Reading Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires

[farseer2]

This is pushing it a bit, since these are adventure novels, but they do have some speculative elements, like we all know, so I'm hoping it will be allowed. I have thought of the long-term project of reading all of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires, using the 100-volume edition in Spanish that I have. Some of them I read as a kid, and I was a fan. I'll post my impressions in this thread as a way for me to keep track and in the hope they will be of interest to someone here. So let's see how it goes now.

This is my plan (in bold the ones already done). The word count is approximate, based on the Spanish unabridged translations I have. If the number of volumes is not specified, it's a 1-volume novel (that refers to the original publication; it's normal for a novel originally published in several volumes to be published in just one volume afterwards):

(1) Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1863) (1 volume) (link) 81K words
(2) Voyage au centre de la Terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864) (1 volume) (link) 68K words
(3) Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, 1864-66) (2 volumes) (link) 139K words
(4) De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865) (1 volume) (link) 55K words
(5) Les Enfants du capitaine Grant (In Search of the Castaways, aka Captain Grant's Children, 1867-68) (3 volumes) (link) 201K words
(6) Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, 1869-70) (2 volumes) (link) 142K words
(7) Autour de la lune (Around The Moon, 1870) (1 volume) (link) 57K words
(8) Une ville flottante (A Floating City, 1871) (1 volume) (link) 37K words
(9) Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais (The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa, aka Measuring a Meridian, 1872) (1 volume) (link) 69K words
(10) Le Pays des fourrures (The Fur Country, aka Seventy Degrees North Latitude, 1873) (2 volumes) (link) 139K words
(11) Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days, 1873) (1 volume) (link) 67K words
(12) L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874-75) (3 volumes) (link) 206K words
(13) Le Chancellor (The Survivors of the Chancellor, 1875) (1 volume) (link) 53K words
(14) Michel Strogoff (Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar, 1876) (2 volumes) (link) 111K words
(15) Hector Servadac (Off on a Comet, 1877) (2 volumes) (link) 120K words
(16) Les Indes noires (The Child of the Cavern, aka The Underground City, 1877) (1 volume) (link) 56K words
(17) Un capitaine de quinze ans (Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen, 1878) (2 volumes) (link) 121K words
(18) Les Cinq Cents Millions de la Bégum (The Begum's Millions, 1879) (1 volume) (link) 54K words
(19) Les Tribulations d'un chinois en Chine (Tribulations of a Chinaman in China, 1879) (1 volume) (link) 66K words
(20) La Maison à vapeur (The Steam House, 1880) (2 volumes) (link) 116K words
(21) La Jangada (Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, 1881) (2 volumes) (link) 93K words
(22) L'École des Robinsons (Godfrey Morgan, aka School for Crusoes, 1882) (1 volume) (link) 62K words
(23) Le Rayon vert (The Green Ray, 1882) (1 volume) (link) 46K words
(24) Kéraban-le-têtu (Kéraban the Inflexible, 1883) (2 volumes) (link) 100K words
(25) L'Étoile du sud (The Vanished Diamond, aka The Southern Star, 1884) (1 volume) (link) 71K words
(26) L'Archipel en feu (The Archipelago on Fire, aka Islands on Fire, 1884) (1 volume) (link) 62K words
(27) Mathias Sandorf (Mathias Sandorf, 1885) (3 volumes) (link) 154K words
(28) Un billet de loterie (The Lottery Ticket, aka Ticket No. 9672, 1886) (1 volume) (link) 48K words
(29) Robur-le-Conquérant (Robur the Conqueror, aka The Clipper of the Clouds, 1886) (1 volume) (link) 59K words
(30) Nord contre Sud (North Against South, aka Texar's Revenge, 1887) (2 volumes) (link) 115K words
(31) Le Chemin de France (The Flight to France, 1887) (1 volume) (link) 57K words
(32) Deux Ans de vacances (Two Years' Vacation, aka Adrift in the Pacific 1888) (2 volumes) (link) 105K words
(33) Famille-sans-nom (Family Without a Name, 1889) (2 volumes) (link) 107K words
(34) Sans dessus dessous (The Purchase of the North Pole, aka Topsy-Turvy, 1889) (1 volume) (link) 48K words
(35) César Cascabel (César Cascabel, 1890) (2 volumes) (link) 107K words
(36) Mistress Branican (Mistress Branican, 1891) (2 volumes) (link) 114K words
(37) Le Château des Carpathes (The Carpathian Castle, aka The Castle in Transylvania, 1892) (1 volume) (link) 52K words
(38) Claudius Bombarnac (Claudius Bombarnac, aka The Adventures of a Special Correspondent, 1892) (1 volume) (link) 70K words
(39) P’tit-Bonhomme (Foundling Mick, 1893) (2 volumes) (link) 110K words
(40) Mirifiques Aventures de Maître Antifer (Captain Antifer, 1894) (2 volumes) (link) 99K words
(41) L'Île à hélice (Propeller Island, aka The Floating Island, 1895) (2 volumes) (link) 109K words
(42) Face au drapeau (Facing the Flag, 1896) (1 volume) (link) 55K words
(43) Clovis Dardentor (Clovis Dardentor, 1896) (1 volume) (link) 58K words
(44) Le Sphinx des glaces (An Antarctic Mystery, aka The Sphinx of the Ice Realm, 1897) (2 volumes) (link) 114K words
(45) Le Superbe Orénoque (The Mighty Orinoco, 1898) (2 volumes) (link) 102K words
(46) Le Testament d'un excentrique (The Will of an Eccentric, 1899) (2 volumes) (link) 119K words
(47) Seconde Patrie (The Castaways of the Flag, aka Second Fatherland, 1900) (2 volumes) (link) 118K words
(48) Le Village aérien (The Village in the Treetops, 1901) (1 volume) (link) 53K words
(49) Les Histoires de Jean-Marie Cabidoulin (The Sea Serpent, aka The Yarns of Jean Marie Cabidoulin, 1901) (1 volume) (link) 51K words
(50) Les Frères Kip (The Kip Brothers, 1902) (2 volumes) (link) 102K words
(51) Bourses de voyage (Travel Scholarships, 1903) (2 volumes) (link) 90K words
(52) Un drame en Livonie (A Drama in Livonia, 1904) (1 volume) (link) 54K words
(53) Maître du monde (Master of the World, 1904) (1 volume) (link) 41K words
(54) L'Invasion de la mer (Invasion of the Sea, 1905) (1 volume) (link) 53K words

Posthumous novels (but officially part of the Voyages Extraordinaires). These novels were originally written by Jules Verne but, after his death, were revised and expanded by his son, Michel Verne, and published as part of the Voyages Extraordinaires, with Jules Verne credited as the only author. The original manuscripts by Jules Verne of these posthumous novels were found near the end of the 20th century, and it was then that Michel's contributions were discovered. The exception was The Thompson Travel Agency, for which no original Jules Verne manuscript was found, leading some investigators to believe that this novel might be exclusively Michel's work:

(55) Le Phare du bout du monde (The Lighthouse at the End of the World, 1905) (1 volume) (link) 41K words
(56) Le Volcan d’or (The Golden Volcano, 1906) (2 volumes) (link) 115K words
(57) L’Agence Thompson and Co (The Thompson Travel Agency, 1907) (2 volumes) (link) 126K words
(58) La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor, 1908) (1 volume) (link) 59K words
(59) Le Pilote du Danube (The Danube Pilot, 1908) (1 volume) (link) 60K words
(60) Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (The Survivors of the "Jonathan", 1909) (2 volumes) (link) 142K words
(61) Le Secret de Wilhelm Storitz (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz, 1910) (1 volume) (link) 54K words
(62) L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac (The Barsac Mission, 1919) (2 volumes) (link) 122K words

These are the 62 novels published as part of the Voyages Extraordinaires. Since 27 of them are double volumes and 3 are triple volumes, they take 95 volumes. After these, my 100-volume collection is completed with a related novel (The Waif of the Cynthia) and several volumes of Verne's shorter works. Many of those shorter works are also officially part of the Voyages Extraordinaires, having been published as extras in the same volume as one of the novels in the series or in one of the two short story collections.

Shorter works officially part of the Voyages Extraordinaires, as they were published accompanying one of the novels in the series: (link)
(1) Les Forceurs de blocus (The Blockade Runners, published with A Floating City, 1871) 17K words
(2) Martin Paz (Martin Paz, published with The Survivors of the Chancellor, 1875) 17K words
(3) Un drame au Mexique (A Drama in Mexico, published with Michael Strogoff, 1876) 8K words
(4) Les révoltés de la Bounty (The Mutineers of the Bounty, published with The Begum's Millions, 1879) 7K words
(5) Dix heures en chasse (Ten Hours Hunting , published with The Green Ray, 1882) 5K words
(6) Frritt-Flacc (Frritt-Flacc, published with The Lottery Ticket, 1886) 3K words
(7) Gil Braltar (Gil Braltar, published with The Flight to France, 1887) 2K words

Short story collections, also considered part of the Voyages Extraordinaires:
(1) Le Docteur Ox (Doctor Ox, 1874) (1 volume) (link) 70K words
(2) Hier et Demain (Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1910) (1 volume) (link) (posthumous, with stories completed or modified by Michel Verne) 63K words

Related novel (not officially part of the Voyages Extraordinaires but published in a similar edition):
(1) L'Epave du Cynthia (The Waif of the Cynthia, 1885) (1 volume) (link) 71K words (published as cowritten by Verne and Andre Laurie, but it was later discovered that most of the actual writing was done by Laurie and Verne's role was mainly that of supervisor and corrector. It is not officially part of the Voyages Extraordinaires, although the edition and the type of story were similar)

Other posthumous novels (not part of the Voyages Extraordinaires). These were not published during Michel Verne's lifetime, but were discovered near the end of the 20th century and published then:
(1) Voyage à reculons en Angleterre et en Ecosse (Backwards to Britain, written 1859, first published 1989) (link) 57K words
(2) Paris au XXe siècle (Paris in the Twentieth Century, written around 1860, first published 1994) (link) 38K words

A couple of unfinished novels were also discovered and published near the end of the 20th century: Un prêtre en 1839 (written around 1846, an unfinished mystery story influenced by Gothic fiction), and L'Oncle Robinson (written around 1870, an unfinished adventure story whose ideas Verne later used for The Mysterious Island, although the characters were different).


Regarding the reading order, most of Verne's works are standalones, with the following exceptions:
* Around The Moon (1870) continues the story told in From the Earth to the Moon (1865). It's a direct sequel, starting exactly where the first novel finishes. In fact, we only consider them as two different novels because they were originally published that way, but it would make sense to think of them as a single novel in two volumes. There is a third novel, The Purchase of the North Pole, aka Topsy-Turvy (1889), with most of the same characters, although it's a separate, standalone story.
* The Mysterious Island (1875) is a standalone sequel to In Search of the Castaways (1868) and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870). It's a sequel only in a very loose way. A couple of characters from those previous novels make appearances in The Mysterious Island. Each of the three novels is a different story and can be read independently, but The Mysterious Island serves to close these character's arcs. Therefore, if you are going to read all of them, it makes sense to read The Mysterious Island after the others. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and In Search of the Castaways are fully independent from each other, so it does not make much difference which you read first. Taken together, these three novels offer one of the greatest experiences that classic adventure fiction can offer.
* Master of the World (1904) is a sequel to Robur the Conqueror (1886). Although Master of the World is a different story, if you are going to read both it would make sense to read them in chronological order, to see the evolution of the character. In any case, in Master of the World, Verne gives a summary of the previous story for background information, when it becomes relevant.
* An Antarctic Mystery, aka The Sphinx of the Ice Realm (1897) is a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) (link). You do not need to read Poe's novel to understand this one, since Verne gives you all the information you need, including a detailed summary when it becomes relevant. However, Poe's novel is worth reading anyway.
* The Castaways of the Flag, aka Second Fatherland (1900) is a sequel to Johann Wyss' novel The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) (link). Again, you do not need to read Wyss' novel to understand this one, since Verne gives you all the information you need, including a detailed summary when it becomes relevant.

In many of the novels, you can follow the adventures on a map. If your edition doesn't include them, here are the originals: http://verne.garmtdevries.nl/en/maps/originals.html


Although all these novels are part of the same literary project, some of them are very well-known while others are obscure. As a reference, I have ranked all 63 novels (including The Waif of the Cynthia) in order of popularity, using as a proxy for popularity the current number of ratings in Goodreads. I have included the number of ratings, because for the less popular novels the differences are small, so the exact ranking is less meaningful. Take this ranking with a grain of salt, and remember that popularity is not the same as quality, but here they are, from more to less popular:

(1) Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, 1869-70, 2 volumes) 215,938 ratings
(2) Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days, 1873) 201,362 ratings
(3) Voyage au centre de la Terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864) 168,394 ratings
(4) L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874-75, 3 volumes) 46,338 ratings
(5) De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865) 28,194 ratings
(6) Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon , 1863) 21,100 ratings
(7) Les Enfants du capitaine Grant (In Search of the Castaways, aka Captain Grant's Children, 1867-68, 3 volumes) 10,911 ratings
(8) Michel Strogoff (Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar, 1876, 2 volumes) 7,580 ratings
(9) Un capitaine de quinze ans (Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen, 1878, 2 volumes) 5,761 ratings
(10) Autour de la lune (Around The Moon, 1870) 4,586 ratings
(11) Deux Ans de vacances (Two Years' Vacation, aka Adrift in the Pacific, 1888, 2 volumes) 4,416 ratings
(12) Le Château des Carpathes (The Carpathian Castle, aka The Castle in Transylvania, 1892) 3,817 ratings
(13) Le Phare du bout du monde (Lighthouse at the End of the World, 1905, posthumous) 3,206 ratings
(14) Maître du monde (Master of the World, 1904) 2,285 ratings
(15) Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, 1864-66, 2 volumes) 2,199 ratings
(16) Les Indes noires (The Child of the Cavern, aka The Underground City, 1877) 2,112 ratings
(17) La Jangada (Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, 1881, 2 volumes) 1,810 ratings
(18) Robur-le-Conquérant (Robur the Conqueror, 1886) 1,660 ratings
(19) Le Sphinx des glaces (An Antarctic Mystery, aka The Sphinx of the Ice Realm, 1897, 2 volumes) 1,559 ratings
(20) Les Cinq Cents Millions de la Bégum (The Begum's Millions, 1879) 1,489 ratings
(21) Une ville flottante (A Floating City, 1871) 1,480 ratings
(22) Le Rayon vert (The Green Ray, 1882) 1,356 ratings
(23) L'Étoile du sud (The Vanished Diamond, aka The Southern Star, 1884) 1,307 ratings
(24) Les Tribulations d'un chinois en Chine (Tribulations of a Chinaman in China, 1879) 1,168 ratings
(25) Hector Servadac (Off on a Comet, 1877, 2 volumes) 1,023 ratings
(26) L'École des Robinsons (Godfrey Morgan, aka School for Crusoes, 1882) 972 ratings
(27) Le Chancellor (The Survivors of the Chancellor, 1875) 773 ratings
(28) Mathias Sandorf (Mathias Sandorf, 1885, 3 volumes) 754 ratings
(29) La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor, 1908, posthumous) 702 ratings
(30) Sans dessus dessous (The Purchase of the North Pole, aka Topsy-Turvy, 1889) 695 ratings
(31) L'Île à hélice (Propeller Island, aka The Floating Island, 1895, 2 volumes) 651 ratings
(32) Un billet de loterie (The Lottery Ticket, 1886) 634 ratings
(33) Face au drapeau (Facing the Flag, 1896) 624 ratings
(34) Le Volcan d’or (The Golden Volcano, 1906, posthumous, 2 volumes) 532 ratings
(35) Le Pays des fourrures (The Fur Country, 1873, 2 volumes) 530 ratings
(36) Le Superbe Orénoque (The Mighty Orinoco, 1898, 2 volumes) 490 ratings
(37) Le Pilote du Danube (The Danube Pilot, 1908, posthumous) 489 ratings
(38) Claudius Bombarnac (Claudius Bombarnac, 1892) 423 ratings
(39) Le Secret de Wilhelm Storitz (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz, 1910, posthumous) 420 ratings
(40) La Maison à vapeur (The Steam House, 1880, 2 volumes) 403 ratings
(41) L'Archipel en feu (The Archipelago on Fire, 1884) 402 ratings
(42) Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais (The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa, 1872) 373 ratings
(43) Le Testament d'un excentrique (The Will of an Eccentric, 1899, 2 volumes) 348 ratings
(44) Le Village aérien (The Village in the Treetops, 1901) 319 ratings
(45) Kéraban-le-têtu (Kéraban the Inflexible, 1883,2 volumes) 311 ratings
(46) Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (The Survivors of the "Jonathan", 1909, posthumous, 2 volumes) 293 ratings
(47) Nord contre Sud (North Against South, 1887, 2 volumes) 280 ratings
(48) César Cascabel (César Cascabel, 1890, 2 volumes) 261 ratings
(49) Un drame en Livonie (A Drama in Livonia, 1904) 243 ratings
(50) L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac (The Barsac Mission, 1919, posthumous) 208 ratings
(51) Les Frères Kip (The Kip Brothers, 1902, 2 volumes) 199 ratings
(52) Les Histoires de Jean-Marie Cabidoulin (The Sea Serpent, 1901) 194 ratings
(53) L'Invasion de la mer (Invasion of the Sea, 1905) 178 ratings
(54) P’tit-Bonhomme (Foundling Mick, 1893, 2 volumes) 174 ratings
(55) Mirifiques Aventures de Maître Antifer (Captain Antifer, 1894, 2 volumes) 174 ratings
(56) L'Epave du Cynthia (The Waif of the Cynthia, 1885) 163 ratings
(57) Mistress Branican (Mistress Branican, 1891, 2 volumes) 147 ratings
(58) Bourses de voyage (Traveling Scholarships, 1903, 2 volumes) 118 ratings
(59) Famille-sans-nom (Family Without a Name, 1889, 2 volumes) 113 ratings
(60) L’Agence Thompson and Co (The Thompson Travel Agency, 1907, posthumous, 2 volumes) 98 ratings
(61) Clovis Dardentor (Clovis Dardentor, 1896) 84 ratings
(62) Le Chemin de France (The Flight to France, 1887) 81 ratings
(63) Seconde Patrie (The Castaways of the Flag, aka Second Fatherland, 1900, 2 volumes) 47 ratings

I'm reading these works in Spanish, but since I'm writing the reviews in English I should mention that the quality of contemporary English translations of Verne's work has often not been satisfactory. The general advice when choosing an English translation is: go with the modern translations when available, even if they are more expensive, not being out of copyright. Nowadays I have to add: beware the AI translations that are popping up in Amazon. Those are just taking the original and putting it through Google translate or similar, without even a human revision. If you look at a few paragraphs it may sound like a good, faithful translation, but as you read more you notice the expressions translated literally that don't make sense, and things like that.

To choose a good English translation, I suggest checking these links:
* This is an article by Arthur B. Evans detailing a bibliography of Verne translations (it's from 2005, so more modern ones are not included), with some indication of the best ones and the ones to avoid. It tells you how each translation begins, so they are easy to identify:
http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/VerneTrans(biblio).html
https://web.archive.org/web/2025021...v.gilead.org.il/evans/VerneTrans(biblio).html (backup if the other link doesn't work)
* This is a more recent 2022 article recommending the best translation for each book. It draws on the Arthur B. Evans article, but when available recommends a more modern translation:
https://file770.com/a-bibliography-of-jules-verne-translations/
* And finally, the SFF Encyclopedia is a also a good resource to check whether there are recent translations, although some of the most recent ones are missing (remember that these modern translations will usually be better than the contemporary ones):
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/verne_jules
* Finally, this page contains free ebook versions of modern, unabridged English translations of 20.000 Leagues Under the Seas, The Children of Captain Grant (In Search of the Castaways) and The Mysterious Island: https://thecatacombs.ca/JulesVerne/


Note: I have taken some of the novel synopses from several sources, like wikipedia or http://www.julesverne.ca

 

[farseer2]

1) Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1863) (1 volume) 81K words


The Voyages Extraordinaires, a series of about 60 novels written by Jules Verne, are one of the most remarkable bodies of work in 19th century literature. Verne wrote adventure novels, but he added his personal style by adding to many of them a speculative element, although always grounded in contemporary scientific knowledge, and an element of scientific divulgation through the fiction.

Verne's work is usually optimistic and filled with wonder for science and exploration, although it's been argued that his later novels show a more sceptic attitude towards technical progress. In his style, one needs also to mention the influence of his editor and publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who had a savvy business instinct and guided Verne towards the kind of work that would be more commercial. For example, Verne's novel Paris in the Twentieth Century (Paris au XXe siècle) was first published almost a century after his death, but it's actually the second novel he wrote, right after Five Weeks in a Balloon. However, Hetzel refused to publish it, because it was a dystopic story that did not fit with the style of his very successful first novel. Hetzel also tried to guide Verne towards adventure over speculative content.

Following Verne in his Voyages Extraordinaires, his readers could travel with their imagination to all the unknown parts of Earth (it was a time of exploration and discovery), and even out of it. So I have started this literary journey with Five Weeks in a Balloon (Cinq semaines en ballon), the first of this long series of novels.


First read or reread?: For me, this one is a reread. I read it as a kid and loved it.


What is it about? (from wikipedia): A scholar and explorer, Dr. Samuel Fergusson, accompanied by his manservant Joe and his friend professional hunter Richard "Dick" Kennedy, sets out to travel across the African continent — still not fully explored — with the help of a balloon filled with hydrogen. He has invented a mechanism that, by eliminating the need to release gas or throw ballast overboard to control his altitude, allows very long trips to be taken. This voyage is meant to link together the voyages of Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke in East Africa with those of Heinrich Barth in the regions of the Sahara and Chad.



Reading reviews from modern readers, I get the impression that Five Weeks in a Balloon is not generally regarded as one of Verne's best books, but it was one of my favorites when I read it as a teenager, and rereading it now it still is. It captures my imagination. I have always had a weakness for stories about explorers, and this time in the second half of the 19th century, including the exploration of Africa and the search for the source of the White Nile, was particularly fascinating. I feel lucky to be able to read a book about that written at exactly the same time these explorations were taking place, because although you lack a wider perspective that comes with time, you get to see the mentality people had at that time in a way that is not possible in historical books written today.

I also like stories about those Victorian adventurers, particularly British ones, so proper in their demeanour, who regarded themselves in the first place as gentlemen. Like Henry Stanley, who was tasked with searching for David Livingston, after he (Livingston) disappeared for years in the heart of Africa. When Stanley, after a long a dangerous search, finally found Livingston at the shores of lake Tanganyika, instead of an exhibition of surprise or happiness he just approached the other man and greeted him with the famous and laconic "Dr. Livingston, I presume," as if he had just met him in London after leaving the theatre.

It's worth mentioning that English translations have often let Verne down. I mean the widespread contemporary translations that are everywhere because they are in the public domain. There are modern translations at least for the most famous books, including this one, and they are worth it, even though they are more expensive. I'm reading this in Spanish, where the translations have been faithful even if using old-fashioned language. I found it easy to get into the style, though, and it wasn't a problem for me.

You have to understand, modern readers often feel that 19th century books are too slow, and Verne's books, including this one, occasionally have descriptions of the flora or fauna or geography, or speeches by one of the characters describing the travels done in the area by European explorers (and their often gruesome deaths). That bothers some modern readers because they are infodumps, but for me it's part of the charm of Verne, and sometimes I gloss over it, regarding it as mood-setting (I mean, I can't tell the difference between one type of tree and the other, but I don't mind that Verne does.. it's like when you are listening to someone who is passionate about something... even if you don't understand the technical part, you can still enjoy the energy).

At the beginning of the story, Dr. Samuel Fergusson gives a couple of speeches about the innovations he developed for the balloon (basically it uses hydrogen, and he invented a heating system which allows it to go up and down without releasing gas, basically very similar to what's used today for balloons) and about the state of African exploration. I didn't bother understanding everything he said about the balloon, just the gist of it, but about the explorations it was interesting to see just how difficult and dangerous it was to make any progress in those unknown regions. Explorers often died of illnesses, privations or killed by hostile natives. Of course, nowadays air travel is normal, but you have to put yourself in these people's place to understand the sense of wonder from the idea of exploring it and finding the source of the Nile from the air, in a cutting-edge vehicle.

So, apart from that speculative element (it was speculative at the time), this is a good Victorian adventure novel, in the style of Conan Doyle's Lost World and that kind of stories. Really, a lot of the area they explore was unknown at the time the book was written. Some geographers speculated with the possibility that central Africa was a huge lake (fortunately Verne did not adopt that theory in the novel). Incidentally, Verne did get the source of the Nile right (by trusting Speke's speculations, which would be proven right by Stanley some years later).

The book is kind of episodic, because of course they are travelling through Africa in a balloon, so it's not like they can have an adversary following them along. The first part, looking for the source of the White Nile, was very interesting for me because of the excitement of seeing whether they would find it. Afterwards, the adventures and dangers get more pressing, as they start having problems with the balloon and the winds or lack thereof.

This reminded me of the style of pulp adventures in exotic regions. Verne is always well documented, as far as there was documentation at that time, but he takes artistic licenses for the sake of excitement. I'm sure for example that there were not that many overtly aggressive and/or cannibal tribes at the time. As I said, exaggerated for excitement but also revealing the image that had reached Europe of this area, fuelled also by dramatic descriptions from explorers. Obviously don't expect any wokeness here. That concept did not exist at the time and the characters take it for granted that European civilization, being more advanced, is the most desirable state. Verne is enlightened in some ways, like when Fergusson argues that just like Asia used to have the most advanced civilizations and then, as it exhausted some of its resources, it was Europe and then probably America, Africa would probably one day have the leading civilizations. On the other hand, mainly Joe, who is the jokester and less educated of the group, a few times makes comments that are insensitive or offensive from a modern perspective.

Of course, one important character is the balloon. The vehicle playing a big role in the story is characteristic of many Verne stories. Despite the vast regions they travel through, including wild rivers, forests, lakes, deserts, mountains, jungles, they are most of the time cosily enclosed in the basket of the balloon, which keeps them mostly safe from the dangers below. Safer than they would be on foot, anyway.

The main human characters are the three explorers, Dr. Fergusson, a brilliant and unconventional scientist and explorer; Joe, his manservant; and Dick Kennedy, the Scottish hunter and adventurer. These are archetypes that appear in several Verne novels. Fergusson is the driving force of the adventure, and the way for Verne to give information to the reader when he needs it; Kennedy is the man of action, the hunter; and Joe is the comic relief, always cheerful and willing to make a joke, but also agile and able to hold his own in any scrape. Joe is also very loyal, which can be difficult to understand for modern readers, because not that many people are so perfectly willing to die if necessary for their employers, but one has to understand the class dynamics: life was very harsh for uneducated, poor people, and by hiring him as his manservant Dr. Fergusson had given him a chance to have a comfortable and interesting life (instead of, say, working in a Victorian factory). So Joe is loyal because he is grateful, and rather than weird this would be seen as a positive quality by Verne's original readers.

Despite the characters being archetypes, they do develop a rather nice camaraderie during their adventure, and there is a rather moving moment near the end when you see how they have come to care for each other.

So a fine start to the Voyages Extraordinaires in this Victorian pulp novel of exploration with a speculative element.

Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it a lot. African exploration really captures my imagination. I felt as if I were with the characters in that balloon basket, and enjoyed following their progress in the map. The occasional infodumps are mainly about African explorations, which interested me. The book was always entertaining for me, although it was somewhat episodic until it got more exciting in the second part. Worth reading.



Next up: Journey to the Center of the Earth

 

[Hobbit]

Terrific review, farseer: and an impressive challenge!

Verne, like H G Wells, will always have a science-fictional place in my heart. They both wrote other material, but I'm sure that we can live with that here!

Readers of Verne in English these days are always surprised how prolific a writer he was. Usually there's about 6 of his novels known these days - 1, 2, 6, 11, 12 & 15 - and that's about it. I understand that the English translations are pretty poor. There was an attempt by Solaris Books, I think, to update the work a few years ago with a new translation of Off On A Comet. But it didn't sell particularly well, sadly.

But more power to your reading muscle - going to be very interested to read what you put here. Keep up the good work!

 

[farseer2]

Terrific review, farseer: and an impressive challenge!

Thanks, Mark. Obviously it would take years to do the whole thing, but I don't need to hurry. I will alternate it with other books, of course, and I can always not finish a novel if it's not good, keep the project in the fridge when I need to recharge, or stop it altogether if it becomes a chore.

Of course, many of the best novels come in the beginning, although I also have favorites much later. For example, as a teen, Two Years' Vacation was one of the big favorites for me. Kind of a Lord of the Flies scenario, with a bunch of boys getting stranded on a large desert island, although these ones did much better than the boys in Lord of the Flies, despite having some disagreements among themselves.

Verne, like H G Wells, will always have a science-fictional place in my heart. They both wrote other material, but I'm sure that we can live with that here!

Apparently Verne was asked about Wells, and he said that he enjoyed and respected his work, but he thought that the kind of stories Wells wrote was quite different to his (Verne's). According to Verne, Wells speculative elements were 100% imaginative and not grounded in current science, while Verne extrapolated a bit from current technical advances and understanding of science, but kept it much more grounded. Kind of a near-future, hard proto-SF, I guess.

Readers of Verne in English these days are always surprised how prolific a writer he was. Usually there's about 6 of his novels known these days - 1, 2, 6, 11, 12 & 15 - and that's about it. I understand that the English translations are pretty poor. There was an attempt by Solaris Books, I think, to update the work a few years ago with a new translation of Off On A Comet. But it didn't sell particularly well, sadly.

Yes! Infamously, I think there is an English translation of Journey to the Center of the Earth, one of the several that can be found at Project Gutenberg, that is rather different from what Verne actually wrote. To check if there are modern English translations, a good resource is Verne's entry in the SF Encyclopedia:

SFE: Verne, Jules

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

www.sf-encyclopedia.com

At the end there is a bibliography including translations. For example, for Five Weeks in a Balloon you can see there is a 2015 translation by Frederick Paul Walter that I have heard is very good. Looking for it in Amazon, I see the kindle version is about 15$, and the hardcover 35$... quite expensive, but probably worth it if you are not on a tight budget. Of course, the alternative is very cheap, free in the case of ebooks.

And Verne was certainly prolific. His novels did so well that he never had and real problem living on them, but his editor Pierre-Jules Hetzel was kind of an overbearing character and he was always pressing Verne to write more novels, and trying to pay him as little as he could get away with.

Hetzel also did things like first serializing the novels in a magazine, then publishing them in book form, then by Christmas doing a deluxe edition with many drawings to be sold for the Christmas gift season... he was always looking to maximize profits, and paying Verne as little as possible was part of that.

But more power to your reading muscle - going to be very interested to read what you put here. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, I'll continue for as long as it remains enjoyable

For the moment, I'm reading Journey to the Center of the Earth.

 

[farseer2]

(2) Voyage au centre de la Terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864) (1 volume) 68K words


After Five Weeks in a Balloon, we come to the second stop in my quest to read the Voyages Extraordinaires. Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of Verne's best-known novels (along with "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "Around the World in Eighty Days"). The story of the German professor, his nephew and their Icelandic guide who get into an extinct volcano and explore the interior of the Earth has captured the imagination of generations of readers and movie watchers. Their discoveries deep below are incredibly cinematic.

Just like they say that the "Golden Age" of science fiction is thirteen, a lot of readers discovered and fell in love with Verne's stories in their early teens. There is a reason for that: many of his novels are filled with a sense of discovery, with boundless possibilities, with sense of wonder. And this particular one is strong on the sense of wonder. Now, I'm not a teenager any more, and we are no longer in the 19th century. The scientific theory that is the basis of this story, already dubious when it was written, has been disproven since then. A reader now probably knows how the story ends, since it's part of pop culture. Also, we are used to movies and shows with expensive special effects, so our sense of wonder is dulled not just by age but also by use.

Nevertheless, I advice you to put yourself in the proper frame of mind. We are in the middle of the 19th century, an age of progress and exploration. Mankind is discovering just how far it can go, where scientific and technical progress can take it, what new doors are being opened. Guided by Verne's imagination, we are going to accompany three explorers, one of them enthusiastic, one of them reluctant and one of them... silent, in the most incredible adventure ever, something that had not been dreamed of before.


First read or reread?: A reread for me. I enjoyed it a lot as a kid.


What is it about?: An adventurous geology professor chances upon a manuscript in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a route to the earth's core. Professor Lidenbrock can't resist the opportunity to investigate. With his nephew Axel, he sets off across Iceland in the company of Hans Bjelke, a native guide, intending to descend into an extinct volcano.


Like in Five Weeks in a Balloon, we have three main characters, although their personalities and internal dynamics are different. We have Professor Otto Lidenbrock, a hot-tempered geologist with radical ideas and limitless energy. We have his nephew Axel, a young geologist in training. And we have Hans Bjelke, their Icelandic guide. Professor Lidenbrock fits the template of a crazy scientist. Once he gets into a project, he is relentless, and no difficulty will deter him, no matter how insurmountable. He is completely reckless. Young Axel is, how shall we say this, kind of cowardly. He doesn't want to go, but he is browbeaten by his uncle and his girlfriend Gräuben, who basically tells him to man up. And Hans is the strong and silent type. As few words as possible, but completely unfazed by the most crazy and dangerous adventures, just as long as he gets his modest salary as a guide every week.

Because of the dynamic between the characters, this novel is funnier than Five Weeks in a Balloon. Watching Professor Lidenbrock bully and browbeat his nephew into adventure is always amusing. It's not that Axel is really a coward, he just has a sense of self-preservation, unlike his uncle. I don't blame him, as he is actually the sane one, but he is not your typical heroic explorer.

The story is told in first person by Axel, contrasting with the third person narration in Five Weeks in a Balloon. That works fine, since it gives Verne a natural way to exercise his didactic muscle and tell us about geology. After all, Axel may not want adventure, but he likes geology. And, well, those are the best scientists to accompany you deep into the Earth. It also allows us to see Axel's psychological suffering at certain points.

Let's talk about pace: as usual with 19th century literature, you have to get into the pace of the story. Readers had longer attention-spans back then, not being distracted with TV, the internet and video-games, so modern readers can sometimes be taken aback by what they perceive as a slower pace. My advice is to get into it, it's a feature, not a bug. You get to experience a different style of storytelling. There will be plenty of action, don't worry, but it starts slow.

In this case, in particular, there is a part near the beginning of the novel that can try your patience. Not the very beginning, because the discovery of the runic manuscript and the attempts to decipher it are quite entertaining. But the trip for Hamburg to Reykjavík and from there to the volcano are kind of uneventful. I won't blame you too much if you skip parts of chapters 8 to 14, to get to the exciting stuff. Because during that journey, first by train to Copenhagen, then by ship to Reykjavík and overland by horse to the volcano, nothing much happens, apart from hiring Hans. Of course, for most contemporary readers, traveling to a faraway country would have been the adventure of a lifetime in itself, so I'm sure that part was more interesting for them.

Then they get to the volcano and the story proper begins, about one third into the novel. We'll get some Verne-style science (in this case geology) infodumps. You wouldn't get those in a modern novel, but as I said in my review of Five Weeks in a Balloon, it's part of the charm. Verne was out to entertain but also for the popularization of science.

And then, of course, more and more things happen, and it's a gripping story. Not as gripping as the movies, mind you, they don't actually fight dinosaurs, but just witnessing and exploring it all is impressive. Sense of wonder, remember.

If you were in doubt during the slow parts when traveling, I think you will be satisfied later by how eventful it becomes. Some things happen that really strained my suspension of disbelief because of the characters' ability to survive certain events. Perhaps that was a bit too far-fetched even for a story such as this, but let's go along with it. Also, just how can those people take so much equipment and food with them? I mean, I know Hans is strong and silent, but still...


Enjoyment factor: I quite enjoyed the story, although maybe not as much as Five Weeks in a Balloon (as I said in my review of that book, African exploration really captures my imagination). This one has more sense of wonder, no doubt about that, and more cinematic moments. It does have a slow part that is slower than anything in Five Weeks, and you have to be willing to suspend disbelief at certain points. The occasional infodumps were mostly about geology, which for me is less interesting than African exploration. Worth reading.


Next up: The Adventures of Captain Hatteras

 

[Essord]

Some time ago, probably 2 years ago by now, I came across a couple of (apparently) new hardcover editions for less than a handful euros each. They were all unknown works (8, 37, 41 in your list) which intrigued me so I picked them up. While the plots were short and outdated by today's standards I still enjoyed the Verne atmosphere that I remembered from his famous works.

 

[farseer2]

They were all unknown works (8, 37, 41 in your list)

As a teenager I read several of Verne's less known novels, but not those ones. Some of the ones I read I enjoyed a lot (Two Years' Vacation, The Sphinx of the Ice Fields...), others not so much (The Green Ray...).

So I'm curious about what will my reaction be when I get to that kind of novels. For the moment, since I'm going chronologically, I'm reading some of his best-known work.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I have enjoyed his work. Are some of the posthumous ones by a son or nephew?

Many have quite a fantasy aspect.

Twenty Thousand Leagues is also quite well researched and seems to combine a lot of existing technology of the time. Electric motors and Lead Acid Batteries did exist, but not used in submarines till later. He did study France's latest (at the time) military submarine.

 

[farseer2]

I have enjoyed his work. Are some of the posthumous ones by a son or nephew?

Jules Verne wrote the 54 novels published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages during his lifetime.

The 8 posthumous novels that were published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages were started by Jules Verne and finished and/or modified, sometimes extensively, by his son Michel Verne. The one where Michel Verne probably did a largest percentage of the work is "L’agence Thompson and Co." which might even have been completely written by him.

I agree that Verne did good research. He was intellectually very curious, and read a lot about science and geography.

He was born in Nantes, a port city, and as a boy he was very interested in all the things from distant lands that were brought by the ships, and in finding out where they had come from. In school apparently he liked drawing fabulous steam machines.

In 1839, when he was 11, he tried to run away from home, taking a position as a ship's boy on a vessel bound for India. He was recaptured by his father at Paimboeuf, down the coast from Nantes; in the face of whose displeasure he is supposed to have promised 'je ne voyagerai plus qu'en reve' ('I will no longer travel except in my dreams').

His family wanted him to be a lawyer and inherit his father's law firm. He went to Paris to study law, but what he liked was writing.

He did not completely keep his promise not to travel. He never ran away again, but once he was a successful writer he traveled in person, and not just with his imagination.

His family life was not so happy, since he preferred writing and talking with other writers rather than being with his wife and son. He was a distant husband and father, and he had problems with his son when he was a teenager, although they became close later.

 

[farseer2]

(3) Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, 1864-66) (2 volumes) 139K words


This is the third novel I read in my personal journey through Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires. Among those three (the others are Five Weeks in a Balloon and Journey to the Center of the Earth), Captain Hatteras is the closest to a conventional adventure novel. And I say that in the best possible sense. This one doesn't have such a ground-breaking premise; it's just an old-fashioned naval exploration tale, but what a gripping one. It was published originally as two books: Les Anglais au pôle nord (The English at the North Pole) and Le Désert de glace (The Desert of Ice).


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me.


Synopsys: Set in 1861, describes the adventures of a British naval expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the Arctic Ocean. Struggling against mutiny and the harshness of the polar winter, Hatteras refuses to give up in his ambition to reach the North Pole.


The Adventures of Captain Hatteras is long, as long as the previous two novels put together, but for my taste it has better pace. None of it was dull. From the moment it starts, with a bunch of sailors discussing a state-of-the-art ship that has just been built, and the mysterious captain who doesn't skimp on expense and only communicates with his crew through letters, it gets our attention, and doesn't let it go throughout the whole epic tale.

There is a speculative element here, although in this case it's purely geographic. At the time it was written, no one had been able to reach the northernmost regions of the Earth, and it was unknown what they would find there. There was a very popular theory at the time, called the Open Polar Sea, suggesting that in the summer there was an open sea around the North Pole. Many naval expeditions had failed to reach it, becoming stranded in a frozen sea, sometimes for several years. However, there were measurements suggesting that the "cold pole", the coldest areas of the northern hemisphere, were at lower latitudes than the North Pole, and there were some testimonies of captains who thought they had glimpsed an open sea in the summer, north to the point where they were themselves trapped in the ice fields. (As modern readers, we know the Open Polar Sea theory is not true, but in Verne's world that was still unknown and waiting to be determined.)

Captain Hatteras firmly believes in that theory. He is convinced that he will be able to reach that open sea and get to the pole with his ship. However, the tragic outcomes of his previous expeditions make it difficult for him to hire a crew. What follows is a truly epic and gritty fight of human spirit against the force of nature.

The cast of key characters here is larger than in the other two novels I have read. We have of course Captain Hatteras, who is that kind of visionary, strong-willed character that we find in many Verne novels. Like Professor Lidenbrock from Journey to the Center of the Earth, Hatteras is relentless in his quest. No matter how overwhelming the danger is, to himself and to his companions, he won't give up. In this case, this relentless character is the adventurer, not the scientist.

The role of the scientist then is played by the ship physician, Doctor Clawbonny. He is competent in his job, good-natured but also filled with a thirst for knowledge and adventure, even if he has a lot of the former and little experience of the latter. His knowledge and ingenious ideas (like making a bullet with frozen mercury from a thermometer when they are far from the ship, without ammunitions and stalked by a hungry beast) save the lives of his companions more than once.

We also have Shandon, the first mate of the ship, whose falling-out with Hatteras poisons the expedition. We have Duke, the captain's dog, with as much character and dedication as any member of the crew (in fact, in the beginning of the novel, before Hatteras shows up, there was a rumour among the crew that the dog was actually the captain). We have Captain Altamont, the American explorer, who is a bitter rival of Hatteras but may have to find a way to cooperate with him if they are all to survive. And several other important characters...

The book is narrated in third person, and the Verne-style infodumps come in the form of conversations of Doctor Clawbonny with other characters, where he talks about the state of Arctic exploration. I find the subject fascinating, so I was on board with that. You know, the story of Franklin's lost expedition and that kind of thing.

As always, if you read it in English and can afford to pay a bit more, look for a modern translation if there is one, in this case William Butcher's translation published by Oxford University Press.


Enjoyment factor: I hadn't read this one in my youth and liked it a lot. Even though it's long, and as always with Verne there are educative infodumps, the pace of this novel is good. The dangers were not occasional, but ever-present, and the difficulties seemingly overwhelming. It doesn't have as much sense of wonder as the previous two novels, but the thrill of getting to unexplored regions is there. I really enjoyed it, and if your edition doesn't have a map, don't hesitate to look for the Captain Hatteras map online, to follow the course of the journey as you read.


Next up: From the Earth to the Moon

 

[Hobbit]

That one does sound like fun, farseer! And I knew nothing about it until you mentioned it here...

 

[farseer2]

That one does sound like fun, farseer! And I knew nothing about it until you mentioned it here...

Yeah, this one I had never read before either. Although Verne has some duds (I expect I'll get more of them when I get to the latter part of his career) he has novels which are not among his most famous ones but which are very good. For example, I remember loving Michel Strogoff when I read it many years ago, which as far as I remember is another adventure novel without any kind of SF content.

 

[farseer2]

(4) De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865) (1 volume) 55K words


From the Earth to the Moon is the fourth novel in Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires. In the first part of his career the author was filled with optimism about scientific knowledge, technology and human progress. Previous novels told awe-inspiring tales of exploration and discovery: the exploration of Africa from the air (Five Weeks in a Balloon), the interior of our planet (Journey to the Center of the Earth), and the North Pole (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras). However, he managed to surpass himself in ambition with this one, turning his eyes towards the Moon. This story is an early example of hard science fiction, and would decades later inspire people like Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut who became the first human being to leave the Earth and reach outer space.


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me, although I was familiar with the story from other media.


What is it about? (from wikipedia): The Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, attempts to build an enormous Columbiad space gun and launch three people in a projectile with the goal of a Moon landing.


While this is an early classic of science fiction, one thing you need to know is that this is a very geeky kind of adventure novel. Basically, the story told here is not about traveling to the Moon, but about the planning and preparation stages. Because of that, there is not a lot of action. All Verne novels have some popular science info-dumps, but this one has more than its share of that. That is quite understandable, given the unprecedented difficulties of the task, but it can make for a less dynamic read. That's why I said this is a geeky kind of novel. A lot of the enjoyment comes not from actual adventure, but from the audacity of the project and from how reasonable and possible Verne makes it sound when he tackles the technical details. There are a lot of planning meetings where the characters discuss the details of the project, and a lot of building and testing.

Despite this lack of action, the novel has several things going for it. There is the already mentioned geeky enjoyment of the planning. Looking at it from a modern perspective, Verne's calculations and plans are surprisingly accurate. The main failing that would make the project impractical is that, in order for the passengers not to die due to the acceleration when the projectile was shot, the barrel of the cannon would have to be much longer, to allow the projectile to reach the same escape velocity with a smaller acceleration.

Another thing worth mentioning is the humor. This is the funniest among the Verne novels that I have read so far. The beginning is quite similar to Five Weeks in a Balloon, with a visionary character making a speech to a scientific society (if we can call the Baltimore Gun Club a scientific society) and describing a daring exploration project. However, the Gun Club plays a much greater role here than the Royal Geographical Society played in Five Weeks in a Balloon, and it allows Verne to use his satirical abilities to the maximum.

The Baltimore Gun Club's members are so absorbed in their hobby/profession that they consider the fact that the Civil War ended and the country is at peace as an outrage and personal insult against themselves and against the art of gunnery. Even their physical descriptions are funny, with the ridiculous amount of mutilations among their members becoming a running gag.

Verne certainly makes fun of Americans in this novel, but in my opinion is a fond kind of satire. He makes fun of Americans while at the same time admiring them for their daring, their can-do attitude, and the greatness of their enterprises. There is a moment in the novel mentioning their dream of planting the American flag on the Moon that would come true in an iconic moment a century after this novel was published.

Another thing Verne does to maintain the reader's interest is introduce some personal conflict among the characters, in this case mainly between Impey Barbicane, the president of the Gun Club and the driving force behind the project of reaching the Moon, and his long-time rival and nemesis, Captain Nicholl of Philadelphia, a designer of plate armor and thus the natural rival of cannon-designers. Their antics and bets, including even a duel, help a lot to advance the plot of the novel in an entertaining way.

This is also the first time Verne uses a Frenchman as one of his main characters, Michel Ardan, a French poet and adventurer who conceives the idea of a human crew inside the projectile. Verne tends to use a lot of Anglo-Saxon characters in his novels, probably out of admiration for the ambition of their exploration projects, as I have mentioned. However, from this novel on, he often includes a French character too.

Another big component of the novel is the public's reaction and enthusiasm for the project. There is a public subscription to finance it, and people from all over the world help, allowing Verne to have some satirical fun describing how much each country contributes and why. This is of course part of Verne's general optimism about science and the human spirit, which makes his work very appealing to me.

The novel ends shortly after the cannon is shot, leaving the story somewhat incomplete. A few years later, Verne would continue and finish the story with a sequel novel (Around The Moon), which I'll review in turn.


Enjoyment factor: I quite enjoyed it. The sense of wonder is very strong here, although it may be harder for modern readers to appreciate since this is retro science fiction. We have already been to the Moon, after all. I understand that this novel is not for everyone, in any case, because of the lack of action and abundance of info-dumps.


Next up: In Search of the Castaways, aka Captain Grant's Children

 

[Sfinx]

Great post Farseer! But regarding Five Weeks in a Balloon I have to admit I agree with the 'reviews from modern readers' you mention; I don't think it ranks among Verne's best works. The storyline and setting as such are great but Verne just takes too long to tell it imho. I liked Journey to the Center of the Earth a lot better (also because of the humor you mention!). Haven't read the Adventures of Captain Hatteras (I'll look out for it) and like you, (somewhat unexpectedly) quite enjoyed From the Earth to the Moon! Verne somehow turns its fairly ludicrous premisse into a fun and entertaining read.

Looking forward to your next reading adventures and posts.

 

[farseer2]

Great post Farseer! But regarding Five Weeks in a Balloon I have to admit I agree with the 'reviews from modern readers' you mention; I don't think it ranks among Verne's best works. The storyline and setting as such are great but Verne just takes too long to tell it imho.

Oh, well... I admit I have a soft spot for that novel. It's such a cosy concept, exploring Africa in a balloon. When you encounter danger you can increase you height... Yep. I love the idea. It's not a long novel, though. It's long for a 1-volume novel, but Verne also has 2 and 3 volume novels. Like the one I'm reading, In Search of the Castaways, which is 3 volumes.

Anyway, I'm glad you are enjoying the reviews. I find that I'm enjoying this more than I expected. It seems like the more I get used to Verne's style the more I enjoy it, info-dumps and all.

 

[suciul]

Very interesting project and am curious how do the works read now keeping in mind that Verne was a man of his time and pretty "French" in his attitudes, including to women (generally they were love interests seldom appearing, occasionally in man disguise), colonialism (ie French one was good, English one was generally bad) etc; overall though (personally he was quite conservative politically in France), he was quite progressive in many ways in his novels (French colonialism aside) as his books are generally sympathetic to the weak and the oppressed as for example his greatest mysterious character, captain Nemo shows

I've read most (maybe 50 odd of the 62 works listed here) of Verne in my childhood (I grew up behind the Iron Curtain and Verne and Dumas were among the "regime approved" authors and almost all their works were translated in my native language -and very well as the English translations are generally horrible - I also read French and later I re-read bunch of these in original)

Overall I would say that the loosely linked Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, L'Île mystérieuse , Les Enfants du capitaine Grant are the quintessential must read Verne and the best and most enduring of his novels imho. Of the later works L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac is also excellent, especially in athmosphere

In addition, I would highly recommend Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras, Deux Ans de vacances, Mathias Sandorf (which is Monte Cristo Verne style), Un capitaine de quinze ans and Le Testament d'un excentrique (which is a sort of love letter to the USA, though among the lightest tone novels from his work)

Of his less serious, more tongue in cheek novels, I really enjoyed Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, L'Île à hélice, La Chasse au météore (for Verne's oft commented "prescience" see the news about the gold asteroid recently discovered) and Mirifiques Aventures de Maître Antifer

This being said, I think that most of his books were really entertaining and worth reading

 

[farseer2]

Very interesting project and am curious how do the works read now keeping in mind that Verne was a man of his time and pretty "French" in his attitudes, including to women (generally they were love interests seldom appearing, occasionally in man disguise), colonialism (ie French one was good, English one was generally bad) etc; overall though (personally he was quite conservative politically in France), he was quite progressive in many ways in his novels (French colonialism aside) as his books are generally sympathetic to the weak and the oppressed as for example his greatest mysterious character, captain Nemo shows

Thanks for your comment, suciul. In what language did you read them (if you don't mind saying)? In Spain they were popular when I was growing up, and I read a number of them, although certainly fewer than you. Maybe teenagers don't read him that often nowadays, I'm not sure, although he remains very much in print (I just saw an ad for a new collectors edition of his work).

I address some of those points in the review of the next books. Basically, I agree with what you say. Verne was modern and progressive in some ways, but he remains very much a man of his time in a lot of attitudes. For example, regarding female characters: in the first four novels there aren't any important female characters. At that time you simply did not take women in a very dangerous journey, just like you did not put women in the trenches during the war. For Verne and people of that era that was something so obvious that it did not require any explanation. In the fifth novel (In Search of the Castaways) it's the first time I have found relevant female characters who get to join in the adventure, but even then it is seen as right and proper for the male characters to try to shelter and protect them from danger.

Regarding colonialism, Verne does have a few progressive attitudes for his time, like the way he condemns the abuse or decimation of natives, but he is not free of supercilious Victorian attitudes towards less civilized races. Sometimes it seems it's about superiority of civilization over lack thereof, as he mentions how western civilization was not always the most advanced, how it was a matter of resources that it became so, and how Europe might be surpassed again in the future. But other times he assumes that some particularly primitive races are naturally less civilized.

I imagine this is increasingly a barrier for some younger readers. I think that's a pity, because it's the way these attitudes were and I think it's something that should be known and understood. If we only read modern historical novels filled with people with anachronistic beliefs how are we going to understand history and where we come from?

Overall I would say that the loosely linked Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, L'Île mystérieuse , Les Enfants du capitaine Grant are the quintessential must read Verne and the best and most enduring of his novels imho. Of the later works L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac is also excellent, especially in athmosphere

In addition, I would highly recommend Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras, Deux Ans de vacances, Mathias Sandorf (which is Monte Cristo Verne style), Un capitaine de quinze ans and Le Testament d'un excentrique (which is a sort of love letter to the USA, though among the lightest tone novels from his work)

Of his less serious, more tongue in cheek novels, I really enjoyed Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, L'Île à hélice, La Chasse au météore (for Verne's oft commented "prescience" see the news about the gold asteroid recently discovered) and Mirifiques Aventures de Maître Antifer

This being said, I think that most of his books were really entertaining and worth reading

Based on the ones I have read, I'd say that's good advice. No Journey to the Center of the Earth, or From the Earth to the Moon, or Michel Strogoff ?

 

[farseer2]

(5) Les Enfants du capitaine Grant (In Search of the Castaways, aka Captain Grant's Children, 1867-68) (3 volumes) 201K words


This is the fifth of the Voyages Extraordinaires and the longest one so far, being the first triple-volume novel in the series. (This whole novel, complete, is a bit longer than The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.) I read an unabridged Spanish translation, but the English versions I see in Project Gutenberg are abridged. My review applies to the unabridged version. In English, it has also been published in three volumes with the individual titles of The Mysterious Document, On the Track, and Among the Cannibals.

Anyway, this is another straightforward adventure story, with fewer speculative elements than any of the previous ones. Even Captain Hatteras, another adventure tale, involved the exploration of polar regions that were unknown at the time. This one is also an exploration story, but through parts of the world that, while faraway, were not completely unknown in the 1860s. So, the point here is not geographical discovery, but finding a missing person.


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me. I was somewhat familiar with the story from the movie, but that only covered a small part of the novel.


What is it about? (from wikipedia): The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a message inside a bottle that Captain Grant had cast into the ocean after his ship was shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. The government refuses to launch a rescue expedition, but Lord and Lady Glenarvan, moved by the children's plight, decide to do it by themselves. The main difficulty is that the message is deteriorated and only a few words can be made out. The latitude of the wreckage can be read (37 degrees 11” South), but the longitude is unknown. Only by trying to interpret the few remaining word fragments can the rescuers decide where to search.


I was a bit worried coming into this novel because it's longer than the previous ones and the reviews were mixed. And it does have some problems, but many more things to enjoy. Let's explore the pros and cons...

By now, Verne's style is clear. He tells adventure stories but spiced up with educative explanations. In this case we have an exploration novel, but combined with geographical and anthropological asides. This bothers some readers, because the conventional wisdom is that "info-dumps" should always be avoided, but if you want to enjoy Verne you should change the chip and embrace them, since they are an integral part of his style. There will usually be a character who is a scholar and can tell the other characters about the lands they are traveling through or any relevant scientific knowledge. And it gives the stories a bit more depth than a simple action tale would have.

The novel is divided in three volumes subtitled South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Together they tell a single story, but it's a natural way to divide it, because each volume involves the search in a different part of the world, as the interpretation that the searchers make of the message changes.

To begin with, I enjoyed the device Verne uses to motivate the characters. The message in a bottle found inside a shark, which is so deteriorated that it's not really clear where the shipwrecked captain might be, is a great starting point for such an epic adventure, giving the characters a goal and allowing for the exploration of very different regions. And this book is really epic. All the effort, dangers and adventures these characters go through in their seemingly hopeless attempt to find the elusive captain are really impressive.

I also liked the characters. Reviewers sometimes complain that they are too formal, but it's the Victorian style, which I like, always polite and dignified. In some ways they are a typical Verne cast, but the presence of the orphans give the story more emotional weight. Among the main characters, we have Lord and Lady Glenarvan, the owners of the ship that finds the message. They are noble, generous people, and also wealthy. When they realize the government won't look for Captain Grant, they are moved by the plight of his children, and make it their mission to help them find their father. They are accompanied by Major McNabbs, a relative of Lord Glenarvan. McNabbs is the experienced man of action, the same kind of role as Dick Kennedy in Five Weeks in a Balloon. We also have the French character, Jacques Paganel, a scholar and geographer. He plays the role of the "human wikipedia", always filled with knowledge he is willing to share with the other characters and the reader. He is also the source of humor, with his notorious absent-minded moments (in fact he originally got on Lord Glenarvan's ship by mistake) and his friendly bickering with Major McNabbs. Of course we have Captain Grant's children, Robert, who is only 12 but brave and unwilling to be left out of any danger, and his eldest sister Mary, who is 16 and has looked after his brother since their father was lost. Then there is John Mangles, the young captain of Lord Glenarvan's ship, who falls in love with Mary.

Guided by the known latitude and by their changing interpretation of the rest of the massage, they travel through the Southern Hemisphere. Even though they have an excellent ship, they sometimes need to disembark and cross whole continents to try to locate the missing Captain, whom they believe taken prisoner by natives.

The first part takes place in South America: Chile, the Andes Mountains, the Argentinian Pampas... They have plenty of adventure there, although the pacing is not the best I have seen from Verne and some of the adventures are a bit far-fetched (like what happens high in the Andes). It does have nice, iconic moments, like the characters marooned on a gigantic tree during a flood.

The second part takes place in Australia. They have to cross the continent, but luckily for them the 37th parallel only crosses some of the southmost part, avoiding the impenetrable deserts. In fact, a lot of it is civilized to a certain extent, which makes for less adventure, although it was interesting seeing the gold boom towns and the squatter settlements. The pace starts slow because of this lack of adventure, but eventually it becomes very intense and exciting, with a long plot involving a ruthless band of outlaws.

The last part takes place mostly in New Zealand, where the natives are much more aggressive, in contrast with the peaceful Australian tribes. This part is also frenetic. And the ending is excellent, explaining the mystery in an unexpected and satisfying way, and with some of the most moving moments I have encountered in Verne's books.

This is the first Verne novel where the female characters have an important role, particularly in the second and third parts. Do not expect "strong female characters" in the modern style, though. This was written in the Victorian period, where it was considered that women were meant to be cherished and protected from physical danger. But here they do face danger, because they go along for every part of the adventure except the crossing of South America.

Speaking of Victorian attitudes, you can expect the normal supercilious attitude towards uncivilized tribes, although Verne is modern in some ways, like his condemn of the genocide of native Australian people by the British, or the way characters like Thalcave show intelligence, bravery and honor.

I have to say that this being a longer than usual Verne novel helped not just the epic feel, but also my involvement with the characters' fate. If your edition does not have maps, you can find them in the book's wikipedia entry, for example, and follow the journey there.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. It has some flaws: it occasionally required suspension of disbelief and the pace was not always the best, but it was filled with adventure and well thought-out, the pace gets very good in the second half and it has a satisfying epic feel and a great ending. Worth reading, even if not necessarily the one I'd recommend for a first Verne read.


Next up: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas

 

[suciul]

Thanks for your comment, suciul. In what language did you read them (if you don't mind saying)?

......

Based on the ones I have read, I'd say that's good advice. No Journey to the Center of the Earth, or From the Earth to the Moon, or Michel Strogoff ?

I read the Verne books in Romanian (and as noted later some in original French); for some reason Journey to the Center of the earth didn't really impress me and From the Earth to the Moon was entertaining for sure, but I kind of put it together with Verne's more satirical/comic novels and I liked more the ones I mentioned. Michael Strogoff was one of the books that didn't make the Verne series under communism (not sure why, maybe because it has a Russian hero and by the 80's Russia was regarded as more or less an enemy and the regime cut Russian translations or generally pro-Russian books etc, same with Matthias Sandorf which is very pro-Hungarian and that was a big no-no in Romania under communism and now for that matter), so I read it much later after I came to the USA in 1990 when Verne's appeal faded somewhat.

Verne's style changed over time considerably becoming more pessimistic and darker (there were some family tragedies and of course the crushing defeat of France in 1870-71 which Verne as a French patriot deeply resented, also the consequent French alliance with Russia and rapprochement with England, so the anti-English tone of Twenty Thousand leagues and satirical one in Captain Grant - the scene with Paganel and the Maori boy who was being taught that England ruled the world and France was a province ruled by "lord Napoleon" comes to mind - changed to the more admiring tone in say The Steam House where the Indian Revolt is now a dark event for the English heroes as opposed to a fight for liberty for Captain Nemo, while of course any Germans appearing in later works are villains like in the Begum book as opposed say to Journey to the Center of the earth)

 

[farseer2]

Verne's style changed over time considerably becoming more pessimistic and darker (there were some family tragedies and of course the crushing defeat of France in 1870-71 which Verne as a French patriot deeply resented, also the consequent French alliance with Russia and rapprochement with England, so the anti-English tone of Twenty Thousand leagues and satirical one in Captain Grant

Interesting. I knew Verne got more pessimistic about technology later on, but I did not know that the Franco-Prussian war had influenced his views about nations. I certainly remember that scene with Paganel and the Maori boy. Even before that war, however, he tended to have many English characters (although I guess that Captain Grant does not count, since the characters are Scottish and don't have such a favorable opinion of England). But he had English heroes in Five Weeks in a Balloon, Captain Hatteras... I had always believed that Verne admired Britain, even if he occasionally criticized things they did.

Regarding Michel Strogoff, maybe the reason the book was banned was that the hero worked for the czarists? After all, those were the enemies of the communist revolution, even though that was many years after the book. In any case, it was one of my favorite Verne novels among the ones I read as a kid.