Reading Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires

[farseer2]

(59) Le Pilote du Danube (The Danube Pilot, 1908) (1 volume) 60K words


The fifty-ninth Extraordinary Voyage, the fifth one published posthumously, takes us on a boat trip along the Danube River, from its source in the Black Forest of Germany to its mouth in the Black Sea. It's the third and last Verne novel describing a river journey, after "Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon" and "The Mighty Orinoco".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: An unknown Magyar fisherman, Ilia Brusch, unexpectedly wins the fishing competition organized by the Danubian League. He then publicly announces his intention to make a trip along the Danube, 3000 kilometers in all, living only on his fishing (either eating the fish or selling them to obtain other products). At the same time, a wave of murders and burglaries is happening along the river. The gang of criminals have eluded the police forces of the different countries, to the point that a multi-national task force, headed by the famous police detective Karl Dragoch, has been created to catch them. Dragoch has reason to be interested in the mysterious Ilia Brusch and his boat trip.


This book was heavily modified by Michel Verne before being published. The unmodified Jules Verne manuscript was only published in 1988 with the title "Le Beau Danube Jaune". In the version that was published in 1908 as part of the Extraordinary Voyages, Michel gave much more weight to the storyline about the gang of criminals, sacrificing most of the geographical descriptions in his father's manuscript and its more relaxed, humorous tone. That way, Michel changed the humorous travelogue into a dark detective story full of action and plot twists.

As always, for these posthumous novels I'm reading the version originally published in the Extraordinary Voyages, including Michel's modifications. These versions are usually easier to find than Jules' unmodified manuscripts.

Detective stories are not very common among the voyages. "In Search of the Castaways" could be considered one of them, and also "Facing the Flag", and, later, "The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz". On the other hand, as I have mentioned, the geographical descriptions that you usually find in Verne's travelogues are absent here, sacrificed, along with Jules' satire, to make room for a more dynamic plot.

Another theme here is a political one: The background of some of the characters is linked to the struggle of the Magyars for their political freedom against the Ottoman Empire, a subject also explored in "Mathias Sandorf" and, in the case of the Greeks, in "The Archipelago on Fire". A more sympathetic portrayal of the Ottoman Empire can be found in "Kéraban the Inflexible", a novel with a more humorous tone.

So, does the approach taken by Michel work? It mostly did for me. It was a quick read (only one volume) and the eventful plot always kept me entertained. On the other hand, it's not the most sophisticated detective story: most of the surprise revelations are easy to guess, and I had to suspend disbelief regarding the, let's say, eccentric way Karl Dragoch had of leading the investigation. The lack of geographical descriptions means that the novel was a bit more generic than usual in Verne's travelogues. By that I mean that the setting could have been changed without modifying the story too much.

As an anecdote, Michel Verne used the name Jackel Semo for one of the secondary characters he created. This was the name of a real person Michel had met in Belgrade. The real Jackel Semo sued Verne and his publisher, so they changed the name of this character to Yacoub Ogul.


Enjoyment factor: I found it enjoyable, with a lot of action, even though the plot is not very sophisticated. It's interesting to compare it to other travelogues by Jules Verne, which tend to feature many more geographical descriptions.


Next up: The Survivors of the "Jonathan"

 

[farseer2]

(60) Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (The Survivors of the "Jonathan", 1909) (2 volumes) 142K words


The 60th Extraordinary Voyage, the sixth one published posthumously, takes place in the southern tip of South America, in the region around the Straits of Magellan. We had been in this same part of the world a few novels ago, in "The Lighthouse at the End of the World". Curiously, both novels involve the construction of a new lighthouse to help ships in those dangerous waters, although in this one the lighthouse is just a side plot. "The Survivors of the Jonathan" has also been published in English divided in two separate volumes titled "The Masterless Man", and "The Unwilling Dictator".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: An enigmatic man has chosen to live far from civilization in the region around the Straits of Magellan. He only uses the name Kaw-djer, which was given to him by the indigenous people of the area, as a token of respect and recognition for the help he is always willing to lend, using his knowledge of medicine. Kaw-djer, a philosophical anarchist whose motto is "Neither God nor master", assists a group of settlers who end up being shipwrecked on a nearby island (Hoste Island). When the settlers receive an offer to establish a colony right there, Kaw-djer remains with them. Despite his exceptional knowledge and charisma, he refuses to accept a position of authority. However, as the colony begins to fall apart, Kaw-djer is forced to choose between his own principles and the well-being of his friends.


This is another book that was heavily modified by Michel Verne, to get it ready for publication. Jules Verne's manuscript (which has been published recently with the title "Magellania"), is half the length and supplies little detail, mostly giving an outline like a history book and only developing the character of Kaw-djer. Michel made the story much more detailed and introduced many characters.

One goodreads reviewer calls Magellania (Jules' original manuscript) the work of "an experienced writer dealing with serious issues in a mature manner", and calls Michel's additions fluff. I have to disagree. For me, fleshing up the story and letting us share it with the characters does not dilute the underlying psychological conflict of the main character. On the contrary, for me those ideas are strengthened if they are integrated in a solid story. Then again, I like plot, that's why I read Verne.

Be that as it may, I found Kaw-djer quite intriguing, joining the ranks of Verne's best characters, with the likes of Nemo, Paganel or Phileas Fogg.

With Michel's changes, this becomes an adventure novel in Verne's usual style, but still remains a political one. Verne always had a soft spot for oppressed nations that were fighting for their freedom, but here he examines questions like the legitimacy of governments of any kind. He treats anarchist ideas with respect (the anarchist Kaw-djer is morally ahead of most people) but, just like communism, Verne's position seems to be that on paper they can be admirable ideas, but if put in practice they prove to be incompatible with human nature and lead to disaster.

There is a large cast of characters, many of whom were created by Michel. I was amused to see two of them (the young boys Dick and Sand), whose names are a shout-out to the main character of "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen". It's interesting, because Dick Sand, the teenage captain, has been interpreted as Verne's image of an ideal son, as opposed to his actual son Michel who, at that time, had a very conflictive relationship with his father (later the two of them would become closer). I wonder if Michel was aware of that interpretation, and if so how he felt about it.

This novel closes Verne's cycle of Robinson stories, and I think he did a good job of not repeating himself. We have "The Mysterious Island", an epic story that plays a central role in Verne's mythology; the humorous "Godfrey Morgan"; "Two Years' Vacation", with a group of boys as the castaways who handle their situation and internal conflicts much better than the ones in Golding's Lord of the Flies; "The Castaways of the Flag", perhaps the closest one to "The Survivors of the Jonathan" since it also deals with the creation of an island colony as the aftermath of a shipwreck, even though it takes a different, less political approach...

Apart from the examination of political philosophies, what distinguishes this novel from other Verne Robinsonades is the large number of people involved in the shipwreck (the Jonathan is a large, four-masted clipper), which makes for a less manageable society. Inevitably, the organization of such a settlement becomes a political matter rather than being based on personal relationships. Still, the conflict between the Kaw-djer's ideas and the political reality remains the highlight.

This was mostly a riveting read. Perhaps the story is longer than it needed to be (the invasion arc could easily have been removed), and I found unlikely that Chile would be willing to offer independence to the colony, no matter how much they wished to encourage colonization of the area. On the other hand, I found the gold rush arc enjoyable and finally Jules Verne's condemnation of gold and greed becomes explicit (it was also present in "The Golden Volcano", but the message was lost with Michel's changes).


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed this one a lot, even if it's not perfect. I had been afraid that the posthumous novels would be disappointing, but that hasn't been the case so far, and I think they could be favorably compared to, for example, the last few novels published within Jules Verne's lifetime.


Next up: The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz

 

[Ray McCarthy]

"Two Years' Vacation", with a group of boys as the castaways who handle their situation and internal conflicts much better than the ones in Golding's Lord of the Flies;

Ah, but Golding was setting out to refute the "Noble Savage" idea, and probably they they were English Public School boys. An English Public school is an expensive private establishment famous for producing bullies. I've known some from English Public Schools since I read it and it made it even more believable.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Apart from the examination of political philosophies, what distinguishes this novel from other Verne Robinsonades is the large number of people involved in the shipwreck (the Jonathan is a large, four-masted clipper), which makes for a less manageable society. Inevitably, the organization of such a settlement becomes a political matter rather than being based on personal relationships. Still, the conflict between the Kaw-djer's ideas and the political reality remains the highlight.

This was mostly a riveting read. Perhaps the story is longer than it needed to be (the invasion arc could easily have been removed), and I found unlikely that Chile would be willing to offer independence to the colony, no matter how much they wished to encourage colonization of the area. On the other hand, I found the gold rush arc enjoyable and finally Jules Verne's condemnation of gold and greed becomes explicit (it was also present in "The Golden Volcano", but the message was lost with Michel's changes).


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed this one a lot, even if it's not perfect. I had been afraid that the posthumous novels would be disappointing, but that hasn't been the case so far, and I think they could be favorably compared to, for example, the last few novels published within Jules Verne's lifetime.

I've found this series of reviews the best I've ever read.

 

[farseer2]

Ah, but Golding was setting out to refute the "Noble Savage" idea, and probably they they were English Public School boys. An English Public school is an expensive private establishment famous for producing bullies. I've known some from English Public Schools since I read it and it made it even more believable.

I interpreted Lord of the Flies as making a more general point about human nature, rather than about English Public Schools, although, as often happens with good literature, many interpretations are possible.

Incidentally, the boys in "Two Years' Vacation" are a group of schoolboys from a school in New Zealand. Although not many details are given about the school, it's clear that the boys' families must be wealthy, to be able to afford sending them on a sea trip like that during their summer holidays. I don't know how similar such a school in New Zealand would be to an English public school. My guess is that there were some similarities although they probably were much more relaxed about class and privilege in the colonies.

On the other hand, the boys in "the real Lord of the Flies", who were not British and were more unlucky than their fictional counterparts in the island they got, also did a much better job than the Lord of the Flies set. Which makes sense to me, anyway. Most human beings are gregarious, and the advantages of cooperation in such a difficult situation are obvious. It's not just a matter of the thin veneer of civilization vs savagery, it's just common sense.

 

[farseer2]

I've found this series of reviews the best I've ever read.

Thanks, I'm glad you are enjoying them. When I started this project I thought that probably I'd get tired and abandon it, given how many novels Verne wrote, but soon I realized that wouldn't be the case. I'm having a great time with old Jules.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I interpreted Lord of the Flies as making a more general point about human nature, rather than about English Public Schools

No, it was a point about human nature and it's never explicit that these were boys from a Public School.

I don't know how similar such a school in New Zealand would be to an English public school.

I've met people that have been to expensive UK and Irish private boarding schools. A traditional English Public school is quite a different culture. I can't imagine the NZ private schools are at all like the obnoxious Public Schools I'm thinking of. Who mostly have managed to get themselves registered as Charities!

Golding himself attended and then taught in English Grammar schools, and while some of those may be exclusive taking fee paying students, they are not Public Schools. Some have aspired to be like Public Schools and some have been Public Schools.

Curiously almost all English Language Pirate stuff in modern culture comes from Stevenson's Treasure Island and in one Preface he writes how Coral Island inspired it. Golding claimed to be provoked to write Lord of the Flies by reading Coral Island, so perhaps one of the Church Grammar schools was unpleasant. In one class he deliberately set up the pupils to be in two teams fighting each other.
Coral Island is a simple adventure story, not a manifesto. Golding seems to have reacted strangely to it and his first book "Lord of the Flies" is a sociological manifesto more than an adventure story. I'd not recommend it to anyone as I think it's too heavy handed.

Timeline
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1857)
Treasure Island (1881-1882 serial, book 1883)
Two Years' Vacation (Verne, 1888)
The Strangers Within started in 1951, published as Lord of the Flies (1953). IMO Golding is over-rated.

IMO the first four are more worth reading than Lord of the Flies, but I'm only going by farseer2's review of Two Years' Vacation. I've read the others and I'd rate Coral Island much better than Robinson Crusoe. Treasure Island takes ideas from Coral Island (the boys become one boy who tells the story, though one chapter is related by the doctor) and it's become the start of the Pirate Genre (though in real life Pirates didn't bury treasure) and I think even better than Coral Island.

 

[farseer2]

I know someone who attended an elite Australian private boarding school in the 60s/70s (Geelong Grammar). Of course, that's much later than the time we are talking about, so his experience may not be relevant, but I have the impression that those schools aspired to be like the elite British public schools in some ways, but at the same time had a rather different ethos. He loved the school, by the way.

I'm more fond of Lord of the Flies than you are, even though I agree with most of your comments about it. It's certainly heavy-handed, with the thesis taking precedence over the story, but I still find it powerful. Some people take it too literally, though, and imagine that children are going to start murdering each other as soon as they get away from adult supervision.

Timeline
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1857)
Treasure Island (1881-1882 serial, book 1883)
Two Years' Vacation (Verne, 1888)
The Strangers Within started in 1951, published as Lord of the Flies (1953). IMO Golding is over-rated.

IMO the first four are more worth reading than Lord of the Flies, but I'm only going by farseer2's review of Two Years' Vacation. I've read the others and I'd rate Coral Island much better than Robinson Crusoe. Treasure Island takes ideas from Coral Island (the boys become one boy who tells the story, though one chapter is related by the doctor) and it's become the start of the Pirate Genre (though in real life Pirates didn't bury treasure) and I think even better than Coral Island.

Yes, Two Years' Vacation was very enjoyable for me when I reread it a few months ago, although I may be a bit biased because I loved it as a boy. I liked that, unlike in Coral Island, there was conflict and rivalries among the boys (although it was handled in a more civilized manner than Lord of the Flies). That made it feel more real for me.

Coral Island has this thing going for it when they are in the island, which is really paradisiac and idyllic. I enjoyed that a lot, although in the last part, when they do get out of the island the book feels more aged.

Robinson Crusoe... it's more difficult to enjoy in some parts, but you really have to judge it with different standards, taking into account how long ago it was written. I mean, isn't it often considered the first English novel? Defoe had to be inventing the wheel.

Treasure Island, although not exactly a Robinsonade like the others, is a great adventure story. Deserving of its classic status.

On the other hand, I found The Swiss Family Robinson disappointing, when I read it in preparation for Verne's sequel (The Castaways of the Flag). Of course, it was also a very old novel (1812), so almost a century after Robinson Crusoe but also almost a century before Verne's sequel (1900). I guess Wyss also had to invent the wheel in some ways, not having all those now classic adventure stories of the 19th century to build on.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I found The Swiss Family Robinson disappointing, when I read it in preparation for Verne's sequel (The Castaways of the Flag)…

So did I. It was in my Companion Library set of books in the latter 1960s. There were maybe three different sets in different years, double sided books and all probably PD content even then. Mine was maybe the second version. I gave the paper set to my grandchildren and created a virtual ebook collection (all pd) with the titles of all three editions and some logical sequels added (not always by same authors). I've given those to the family members with ereaders. Strangely my mum had taken the set away in 1974 (I think) and my sister gave it back to me just a couple of years ago.

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is old (1719). Did it partly inspire Gulliver's Travels (1726 Satire, mistakenly promoted as stories for children?)? I've been meaning to read Pamela (Pd from gutenberg) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela;_or,_Virtue_Rewarded from 1740 which some regard as the first "modern" novel.
I've read a version of A True Story and it certainly rates as old SF
I've also read various translations of Homer, Welsh, Irish and Norse stories which are akin to adventure novels.

A True Story (Ancient Greek: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, Alēthē diēgēmata; Latin: Vera Historia or Latin: Verae Historiae), also translated as True History, is a long novella or short novel[1] written in the second century AD by the Syrian author Lucian of Samosata

Certainly the 18th C. is the start of "modern" novels. Not just Austen (who overlaps), but Horace Walpole's "Castle of Otranto" (1764)* spawned the Gothic Genre, which Jane Austen so well makes fun of in Northanger Abbey (1818). All the books Austen mentions in her books are real and available. I'm gradually reading them, but some of the titles I got are badly proofed & formatted OCR, so I exported the ebooks as RTF and have been cleaning them up in LO Writer as well as separating omnibus collections.

[* Read it maybe last year or year before and it's a bit mad!]

 

[farseer2]

but some of the titles I got are badly proofed & formatted OCR

I'm surprised about that. Normally you can find more or less decent versions of public domain classics in Project Gutenberg or similar sites. I mean, decent in the sense of at least being proofed.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Only a few of the titles that Jane Austen mentions are on Gutenberg, and yes Gutenberg stuff is properly proofed.

 

[farseer2]

Only a few of the titles that Jane Austen mentions are on Gutenberg, and yes Gutenberg stuff is properly proofed.

I see, yes, the "horrid novels" are rather obscure. Normally you can find old books in PG or a similar site (Fadedpage, PG Australia...) but some of these don't seem to be anywhere. The ones that are available somewhere usually have a link at the bottom of the wikipedia article.

This ebook appears to have all of the novels, though, at a cheap price:

The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) - Kindle edition by Parsons, Eliza, Radcliffe, Ann, Flammenberg, Ludwig, Marquis de Grosse, Lotham, Francis, Regina Maria, Roche, Sleath, Eleanor, Mataev, M. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) - Kindle edition by Parsons, Eliza, Radcliffe, Ann, Flammenberg, Ludwig, Marquis de Grosse, Lotham, Francis, Regina Maria, Roche, Sleath, Eleanor, Mataev, M. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device...

www.amazon.com

 

[Ray McCarthy]

This ebook appears to have all of the novels, though, at a cheap price:

It's very poor quality, or was when I bought it.

 

[farseer2]

It's very poor quality, or was when I bought it.

I see. These guys who sell public domain books but it's just OCR without even a basic proofread, probably ripped from Internet Archive or somewhere similar, are kind of annnoying. I mean, I suppose it's better than nothing, but at least they should make it clear what they are selling.

 

[farseer2]

(61) Le Secret de Wilhelm Storitz (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz, 1910) (1 volume) 54K words


The 61st and second to last Extraordinary Voyage, the seventh one published posthumously, takes place in the fictional Hungarian city of Ragz. It's the last science fiction novel by Verne (if we don't count some futuristic technology in "The Barsac Mission"), and despite the urban setting it also has some elements of Gothic horror, combined in a way that reminded me of "The Carpathian Castle".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: French engineer Henri Vidal is invited by his younger brother Marc to visit him in the (fictional) city of Ragz, Hungary, on the occasion of his wedding. Marc is engaged to Myra Roderich, from a respected and well-liked local family. Before leaving Paris, Henri learns that a man named Wilhelm Storitz had proposed to Myra, but had been refused. Wilhelm, who is the son of a famous physicist and chemist, the late Otto Storitz, has sworn vengeance against the family that rejected him, claiming to have powers beyond human understanding. Soon it becomes apparent that Wilhelm's threats were not empty, and he uses his astonishing powers to harass the Roderich family in an attempt to prevent the wedding.


As always for these posthumous novels, I'm reading the version that was originally published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages, the one edited and modified by Michel Verne, and not Jules Verne's unedited manuscript. In the case of this novel, Michel's changes are less extensive than in the previous two novels: He just changed the timeframe, taking the story to the 18th century, and made a modification to the ending, making it happier.

Moving the story from the 19h to the 18th century seems rather pointless, since it doesn't really play a role in the story. According to the correspondence between Michel and the publisher it was done at the request of the publisher. Maybe he thought that taking the story back one century would make the popular superstition around Otto Storitz's work seem more natural, although I think that in fact the end of the 19th century would work better for the kind of scientific discoveries that his son Wilhelm put to such evil use.

The change to the ending is easier to understand, being an attempt to make the story more pleasing to the general public and therefore more commercial.

The plot here was a bit thin, and maybe it would have worked better as a novella rather than a novel. As a result, the first part is slow, which is something unusual in Verne's shorter novels (the one-volume ones). We get an account of Henri's trip to Hungary, and in the short section where he sails down the Danube we probably are treated to more descriptions about the river and the riverside cities than we got in "The Danube Pilot", where the whole novel was devoted to such a trip. Not that there are that many descriptions here, it's just that there were barely any in "The Danube Pilot".

The characterization is quite conventional. The female characters are delicate, quick to faint and lose their minds. I mean, Verne is a writer of his time, and I don't ask for all of his female characters to be like the title character from "Mistress Branican" or like Paulina Barnett from "The Fur Country", but this fragility was a bit excessive. The male characters are also pretty conventional, nothing like the Kaw-djer from the previous novel ("The Survivors of the Jonathan"), who was full of internal conflict.

Verne's dislike of Germany, which as I have commented elsewhere began after the disastrous Franco-Prussian war, is apparent here, while Hungary is described as being friendly with France.

The plot includes a couple of unlikely coincidences. However, even a minor Verne has good things to offer, and once the hostilities began in the second half of the book, the atmosphere became tense and frantic, in a very enjoyable manner. I think Verne made the right choice in telling the story from Henri Vidal's perspective, since for this kind of story a first-person narration makes the reader feel closer to the characters as they go through the whole ordeal.

Readers familiar with H.G. Wells' work will notice that the premise of this story is similar to one of Wells' most famous novels. Wells' novel was published before this one, and maybe Verne got the idea from there but, beyond the premise, the two stories are different. Still, the idea is more what one would expect from Wells than from Verne. After all, Verne's science fiction was usually more grounded on contemporary scientific knowledge, while Wells didn't let a lack of scientific basis deter him. This is definitely more a Wells kind of plot.


Enjoyment factor: I did enjoy it, despite some flaws. Maybe a minor work, but in the second half the atmosphere was suitably disquieting and the whole thing was entertaining.


Next up: The Barsac Mission

 

[Windshadow]

Ah, but Golding was setting out to refute the "Noble Savage" idea, and probably they they were English Public School boys. An English Public school is an expensive private establishment famous for producing bullies. I've known some from English Public Schools since I read it and it made it even more believable.

I had a close friend who attended the United Services College in the 1950s and went on to Oxford and then Harvard for a PhD in archaeology, topping that doctorate with a DD from yale and ending up as a Unitarian minister. He told me that Stalky & Co was little changed from Kipling's Portrait
From Wikipedia:
Stalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of school stories whose three juvenile protagonists display a know-it-all, cynical outlook on patriotism and authority. It was first published in 1899 after the stories had appeared in magazines during the previous two years.
It is set at a school dubbed "the College" or "the Coll.", which is based on the actual United Services College that Kipling attended as a boy.[1]

The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised. For example, Beetle pokes fun at an earlier, more earnest, boys' book, Eric, or, Little by Little, thus flaunting his more worldly outlook. The final chapter recounts events in the lives of the boys when, as adults, they are in the armed forces in India. It is implied that the mischievous pranks of the boys in school were splendid training for their role as instruments of the British Empire.

George Orwell wrote in 1940 that Stalky had "had an immense influence on boys' literature".[2]

 

[farseer2]

It's not just his school that Kipling took as inspiration. Also his group of friends. "Beetle" is Kipling himself, "M'Turk" is George Charles Beresford, and the leader of the group, "Stalky", is Lionel Dunsterville, who would go on to have a brilliant career in the British army.

Kipling also wrote a poem about his school, which is interesting because it shows how it trained the students to work in the army or the administration of the empire, so that they ended up dispersed all over the world. The "famous men" are the teachers, the "two hundred brothers" are the students, and the "twelve bleak houses by the shore" were the twelve buildings that made up the United Services College, which was located by the sea, at a village with the curious name of "Westward Ho!", exclamation sign included:

A School Song

'Let us now praise famous men' -
Men of little showing -
For their work continueth,
And their work continueth,
Broad and deep continueth,
Greater than their knowing!

Western wind and open surge
Took us from our mothers -
Flung us on a naked shore
(Twelve bleak houses by the shore.
Seven summers by the shore! )
'Mid two hundred brothers.

There we met with famous men
Set in office o'er us;
And they beat on us with rods -
Faithfully with many rods -
Daily beat us on with rods,
For the love they bore us!

Out of Egypt unto Troy -
Over Himalaya -
Far and sure our bands have gone -
Hy-Brazil or Babylon,
Islands of the Southern Run,
And Cities of Cathaia!

And we all praise famous men -
Ancients of the College;
For they taught us common sense -
Tried to teach us common sense
Truth and God's Own Common Sense,
Which is more than knowledge!

Each degree of Latitude
Strung about Creation
Seeth one or more of us
(Of one muster each of us),
Diligent in that he does,
Keen in his vocation.

This we learned from famous men,
Knowing not its uses,
When they showed, in daily work -
Man must finish off his work -
Right or wrong, his daily work -
And without excuses.

Servant of the Staff and chain,
Mine and fuse and grapnel -
Some, before the face of Kings,
Stand before the face of Kings;
Bearing gifts to divers Kings -
Gifts of case and shrapnel.

This we learned from famous men
Teaching in our borders,
Who declared it was best,
Safest, easiest, and best -
Expeditious, wise, and best -
To obey your orders.

Some beneath the further stars
Bear the greater burden:
Set to serve the lands they rule,
(Save he serve no man may rule ),
Serve and love the lands they rule;
Seeking praise nor guerdon.

This we learned from famous men,
Knowing not we learned it.
Only, as the years went by -
Lonely, as the years went by -
Far from help as years went by,
Plainer we discerned it.

Wherefore praise we famous men
From whose bays we borrow -
They that put aside To-day -
All the joys of their To-day -
And with toil of their To-day
Bought for us To-morrow!

Bless and praise we famous men -
Men of little showing -
For their work continueth,
And their work continueth,
Broad and deep continueth,
Great beyond their knowing!

The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised. For example, Beetle pokes fun at an earlier, more earnest, boys' book, Eric, or, Little by Little, thus flaunting his more worldly outlook.

Yes, they have fun reading quotes of Eric and mocking them. Then again, Eric is very mockable. I have read it and it's very dramatic and heavy-handed in its morality, to the point of being mean-spirited, with horrible things happening the the main character because he deviated from exemplary behavior. Even though it wasn't badly written, I enjoyed much more Tom Brown's School Days or Talbot Baines Reed's books (The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's...), which aren't mean-spirited at all.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I liked Talbot Bains Reed's. I've read Stalky & Co as a teenager and recently. I read Tom Brown's School Days long ago and mostly forgotten it. Not read Eric. I've read P.G. Wodehouse's School stories.

I think I enjoyed the old Girls' Schools books better: Angela Brazil, L.T. Meade, Evelyn Sharp etc. Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer did about 70 book between 1922 and 1968, but they mostly have the same plot. Enid Blyton's two school series are obviously inspired by the older Girls School stories (1941-1945 and 1946-1951, so late compared to others). These were the only two series she planned and made notes on. Blyton also wrote between 1922 and 1968, but almost 800 titles.

 

[farseer2]

(62) L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac (The Barsac Mission, 1919) (2 volumes) 122K words


The 62nd and last Extraordinary Voyage was published in 1919, 14 years after Jules Verne's death. With this, the great cycle of stories that was Verne's lifetime work is finished. Here, we readers are taken to a secret city filled with technological wonders, on the sands of the Sahara, close to the Niger River. This location is not lacking in symbolism: In the first Extraordinary Voyage, published 56 years earlier, a balloon carrying Dr. Samuel Fergusson and his companions flew over the great African desert, very close to that point. Sixty-two novels later, we return to the same place and the circle is closed. In English, it has also been published in two volumes with the individual titles of Into the Niger Bend, and The City in the Sahara.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: In England, the Buxton family, with a long tradition of selfless service to their country is drowned in shame. The eldest son was killed in Africa, a traitor to his country, and the second son has disappeared after stealing the money of the bank he worked for. Meanwhile, in France, the parliament debates giving voting rights to the black population in French West Africa. To find out on the ground whether those populations are ready for citizenship, a study mission is sent, led by the experienced politician monsieur Barsac. When the French mission gets to Africa, they are joined by Miss Jane Buxton, who intends to travel to the place where his eldest brother died, determined to clear his name.


This novel was published in 1919, 9 years after the previous novel in the series ("The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz") and 14 years after Jules Verne's death. In English, it is usually published in two volumes: "Into the Niger Bend" and "The City in the Sahara".

The novel, like all the posthumous Extraordinary Voyages, was published only under Jules' name. However, in the case of this last novel it was discovered much later that most of the writing had been done by Michel Verne. Michel combined two works his father had only started, one about a study mission to Africa and another about a city in the African desert.

The plot is quite eventful, combining Verne's scientific speculation with his exploration travels, humor and family revenge drama.

The beginning of the story is strong, with a terse description of the bank robbery that reads like a heist thriller. However, after an entertaining description of how the Barsac mission was formed, once the travelers get to Africa and start traveling on land, the level of the story goes down somehow.

This African trip makes up most of the first half of the novel. There are few of those geographic descriptions that we can find in some Verne novels. For some that would be a blessing, but I thought that maybe it went too far in that direction. For a travelogue, I would have liked a stronger sense of what the regions they went through were like.

A lot of the narration in this section is told in the form of long articles written by one of the characters, Amédée Florence, a journalist attached to the mission. Amédée's voice is entertaining and often funny, although much more attention is paid to the personalities of the travelers, with particular emphasis on the antics of one of them, Monsieur de Saint-Bérain, than to the purpose of the mission. Saint-Bérain, who is Miss Jane Buxton's nephew (although in this case the aunt happens to be much younger than the nephew) is one of those clumsy, easily distracted Vernian heroes, who is always getting into humorous scrapes. Perhaps this resource is used too much in this part of the novel. It becomes clear, however, that some nefarious hand is trying to sabotage the mission. I found it frustrating that the characters remained oblivious when it was so obvious for the reader.

Then, in the second part of the novel, the travelers get to the hidden city of Blackland and find out who is the enemy that conspired against their trip. This section starts weakly, with too long descriptions of the physical layout of the city, but then it gradually becomes more interesting as we see some of the futuristic technology the city has acquired and the purpose to which it is put.

I said in my review of the previous novel that "The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz" was the last science fiction novel by Verne, but after reading this one I have to rectify: I believe that the speculative content in the second part of this novel is enough to call it science fiction, including drones, remote surveillance systems and cloud seeding.

The final part of the story is epic, providing a suitable end to the novel and to the Extraordinary Voyages themselves.

I have read that in this novel Verne shows some anti-colonial ideas, featuring a revolution of the indigenous population against their colonial rulers. It's not quite like that, however. While there is an uprising against white rulers, it's not really against colonial authorities, but against an oppressive gang of outlaws who had enslaved the population. The Barsac mission itself is part of the debate about whether to grant citizenship rights to the black population of the colonies, but in the novel, particularly in the journalist's tongue-in-cheek reports, there are many remarks that would be racially insensitive by modern standards. No different to other adventure novels set in Africa during the 19th or early 20th century.

The novel does feature, however, a strong heroine, since Jane Buxton is worthy of joining the not too numerous ranks of Verne's "strong female characters", with the likes of Paulina Barnett from "The Fur Country" or Mistress Branican from the homonymous novel.

And this is it. Reaching the end of the last Extraordinary Voyage brought a poignant feeling. We have traveled over the seven continents and even under them, we have sailed on (and under) the different oceans, we have been to space and to the two poles, we have explored the limits of 19th century knowledge and technology. As I closed the book, I felt an impulse to jump on Dr. Fergusson's balloon and start the journey again, right away. But before any such thing, I still have some reading to do as part of this project: the short stories that are also part of the Voyages, which I have left till the end, and a few novels which are not part of the Voyages but that I'm including as a bonus.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed most of it. This one was kind of irregular, maybe as a result of being a combination of two different Jules Verne stories and featuring a lot of Michel's writing, but it was never boring, except maybe in the beginning of the second part, where the descriptions of the layout of the city became long-winded. I thought as a travelogue it was lacking, but as family drama/science-fiction it was interesting and had appealing characters. It included an incredible coincidence that allowed Captain Marcenay to receive an appeal for help from Blackland.


Next up: The short stories

 

[farseer2]

Having read the 62 novels that make up the Extraordinary Voyages, it's the turn of the short fiction. To begin with, I read the seven novelettes and short stories that, without belonging to a short story collection, were published as part of the Voyages, accompanying one of the novels. Most of them appeared elsewhere before being published in book form.


(1) Les Forceurs de blocus (The Blockade Runners, published with A Floating City, 1871) 17K words

Plot: Due to the disruption in trade caused by the American Civil War, the textile industry in Glasgow is stopped, in what was called the "cotton famine". A Scottish merchant builds a fast steamship to defy the naval blockade set around Charleston harbor by the Union, in order to sell weapons and buy cotton from the Confederates. However, a new "cabin boy" and his "uncle", a sailor who joins the ship at the last moment, turn out to be the daughter of a Northern Anti-Slavery activist imprisoned in Charleston and her protector.

Comment: Well, this was certainly in Verne's style, only with a plot more straightforward and unadorned than his novels. I enjoyed how the supposed sailor proved not to have ther slightest idea about ships. Later, however, we see that the hapless sailor is also a most determined and brave man. His "nephew" was a girl in disguise, a plot element that Verne also used in "The Mighty Orinoco". This one came first, though, since The Mighty Orinoco was written a couple of decades later. The girl proves to be brave and full of spunk, staying on deck during the naval action, even if she did not take part in the adventure on land. There is, of course, a romance. Most of the adventure on land happened "off camera", though, as that part of the story was told from the perspective of those who remain on the ship. It was interesting to see a foreign but contemporary perspective on the American Civil War. This novella could easily have been extended into a full novel. Nice enough read, published together with the novel "A Floating City", also set on a ship.


(2) Martin Paz (Martin Paz, published with The Survivors of the Chancellor, 1875) 17K words

Plot: Set in Lima, Peru, during the 1830s, this is the story of the young Indian Martín Paz, the son of the leader of an indigenous group that is preparing a revolt. Just as the insurgency is about to break out, Martín falls in love with Sara, fiancée of the wealthy mestizo Andrés Certa and, it is believed, the daughter of Samuel, a Jewish usurer. After wounding Certa, Martín becomes a fugitive and finds refuge in the house of a generous Spanish marquis. He will have to choose between his love for Sara and his loyalty towards his father's revolt.

Comment: A romantic story, more tragic than usual for Verne. It's interesting that it was published accompanying "The Survivors of the Chancellor", which is also kind of bleak. The Peruvian setting, filled with racial tensions, was interesting, although I have my doubts on how deep Verne's historical research was. Some parts felt rushed because of the novella-length. For example, Martín really connects with the Spanish marquis, who comes to regard him almost as a son, but in the story it's not clear why. It just happens without us seeing how. In some ways it's of its time: it has a Jewish usurer villain (more stereotypical, in my opinion, than the one in "Off on a Comet"), and assumes that Catholic faith is somehow more virtuous.


(3) Un drame au Mexique (A Drama in Mexico, published with Michael Strogoff, 1876) 8K words

Plot: In 1825, off the islands of Guam on a passage from Spain, Lieutenant Martinez, and his associates plot a mutiny on board of two Spanish warships. Conspirators murder Captain Don Orteva, take command of the ships, and plan to sell them to the republican government in Mexico. On arrival in Acapulco, Lieutenant Martinez and Jose embark on a cross-country trip to Mexico City to negotiate the sale. However, Martinez becomes increasingly fearful that he is being pursued.

Comment: Despite its short length, it's quite eventful, with action at sea and on land, showing a curious moment in history when the newly-constituted Mexican republic still did not have a navy. There's time for some quick descriptions of Mexico's geography. I was surprised by the attempt at psychological terror at the end. Verne is not Poe, but still a nice story.


(4) Les révoltés de la Bounty (The Mutineers of the Bounty, published with The Begum's Millions, 1879) 7K words

Plot: The story of the real-life mutiny on the Bounty.

Comment: An account on the mutiny, then the story of what happened to captain Bligh and the men who remained faithful to him, after being abandoned on a boat, and finally the story of what happened to the mutineers. This story, is of course well-known nowadays through movies or books and, despite being factual, it is rather extraordinary, one case where real life does not fall behind fiction. The first two parts are told like a regular story, including the dialogues between the characters, and the story of the mutineers is told more quickly, as a non fiction explanation. Entertaining, and the subject deserves a whole novel.


(5) Dix heures en chasse (Ten Hours Hunting , published with The Green Ray, 1882) 5K words

Plot: First-person account of the disappointments of a novice hunter on his first, and only, hunt.

Comment: Light, humorous account, supposedly autobiographic, of a hunting day. The narrator has been invited and it's his first time. The tone is self-deprecating, and the author looks at himself and his companions with satirical eyes. Numerous funny remarks, although perhaps will be funnier for people more familiar with hunting.


(6) Frritt-Flacc (Frritt-Flacc, published with The Lottery Ticket, 1886) 3K words

Plot: A doctor who only treats the sick for money. In the middle of a stormy night (“Frritt…! It's the wind that breaks loose; Flacc…! It's the rain that falls in torrents”), someone needs help and the doctor refuses to go unless he gets paid, and paid well, first. Finally the doctor gives in to the sound of the coins...

Comment: A very short fantasy story that could be called a fairy tale, or maybe horror.


(7) Gil Braltar (Gil Braltar, published with The Flight to France, 1887) 2K words

Plot: A crazy Spanish hermit named Gil Braltar dreams of reconquering Gibraltar from the British, with the help of his army of local barbary macaques.

Comment: A silly, very short story. Some digs at British imperialism, but mostly very silly.