread it a few times during my teen years in the 1980's (I still remember the sense of impending disaster that builds during the African journey of the mission and while the last part was maybe more predictable and weaker, it was still a very good Verne novel imho), but didn't really know about the others being posthumous - there are some I also really liked and read a few times like The Lighthouse at the End of the World (pirate adventure with a dash of castaway trying to survive stuff too) and The Golden Volcano (which was another Arctic adventure with stronger female characters for once), with The Chase of the Golden Meteor (this was really funny and the recent discovery of the gold meteor in the Solar system shows Verne's inspiration again) one of the better comical relief novels of Verne also and The Thompson Travel Agency decent too (this was a bit by the numbers, partly romantic-comic, partly adventure with a strong compentent French hero saving the day), but I still remember enjoing it); only the Wilhelm Storitz one I didn't really care for from the ones above as I didn't read #59 and #60

I haven't read any of these so far, but I'll see if my impressions coincide with yours once I get to them. The most famous of these is The Lighthouse at the End of the World, which is mostly as Jules Verne wrote it, but the fact that you also liked most of the others seems to support what I said about Michel being a decent writer.

 

[farseer2]

(51) Bourses de voyage (Travel Scholarships, 1903) (2 volumes) 90K words


The fifty-first Extraordinary Voyage takes us on a tour of the West Indies. This sea adventure is also the last of the four Extraordinary Voyages to have boys as the main character (the others being "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen", "Two Years' Vacation" and "Foundling Mick"), although in this case the boys are seventeen or older.


First read or reread?: This is a reread for me. This one was not among my favorites when I read it as a kid.


What is it about?: The Antilian School is a renowned London school, which hosts only European boys born in the Caribbean. Nine of its students are to be awarded travel grants offered by the school's sponsor, a wealthy Barbados woman. Meanwhile, Harry Markel, a former captain turned pirate, has been captured and transferred to England, but he escapes along with his right-hand man John Carpenter and the rest of his accomplices – known collectively as the "Pirates of the Halifax". The pirates end up seizing the Alert, a three-masted ship waiting in port, after massacring its captain and crew. It is precisely the ship that's just about to embark the scholarship winners, accompanied by their mentor Horatio Patterson, the bursar of the school. Markel's intention is to murder his passengers and use the ship to go back to a life of piracy, but on learning that the students are also going to be awarded a cash prize, he decides to wait and play the role of a honest ship's captain, until the boys are given those awards, so that he can also steal that money.


This was published just two years before Verne's death, and although you could argue that there was a certain decline in the last part of his career, in this novel the decline is much more marked, to the point that I would not recommend Travel Scholarships except to Verne completists. This does not necessarily mean that the remaining books are all going to be disappointing since, for example, Master of the World, which would be published the following year, is generally well-regarded.

But there will be time for that later. For the moment, let's go back to this novel. What's wrong with it is not the premise. The idea would make for a tense adventure. Unfortunately, Verne does not develop the idea in a compelling manner. He concentrates on the description of the West Indies islands that the boys visit as part of their travel program, but he does not do so with his usual charm, ending up with a dull travelogue, and he forgets to develop the plot at the same time. I would have expected some incidents to happen, and some of the characters to start becoming suspicious, but mostly nothing happens until we get to the final part.

Most of the characters are not developed either, with the exception of Mr. Patterson, the adult mentor accompanying the boys, who is an ineffectual comic relief figure, and to a certain extent Tony Renault, the jokester among the boys. Then, when the time comes for the story to reach its climax, the leading role is not taken by any of those characters, but by a new one, just introduced.

All in all, a disappointing addition to the series. Clearly Verne, by then plagued by health problems, was not at his best.


Enjoyment factor: I found this one disappointing. It follows a familiar Verne formula, mixing adventure and geographic descriptions, but the usual life and inspiration is missing. Maybe I have made it sound a bit worse than it is... it's not offensively bad, just bland and kind of boring, which is a pity considering that the premise is full of danger and possibilities for a tense plot.


Next up: A Drama in Livonia

 

[suciul]

Thought this one (Travel Scholarships) to be weak and contrived more than usual; barely remember it while I can recount the best of Verne in great detail even today, decades after last rereads

 

[farseer2]

Thought this one (Travel Scholarships) to be weak and contrived more than usual; barely remember it while I can recount the best of Verne in great detail even today, decades after last rereads

In Spain it's called Los Piratas del Halifax (The Pirates of the Halifax), which at least sounds more exciting than Travel Scholarships. The English translation respected the original French title. With Verne's translations, it normally happens the other way around, the English translations are much more likely to take liberties with the title, but that was more the case with contemporary translations, and in this case the only English translation is a recent one.

Yes, I agree it's rather unmemorable. Maybe I have made it sound a bit worse than it is... it's not offensively bad, just bland and kind of boring, which is a pity considering that the premise is full of danger and possibilities for a tense plot.

 

[suciul]

In Spain it's called Los Piratas del Halifax (The Pirates of the Halifax), which at least sounds more exciting than Travel Scholarships. The English translation respected the original French title. With Verne's translations, it normally happens the other way around, the English translations are much more likely to take liberties with the title, but that was more the case with contemporary translations, and in this case the only English translation is a recent one.

Yes, I agree it's rather unmemorable. Maybe I have made it sound a bit worse than it is... it's not offensively bad, just bland and kind of boring, which is a pity considering that the premise is full of danger and possibilities for a tense plot.

Interesting about the Spanish title; in Romanian (my native language in which I read most of Verne's works in my childhood before I came to the US in 1990 when I read in French a few of Verne's works I was curious about but were not available in Romanian - Mathias Sandorf being the most memorable of those) this one was called Burse de Calatorie which literally means Travel Scholarships; of the 30-40 Verne books I read in Romanian, I don't think that any title differed significantly from the French title, but the translations were uniformly excellent. Imagine my disappointment when trying an English translation of 20,000 Leagues say, so despite my only so-so French, I never tried anything else in English, only in French.

I also think that it matters at which point in reading Verne work, you read a particular book since outside his famous novels (would say that 20000 Leagues, Mysterious Island, 5 weeks in a Balloon, Center of the earth, Children of Captain Grant are the core of Verne) a lot of the others kind of repeat various themes (travel in faraway lands or in the polar/Antarctic regions, castaways, genius but mad inventors who are used by nefarious people etc) so what seems new in the first such, gets tiresome in the latter ones - for example, I read quite early in my experience of Verne's work some of his (or not his after all) latter novels like Barsac, Lighthouse at the end of the World and Golden Volcano and I loved these, so am curious how you will find them from your going chronologically through Verne's work

 

[farseer2]

Yes, Verne definitely did settle into a particular style/formula at a certain point. I find the formula enjoyable, but it's a formula.

In Spanish, Verne was quite popular and we have decent public domain translations of all his novels. And for the titles it's usually the direct translation of the French title, which is why this one is unusual.

I'm also curious about how the posthumous novels will compare to the others. I'll give my impressions when I get to them.

 

[farseer2]

(52) Un drame en Livonie (A Drama in Livonia, 1904) (1 volume) 54K words


The 52nd Extraordinary Voyages takes us to the Baltic states (at that time, Livonia was a Baltic governorate of the Russian Empire, now divided between Latvia and Estonia). Rather than a travelogue, adventure story or science fiction, this is a suspense story, a crime drama with political elements. Other Verne novels taking place in the Russian Empire include "Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar" and, partially, "César Cascabel".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: In the Russian governorate of Livonia, there are ethnic and social tensions between the population of German origin, mainly making up the aristocracy and and upper middle class, and those of Slavic origin, mainly lower classes. The Germans have more wealth and political power, but the Russian government is following a policy of Russification, trying to put more of that political power in Slavic hands. In the upcoming elections in the city of Riga, professor Dimitri Nicolef is expected to become the candidate of the the Slavs. However, these plans are derailed when a bank employee who was transporting money is murdered at the inn of the Broken Cross. The victim was about to get married, which further moved public opinion. Soon, professor Nicolef becomes the main suspect. He was the only person present, apart from the innkeeper. It is also discovered that the professor owed a large sum of money to the Johausen bankers, leaders of the German faction in the next election. Moreover, the professor refuses to reveal why he was traveling, which only increases the suspicions against him. From that point, he and his family are subjected to intense pressure from the police investigators and from the citizens, causing much suffering.


After a rather lackluster novel ("Travel Scholarships"), the Extraordinary Voyages get back in shape with "A Drama in Livonia". Although published in 1904, one year before Verne's death, it seems this novel was actually written ten years earlier, in 1894. More on that later.

This novel is quite short and, unlike "Travel Scholarships", it's never boring. It starts in the middle of the action, with a political prisoner who had escaped from Siberia being pursued by the police. Then we are introduced to the main characters of this drama and witness the circumstances surrounding the crime and the ensuing investigations and political tensions.

The sympathetic way in which the Nicolef family is presented makes us readers think that professor Dimitri Nicolef is innocent, but damning proof starts to accumulate, making us doubt.

It's a different type of story from other Verne novels, a crime drama that is mostly interested in the effects of the situation on the suspect and his family. It's a fast read and has a good pace. You can notice that it's designed to be published as a serial, as many chapters end with a twist or cliff-hanger. In fact, most Verne novels were serialized in the "Magasin d’Education et de Récréation" before being published in book form, but this serialized origin is more noticeable in this one.

The main weakness is that the ending is quite sudden, and a bit of a deus ex machina to reveal the truth of what happened. Because of that, I can not consider it a detective or police procedural novel, as the focus is not on how the truth is uncovered.

For a time, it was thought that this story had been inspired by the Dreyfus affair. It's mostly the story of a man under intense suspicion, the political tensions surrounding the case and the possibility of a miscarriage of justice that reminds us of the Dreyfus affair, although the novel does not have the antisemitic elements and the circumstances are different, the accusation being murder and robbery instead of treason. However, modern understanding is that it was written just before the start of the Dreyfus affair, so the similarities would be coincidence. The publication of the novel was delayed ten years, perhaps to avoid being seen as commentary on that real-life situation.

I found the depiction of the social conflicts in Livonia interesting, although I don't know how accurate they were. Perhaps not much because, unlike in many of his works, the descriptions of the country where the story is set are superficial. This may be just a result of the novel being so short, or a sign that Verne had done less work of documentation. Verne presents the German faction in a much more negative light than the Slavic one, which I see as part of the author's antipathy against Germany, an antipathy that was born after the Franco-Prussian war and that can be noticed in several of his novels.

The tone is perhaps darker than in most Verne stories. The crime investigation element with a possibly innocent suspect reminded me of "The Kip Brothers", although this novel lacks the element of sea travel and, unlike in "The Kip Brothers", here we do not find out what really happened until the end.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it, although the resolution was rushed. It was short, with a decent pace. The kind of plot and the tone is different from what you would expect in a more typical Verne novel. Not among his greatest works, but a fine late effort.


Next up: Master of the World

 

[Hobbit]

Next up: Master of the World

Not to pre-empt your reading, but am I right in thinking that Master of the World is regarded as one of his last great works? Look forward to reading what you think.

 

[farseer2]

Not to pre-empt your reading, but am I right in thinking that Master of the World is regarded as one of his last great works? Look forward to reading what you think.

That one I have actually read, decades ago. Perhaps "one of his great works" is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's a rather interesting one. I certainly have not forgotten it despite how long ago I read it.

The following one after that, Invasion of the Sea, which is the last one published before Verne's death, is considered a very minor work, although that doesn’t necessarily mean I won't like it (I liked A Drama in Livonia, even though it's also rather obscure). On the other hand, the first posthumous novel (The Lighthouse at the End of the World) is well-regarded, and Suciul has mentioned other posthumous novels he liked. I don't know yet, as I didn't read as a teenager any of the novels published after Master of the World.

Master of the World is a sequel to Robur the Conqueror (that one was about an eccentric inventor who created a heavier-than-air flying machine and used it, among other things, to taunt the engineers who defended lighter-than-air devices as the best solution for air travel... that was actually a debate that was going on at the time).

In Master of the World, Robur returns, but rather than an eccentric, misunderstood inventor he is now embittered and crazy, and wants to blackmail humanity.

So it's one of the last science fiction novels by Verne, and it shows his tendency in the last part of his career to distrust science and emphasize its dangers.

I'm also curious to see how I like it now when I reread it.

 

[Hobbit]

Fascinating as ever: thank you. Hope the book holds up to the memory - I'll be interested to read what you think.

 

[farseer2]

(53) Maître du monde (Master of the World, 1904) (1 volume) 41K words


The 53rd Extraordinary Voyage takes place in the United States, and brings back one of Verne's most eccentric inventors.


First read or reread?: Reread. It impressed me on my first read.


What is it about?: Set in the summer of 1903, a series of unexplained events occur across the Eastern United States, from unexplained volcanic activity to objects moving with great speed along the roads and rivers. The first-person narrator, John Strock, 'Head inspector in the federal police department' in Washington, DC, travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and other locations to investigate.


This is one of those shorter Verne novels that are little more than a novella. It has a good pace, even though not that much actually happens, and I see why I was impressed when I first read it. The mysterious going-ons, the fantastic vehicle, the megalomaniac personality of Robur...

On the other hand, this was one of the first Verne novels I read, and I was very young then. Rereading it now, I notice that Verne was retreading some of his usual plots and themes. This is true of much of his later work: he does reuse his more successful formulas, although often he manages to make it different enough to seem fresh. Perhaps you could say this one is more derivative than usual, but it still worked for me, mostly.

The first part of the novel is devoted to the investigation of unexplained events, and is therefore very similar to the start of "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", although in this case a much larger part of the novel is devoted to the investigation.

This section of the novel, when the police inspector is trying to figure out what's going on, is full of questions rather than actual advances of the plot. Then the investigator is captured and gets to witness the technology that was behind the unexplained events. But, again, nothing much happens until the sudden end. The whole time, the point is more the sense of wonder rather than the actual plot. In that sense, it makes me think of later science fiction novels like "Rendezvous with Rama", and I'm not surprised it captured my imagination as a kid. This time around I'm familiar with Verne's typical stories, and I remembered very well the plot of this one, so the mystery does not have the same impact.

The resource of having the outsider, who serves as the audience surrogate, captured and thus getting to witness all the truth is also typical of this kind of Verne stories ("Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", "Robur the Conqueror", "Facing the Flag"...). This, and the megalomaniacal personality of the villain, makes it a precursor of stories like James Bond's.

The fact that the point here is the wonder rather than the actual plot may bother some readers, but it fits my personal taste, so I was fine with it.

It is the second to last Verne novel published during his lifetime, just one year before his death, and it's typical of the more pessimist last part of his career. Science and technology can still be wondrous, but they now represent a threat to the human race, as well as an opportunity.

This is a sequel to "Robur the Conqueror", in the sense that it continues the story of the title character, but it is a separate story rather than a direct continuation, so it can be read independently. In fact, as Verne does when writing sequels, at some point in the novel he gives the reader a summary of the previous story when it becomes relevant.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it, although I was less impressed than the first time round. It's short, and places more emphasis on sense of wonder than on plot. The pacing seemed good to me. In many ways it is derivative of other Verne stories.


Next up: Invasion of the Sea

 

[farseer2]

(54) L'Invasion de la mer (Invasion of the Sea, 1905) (1 volume) 53K words


The 54th Extraordinary Voyage is the last one published in Jules Verne's lifetime. It takes us to the Sahara desert, mostly in Tunisia. Eight more novels would be published posthumously in the series, for a total of sixty-two, but this is the last one where the author had the opportunity to review the print proofs and make the final corrections.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Captain Hardigan and other members of the French forces in Tunisia accompany an engineer named de Schaller on a survey of the abandoned plans and works of Captain Roudaire. Schaller works for a company planning to resurrect Roudaire's plan to flood a lower portion of the Sahara Desert, creating an inland sea with the objective of opening up the interior of North Africa to trade and improving the climate for agriculture. However, the party is attacked by members of a Tuareg tribe opposed to the plan, whose leader Hadjar had recently escaped the custody of the French.


Apart from the sentimental consideration of being the last Verne novel published during the author's life, "Invasion of the Sea" is among the least-known Extraordinary Voyages. It was published in English for the first time in 2001.

Nevertheless, it's not completely without interest. I found the premise fascinating, being based on a project that was seriously considered in real life, but that I had never read about till now. The idea was opening a channel from the Mediterranean to flood certain areas in the Sahara Desert that lie below the sea level. The goal was to create an inland sea that would bring humid air, rain, and agriculture deep into the desert, also opening up the region to trade. The project was contemplated seriously, but the French government withdrew its support when it was discovered that, due to errors in the surveys, the area that was below sea level was smaller than previously thought. However, the idea has not been completely abandoned, and in fact in the 21st century it is still being considered.

The novel, a rather short one, starts promisingly, with an action-filled first chapter describing the daring escape of a Tuareg leader from a French military prison. Unfortunately, right after that the pace of the story becomes glacial, as we accompany a French survey expedition to examine the remains of the works already done to dig the channel that would flood parts of the desert. After several dull and uneventful chapters, the pace picks up again for the last part of the novel, detailing the fights between the French expedition and the Tuareg tribe, and the surprising ending.

In addition to the pacing problems, the characters here are rather lackluster. Even though it starts in a promising manner with the escape of the Tuareg leader, the novel mostly follows the French expedition. Verne tries to make the most important characters distinctive, but he is less successful than usual. (It's true that Verne's novel are not character-focused, but at his best he can create compelling characters like Phileas Fogg or Captain Nemo).

Besides the adventure story, which falters for a good part of the novel but picks up steam at the end, the interest here is in the idea of the Sahara Sea project. It's such an ambitious engineering project. It's also an illustration of the colonial mentality that a foreign power would take it upon itself to do something so radical. It's true that compensations are mentioned for the few native farmers who would be affected, but presumably it's the French who would decide how much those compensations would be. In any case, unlike what a modern novel would do, Verne presents the natives opposed to the project as the bad guys (on the grounds that they are basically outlaws whose livelihood comes from assaulting trading caravans), and the French engineer and soldiers as the good guys.

The book also shows the warier attitude towards technology of Verne's later years, with the dangers of the ambitious project not being as under control as the engineers believe, and it also shows certain environmental concerns, not in the modern sense, but about the scarcity of food that the project seeks to address.

All in all, an interesting read, even though as an adventure it's below Verne's usual standards.


Enjoyment factor: Not among Verne's best novels, as a good chunk of the novel is kind of dull, although it improves later. The premise is certainly interesting, and I get the feeling that Verne would have made better use of this material if he had been in his prime. It's a fast read, being rather short.


Next up: The Lighthouse at the End of the World

 

[farseer2]

(55) Le Phare du bout du monde (The Lighthouse at the End of the World, 1905) (1 volume) 41K words


The 55th Extraordinary Voyage, published shortly after Jules Verne's death is the first of the eight posthumous novels in the series. The story takes us to an island at the Southern tip of South America, near Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn. The series had previously visited South America in "Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon", "The Mighty Orinoco", and in the first volume of "In Search of the Castaways".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: The Argentine navy has just built a lighthouse at Isla de los Estados, a large, barren island on the southern tip of South America, near the Magellan Strait that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific. This structure, nicknamed "the lighthouse at the end of the world", is to be operated by three keepers, who will serve for three months before being relieved. After the lighthouse is completed, the first keepers are left on the island, supposedly alone. Unfortunately, the island has other residents, a group of pirates who've been waiting for the opportunity to seize a vessel with which to leave the island. They murder two of the keepers and take possession of the lighthouse. The other keeper manages to escape, and it's up to this lone survivor to remain alive until the relief comes in three months and, if possible, fight back.


As I mentioned elsewhere, the eight posthumous Extraordinary Voyages were attributed solely to Jules Verne for almost a century. However, after the discovery by Verne scholars of the Hetzel (the publishing house) archives we now know that Michel Verne, Jules' son, edited and modified these posthumous novels. The modifications he made are important, and I think it's appropriate to call these last eight novels collaborations between Jules and Michel. I wouldn't attribute them solely to Michel (except maybe in the case of "The Thompson Travel Agency", where no Jules Verne manuscript was discovered), since the younger Verne worked on the story and writing his father had produced.

"The Lighthouse at the End of the World" was almost ready for publication when Jules Verne died, and the edits that Michel did are slight, so the published version is very similar to Jules' manuscript. The only relevant change he made is adding the episode where one of the characters swims towards the pirate vessel in an attempt to blow it up. In the other seven posthumous novels Michel made more changes, but I'll comment on that when I get to them.

The original versions of the posthumous novels, as Jules Verne wrote them, have also been published, so people can read both and compare if they want. Opinions among Verne fans are divided regarding Michel's modifications: Some think that they are an artistic betrayal, in some cases even going against Jules' intentions (see for example the changed ending of "The Golden Volcano"). Others think that Michel was a decent writer who came along at the right moment, as the posthumous manuscripts were slow and lacking in action, and Michel's changes made the plots more entertaining and adventurous. One also has to remember that these posthumous manuscripts had not been submitted for publication yet, so Jules might have edited or modified them himself if he had lived (he also made modifications sometimes following suggestions from his editor).

In any case, I care more about entertaining stories than about artistic integrity, so I'll read and review the versions modified by Michel, which are the ones that were published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages series.

Coming back to "The Lighthouse at the End of the World", it is one of the shortest Extraordinary Voyages, barely more than a novella. It is a fast read and I found it quite entertaining. The premise was also very good, setting up a tense scenario.

I wouldn't place it among Verne's best works, though. I thought the beginning, with the description of the island, is not as evocative as Verne's best geographical writing, and the characters of the three keepers are not explored enough that we care about them before they are attacked.

Immediately after the attack, the narration was again a bit distant, although the pace soon quickened and the last part of the story was thrilling.

Overall, I though it was a good adventure short novel, maybe not among Verne's best, but very deserving of its place in the series..


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. It's a short, fast read. I thought Verne might have taken better advantage of this interesting premise, at least during the first part, but the story is never boring and it becomes quite gripping.


Next up: The Golden Volcano

 

[farseer2]

(56) Le Volcan d’or (The Golden Volcano, 1906) (2 volumes) 115K words


The 56th Extraordinary Voyage is the second out of eight posthumous novels in the series. The story takes us to the Klondike, in northwestern Canada, near the frontier with Alaska. The novel is set during the Klondike Gold Rush, which happened at the end of the 19th century.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: In the middle of the Gold Rush, two French-Canadian cousins inherit from their late uncle a mining claim on the shores of the Klondike. They travel to the Yukon to investigate their claim. Instead they find disaster, until chance gives them information of a volcano filled with gold.


As I have commented in previous reviews, the version I'm reading of the posthumous novels is the one that was modified by Michel Verne and originally published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages. Much later, in the last part of the 20th century, the original manuscripts left by Jules Verne were discovered, and the fact that his son Michel had edited and modified those manuscripts for publication became known. Nowadays, the original versions without Michel's modifications have also been published, but they are more difficult to find than the originally published versions. For the eight posthumous novel, if your edition doesn't explicitly say that it's the unmodified Jules Verne version, you can assume that you are reading the version edited by Michel, which after all is the one that was published originally.

The reason I haven't sought the unmodified Jules Verne versions is that the modifications Michel introduced consisted mostly in adding a few more episodes of action and adventure, which in my opinion is a good thing, since these posthumous novels were a bit lacking in that department.

On the other hand, this particular story, The Golden Volcano, is the one where Michel's changes were more controversial, since he changed Jules' ending, undermining the message that his father had intended. Indeed, Jules Verne had been very wary of the greed associated with the gold rushes, and had intended this novel as a cautionary tale, where the characters did not profit despite their efforts and suffering. Michel added a romantic subplot and changed the ending to a more conventional happy ending.

Be that as it may, I read the version with Michel's modifications, the same as I'm doing with all the other posthumous Extraordinary Voyages.

The novel starts rather slowly, mostly presenting the two cousins who are the main characters and showing how they find out about their late uncle's claim that they had inherited. Summy Skim is a quiet man, satisfied with his lot in life, while his cousin Ben Raddle, an engineer, is much more adventurous and restless.

The two of them depart for the Klondike to try to determine the value of their claim, since they do not want to blindly accept a purchase offer they have received. The journey is not the same kind of adventure as in many early Verne novels, since they are not completely on their own in the wilderness, but they take advantage of all the infrastructure that has popped up to cater to the traveling miners. Nevertheless, the natural conditions are harsh, and Verne depicts well the suffering that many miners and their families experienced.

During the journey they find a couple of female prospectors and associate with them (this is part of the romantic subplot that Michel added, since in the original they were nuns), while they have clashes with a group of villains. After much work, all seems to be going well with them when a natural disaster makes them lose everything. It is then that by chance they find information about a legendary Golden Volcano filled with gold, and they depart on a risky adventure to try to find it. This part has more action and adventure than the first part of the novel.

Michel's change to the ending makes the story more conventional and safer from a commercial point of view. However, despite my general satisfaction with Michel's changes, in this case it might have been more interesting to keep the original ending, so as not to undermine the original message.


Enjoyment factor: The story is relatively long, and maybe the first part goes a bit slowly, but I found it a pleasant and interesting read, even if it did not grab me as much as some Verne novels.


Next up: The Thompson Travel Agency

 

[farseer2]

(57) L’Agence Thompson and Co (The Thompson Travel Agency, 1907) (2 volumes) 126K words


The fifty-seventh Extraordinary Voyage, the third one published after Jules Verne's death, takes us first on an organized travel tour of the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands, and later to the western coast of Africa. Other novels in the series that feature travel adventures from a touristic rather than exploratory point of view include "Travel Scholarships" and "Clovis Dardentor", and in a looser sense one could include in that group books like "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Claudius Bombarnac".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Robert Morgand, a Frenchman in dire economic straits, finds a job as a guide and interpreter for a British tourist tour that will visit the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands. Mr. Thompson, the owner of the travel agency, has lowered the prices to an excessive extent, in an effort to underbid other competing agencies. As a result, he wants to cut costs as much as possible. The group of people that have signed on for the tour are an eclectic bunch; between their quirks, the thriftiness of tour director Thompson and the almost un-seaworthiness of the ship Seamew, Robert Morgand has his work cut out for him.


As I have commented in previous reviews, after Jules Verne's death, his son Michel took charge of his unpublished manuscripts and prepared them for publication. These novels were published under Jules Verne's name, and for almost a century no one doubted his authorship. However, near the end of the 20th century, Verne scholars found the original Jules Verne manuscripts and could compare them with the versions modified by Michel. As a result, it was discovered that Michel made significant contributions and modifications, less extensive for some of the novels and more for others. He added plot lines and characters, in general making the stories more eventful, to the extent that it's fair to think of the posthumous Extraordinary Voyages as collaborations between Jules and his son.

"The Thompson Travel Agency" is a special case among these posthumous novels because no Jules Verne manuscript was found, only Michel's. This led the investigators to conclude that this novel was exclusively the work of Michel Verne.

I'm not completely persuaded that no Jules Verne manuscript discovered necessarily means that there never was one, though. It is known that Michel was a competent writer himself, to the extent that people did not suspect his involvement in the posthumous novels until the manuscripts were discovered. However, if this novel was completely his own original work, I have to say he did an excellent job channeling his father, because it fits seamlessly with the style of other novels from the second half of Jules Verne's career, and in fact it features a lot of the sardonic sense of humor that Jules showed in some of his novels.

I have read that some scholars, through stylistic analysis, believe that the first twenty chapter may be Jules Verne's work and the last ten Michel's. This sounds plausible to me, but I guess we will never know for sure. In any case, for "The Thompson Travel Agency" do not bother looking for a published version of Jules Verne's original manuscript without Michel's additions, like you can find for other posthumous novels. In the case of this novel, if there ever was a Jules Verne manuscript, it has been lost.

But enough chat about the authorship and let's look at the contents.

During Verne's life, the age of sail ended, as steamships came to dominate the oceans, making sea travel faster and safer. The unknown parts of the Earth were gradually explored and mapped, making our planet seem a smaller, less mysterious place. There were still adventures to be had, but they were of a different kind, involving less exploration of unknown, uncivilized regions.

This was reflected in the Extraordinary Voyages which, particularly during the second half of Verne's writing career, increasingly took place within the reach of civilization. We see this clearly in the premise of this novel. For the first time in the Voyages, it features a travel agency like the ones we are used to in the modern world. The closest thing in the series until now would be "Travel Scholarships", although that novel described a more informal organized trip for a group of schoolboys, not a tour open to any customers of a travel agency.

What the novel lacks in exoticism and adventure in the wilderness, it makes up with its satiric sense of humor in the way it describes the characters and their interactions. In that sense, I thought it compares, not unfavorably, with "Clovis Dardentor", for example. Verne often did not aim to be funny in his novels, but when he did I rather enjoy his wry sense of humor, and I recognized that same sense of humor here, which is why I find it difficult to believe he played no part in the writing of this novel. If he did not, then Michel did a remarkable job following his father's style.

Besides the sense of humor, the plot also follows familiar lines. We get the descriptions of the different islands the tourists visit, which is something that I think is less interesting for modern readers. After all, we can go on the internet and see pictures and videos of any part of the world. I suspect that Verne's contemporary readers found these descriptions more interesting, though, as the Voyages were a way to travel with the mind and get to know parts of the world that most readers would never see.

Even for modern readers, I don't think these descriptions get too boring, because they are balanced with the different adventures the travelers go through and their personal drama. That includes quite a lot, from Roberto and his friend Roger's romances with two American sisters, to people traveling under false names, robberies, attempted murder, accidents, epidemics... A lot of humorous moments are caused by Mr. Thompson's thrifty ways and the indignation this causes in some of the travelers.

The first two thirds of the novel are more episodic and more humorous, as the tourists visit the different islands, and the last part becomes a more straightforward adventure story when the group gets into serious difficulties and dangers.


Enjoyment factor: I quite enjoyed this one. It's long (2 volumes) and a bit slow at times, but I found it entertaining because of the humor and the personal dynamics of the characters. It does follow a familiar Verne formula, mixing adventure and geographic descriptions. These geographic descriptions may bother some readers more than they bothered me.


Next up: The Chase of the Golden Meteor

 

[Hobbit]

These geographic descriptions may bother some readers more than they bothered me.

Surely the worlds "Travel Agency" in the title would be a bit of a clue to readers.... But I'm a Geographer, so this might be an attraction to me.

As an aside, I was reading today of another author whose descriptions of desert islands were clearly made up. (I'm hoping Verne's were less so!) R M Ballantine, famous for his best-selling novel The Coral Island (1858) had the Polynesian natives eating coconuts with soft shells.... research gone astray, I guess!

 

[farseer2]

Surely the worlds "Travel Agency" in the title would be a bit of a clue to readers.... But I'm a Geographer, so this might be an attraction to me.

As an aside, I was reading today of another author whose descriptions of desert islands were clearly made up. (I'm hoping Verne's were less so!) R M Ballantine, famous for his best-selling novel The Coral Island (1858) had the Polynesian natives eating coconuts with soft shells.... research gone astray, I guess!

Yes, and the geographical descriptions are very common with Verne's books, so if you have read a bunch of them you probably are not going to be surprised.

I reread The Coral Island some years ago. As a kid, I had loved it but I mainly remembered the idyllical main part when they were marooned in the island. Of course, any inaccuracies had gone over my head the first time I read it. What did I know about coconuts then? The stuff that happened after they leave the island I didn't remember, and to be honest it's not that worthy of being remembered. Still, considering when it was written I think this book was a step forward in juvenile literature, and no doubt it was an influence on many adventure writers.

 

[farseer2]

(58) La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor, 1908) (1 volume) 59K words


In the fifty-eight Extraordinary Voyage, the fourth one published posthumously, Verne returns to the science fiction genre. This book is the first to deal with astronomical events since "Off on a Comet" (I'm not counting "The Purchase of the North Pole" here because that one only involved Earth). This novel also includes a trip to Greenland, where, if I remember correctly, the series had only taken us for a short visit in "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Two amateur astronomers in the same American town independently spot a new meteor and each attempts to claim the credit for the discovery. The bitter rivalry that results threatens the projected wedding between the daughter of one of the astronomers and the nephew of the other. This rivalry worsens when it's discovered that the meteor is made of gold and thus extremely valuable. Meanwhile, another amateur scientist, this time a very eccentric inventor, tries to create a device which will cause the meteor to fall on Earth.


On paper, the book is science fiction, but the focus is really on the social satire, with a humorous portrayal of how greed and vanity affects people and countries. I had expected Verne's posthumous novels to be somewhat glum, but that's not really the case, and the last two I have read ("The Thompson Travel Agency" and this one) are adventure-comedies.

Perhaps one element that differentiates these posthumous novels is the denunciation of greed. This message was somewhat lost in "The Golden Volcano" because of the modifications Michel Verne (Jules Verne's son) did before publication, but here the message is intact, and the author has fun depicting how greed makes people act like fools and how it threatens peace between countries. There is also a satire of the stock markets.

Comparing the final product with Jules' original manuscript, we see that Michel's main contribution was introducing the character Zéphyrin Xirdal, the extremely eccentric but brilliant French inventor who tries to bring the meteor to Earth (in Jules' manuscript the meteor fell on its own).

It's in Xirdal's work that we find the science-fictional elements of the story. The device that the inventor produces is explained with technobabble, although it's interesting to see in it the influences of the contemporary research on radioactive materials and also, with a certain prescience, some musings on the equivalence of matter and energy.

But, as I said, this is not the real focus. Despite the speculative elements and the journey to Greenland, the main pleasure is following the quirky set of characters as they are affected by the riches that may be about to fall from the sky.

The novel is quite short and moves at a decent pace, without the slower sections that some of Verne's longest novels have in their first half.


Enjoyment factor: I liked this one, although I did not find it as amusing as "The Thompson Travel Agency". It's short and a quick read, and the plot is entertaining, even if the science is dubious. Your enjoyment will depend on how much you appreciate the quirkiness of the characters. I can see them being a bit too much for some readers.


Next up: The Danube Pilot