Jules Verne Books

This book was so vulgar, and degrading to women, that it is the last book I'll ever lay my hands on. It just goes to prove what I've always thought of Jules Verne. You would have to be a bigot to enjoy such revolting pulp. You'd be better off burning crosses on your neighbors front lawn than to invest a single cent, or a single second of your time in this evil, profane work! And Jules Verne fancied himself a Christian! I hope God smited him! Lord knows he deserved a painfully slow and brutal end. I am just sorry I couldn't give this unholy work Zero stars!

While this book may not be a masterpiece of science fiction, it is quite enjoyable. To be honest, it has been more than a year since I read the book, but I remember that I started reading it when I went to bed around midnight from where I had left off the night before and I had more than half the book left to read. That night I could not go to sleep until I finished the book, simply because I had to know how it ended (excuse me for being a bit vague but I don't want to give anything away to anyone who might want to read the book).
This book may appeal more to children, in that the ideas are somewhat beyond the realm of the possible, but it is still enjoyable to any open minded adult, especially if you like to read to your kids. The beginning of the book starts out slow, focusing on several different characters who at one point or another have some interest in the meteor, but are pushed aside by the middle of the book and all but forgotten. The "greed" of governments may not be the real issue, or at least it is not the only issue, as the author points out that the extreme value of the meteor, if not distributed correctly, could destroy any of the economies of the world. I think I've already given too much away, so I'll stop here. To sum it all up, it is a nice little book to read, so don't be discouraged by some negative comments made by others, give it a chance and decide for yourself.

Bison Books is doing a very nice (and nicely packaged) series of "classic," hard-to-find sf works from the early years of the 20th century. Why they picked this one, aside from the fact that it's been out of print for a while, is beyond me. It is not really science fiction at all, but more a satirical comedy of manners about the human foibles of pride and greed. An amateur astronomer from a small town in Virginia discovers a golden meteor streaking across the sky. At the same moment, a friend of his across town also discovers the meteor. Most of the book details their comic rivalry in attmepting to claim credit for being the first to find this amazing sight. Scientists theorize that it is made of solid gold and could be worth more money that all the earth's riches put together. More ink is spilled in showing the greed of the world's nations as they all try to claim a piece of the meteor and try to predict where the gold will land. A subplot involving a comic figure named Zephyrin Xirdal, who is able to affect the meteor's path and bring it down where he wants, is ludicrous, but I give the book two stars just because I love Xirdal's name! Not very good Verne, and definitely not very good sf.

It's happened again.
A reputable publisher, Bison Books, distributed through the University of Nebraska Press, has attractively reprinted a Jules Verne book whole from the first British edition, on that basis calling it unabridged. Yet there is no acknowledgment of two fundamental facts: it is (of course) a translation from the French, and, most importantly, it is not derived from the actual text written by Jules Verne.
Presumably Bison Books decided to reprint this little-known Verne novel in the same year that brought DEEP IMPACT and ARMAGEDDON into movie theaters. The Chase of the Golden Meteor contains a refreshing variation on this particular science fiction theme, one far different from the rather trite disaster formula the cinema has brought us. On the positive side, Bison's reprint of the 1909 Grant Richards text published in London wisely retains 23 of the original 35 illustrations by George Roux from the French editions. Although never crediting the artist, the capable reproductions of the Roux illustrations make The Chase of the Golden Meteor one of the most visually pleasing Verne paperbacks to have appeared in years.
Unfortunately, nowhere in Bison's volume is any comment to be found on essential textual topics. There is no mention of the translator or what kind of work s/he did; as the enhancement of the title from La Chasse au météore to The Chase of the Golden Meteor indicates, this is an imprecise translation, rearranging paragraphs, cutting numerous adjectives and sometimes whole sentences according to the translator's whim.
Even more significant is the fact that The Chase of the Golden Meteor was translated from one of the seven posthumously published Verne novels that were guided into print by the author's son, Michel. For many years, the Verne family argued that Michel's changes did not go beyond stylistic polishing, updating, or possible verbal instructions from father to son. However, once the evidence became public over twenty years ago, what even Verne's original publisher had known was clear. Michel substantively altered all the works posthumously published under his father's name, in both minor and major ways, even originating two of the books himself.
Jules Verne had dealt with "outer space" twice before in his novels, in the duo of De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865) and Autour de la lune (Around the Moon, 1870), and in Hector Servadac (1877). The original ending of Hector Servadac had the comet Gallia impacting the Earth in the Caspian Sea, which swallowed it with minimal affect on the planet, despite widely anticipated destruction and global panic. However, Gallia proves to be 30% gold, turning it from a scarce into a plentiful mineral, and diminishing the value of gold reserves. Verne's publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, compelled a rewriting that eliminated this climax, and Verne waited over twenty years to expand the idea suppressed by the elder Hetzel (who had since died) into a full-length novel.
In La Chasse au météore, two Virginia astronomers simultaneously discover a meteor heading toward Earth, and the subsequent rivalry, despite its amusing vanity, threatens the impending marriage of their respective son and daughter. When the meteor is discovered to be composed of gold, the disputed priority suddenly takes on serious international dimensions, and worldwide speculation ensues over the future value of the mineral. However, when the meteor lands on the shore of Greenland, it tumbles into the inaccessible depths of the ocean.
In rewriting La Chasse au météore, Michel expanded his father's novel from 17 chapters to 21 chapters, and made it more complex from a literary standpoint as well as enhancing the science fiction aspect. Michel adds a technological element to the novel, inserting a major new character, Zéphyrin Xirdal, an erratic scientist who has invented a device that attracts the comet to Earth, and brings it down from its orbit under his direction. Xirdal has selected Greenland for the landing, but becomes so disgusted by the global hysteria and his avaricious uncle's attempt to manipulate the event for profit that he finally causes the meteor to fall into the sea. While his father's forecasts were usually limited to what could be extrapolated from the known science of the day, Michel went considerably beyond these confining bounds of probability. This was true not only of Michel's version of La Chasse au météore, but also of other science fiction stories he wrote and published under his father's name.
While Bison's reprint of The Chase of the Golden Meteor uses the 1909 translation of the Michel version, there is no recognition of the obvious question of the true authorship of the novel. Certainly a fresh translation of the novel Jules Verne had actually written, from the French text published by the Société Jules Verne, would be preferable. Perhaps the press's budget only permitted a reprint of the 1909 translation, but certainly they ought to have admitted the problem. This cannot be laid to a basic ignorance of the facts that would be so typical of a commercial publisher. In fact, an email exchange between several Verne enthusiasts and Bison's editor in mid-1998 over precisely these issues revealed the publisher's awareness of the situation.
Certainly Bison Books has done a service in making a rare and important Verne work, out of print for over two decades, more readily available-but in far from optimal form. For more than thirty years, editions of Verne have deliberately explored textual issues surrounding their translation and the source French, in the translations of Willis T. Bradley, Anthony Bonner, Walter James Miller, Mendor T. Brunetti, Edward Baxter, Ron Miller, William Butcher, Emanuel Mickel, Evelyn Copeland, Frederick Paul Walter, and many others (including, I should acknowledge, the 1993 Oxford University Press edition of Adventures of the Rat Family in which I participated). For a publisher striving for academic standing to simply ignore these aspects is no longer acceptable, and in that respect Bison's The Chase of the Golden Meteor is little more than a throwback to the 1909 version it reprints.

Okay, it's not _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_ or _From the Earth to the Moon_, but this late novel by one of the Godfathers of Science Fiction is an entertaining romp through Edwardian manners, comic nutcase characters, and some slippery and suspect science. Even the scientifically declined will quickly see the flaws in Verne's theories (a solid gold meteor?), and readers more inclined toward modern science fiction and action stories will quickly grow tired of the two melodramatic love stories and the endless comic buffoonery between competing amateur astronomers who want to lay claim to the golden meteor. But this novel really is -- plain simple -- a fun read. For 280+ pages, Jules Verne sweeps you off to a world of wonder and innocent scientific adventure, where even a threatened world wide economic collapse can be solved with some quick tinkering, and an eccentric scientist can forget about the most important accomplisment of his career on his way to the train station. And it's also funny...people often forget that Verne had a wickedly sly sense of humor. The gentlely "mad" scientist Xirdal, who cooks up a ridiculous scheme to retrieve the meteor (and, because this is a Jules Verne novel, it actually work), is a unique and charming character.

If all this sounds like your idea of a great time, I can't recommend _The Chase of the Golden Meteor_ highly enough. It's a romp, pure and simple. If you've enjoyed Verne's other works, you should sample this bit of little known fluff.

This 127-page novella presents another scientific genius gone amuck--like Dr. Moreau or Dr. Jekyll. The 19th century placed implicit faith in Science and the reasoning power of the human
brain. Yet by the end of the 1800's France's leading exponent of sci fi literature was beginning to question man's ability to make proper use of the inventions of his fertile mind: to benefit--not harm or enslave--his fellow men. Choosing to make his protagonist an American, JV sets the entire story in the New World--perhaps a tribute to Yankee ingenuity. Yet discerning readers will detect inevitable hints of his Gallic predilection.

John Strock of the not yet so-called FBI is assigned by its director to investigate strange and frightening circumstances at the Great Eyrie--an inaccessible basin (or volcanic crater?) in the remote Blue Ridge Montains of North Carolina. (European readers would be well advised to consult an atlas of the USA, to better follow the various chase scenes.) Inexplicable phenomena are reported in other regions of the alarmed country--both on land and on sea. Some arrogant scientst has invented a four-way transforming vehicle with which he plans to rule the world and even challenge the elements. Can no one prevent this self-proclaimed Master of the World from carrying out his inhumane threats? From Man of the Hour he is quickly relegated to Public Enemy #1, becoming the object and focus of intense federal investigation. Curious, determined and dedicated to the safety of the public, John Strock and associates are ready to pursue him--on, over or under the continent. If the devil did not exist, would man find it necessary to invent him? This story is a shade dark, but reads well enough until the last third of the book, where there is practically no dialogue. Still, an interesting tale, reflecting the author's disillusion with the the world. Captain Nemo carried to extreme.

This book might have been exciting back in the day it was written, but given the context of our modern world, it's a complete bore. Written in a dry, matter-of-fact style that kills all the excitement & adventure, the wonder & mystery is ruined by modern technology as well as by the style of writing. The idea of a car, boat & plane is nothing to the modern imagination, but must have been a big deal back when the book was written. Maybe it was a great book a hundred or so years ago, but now it's just a snooze-fest.

Verne has done it again! Once again Robur takes to the skies in a new ship the "Terror". Except this time his conquest of the elements covers them all. Water(both above and below the waves),Land(racing across the land at 100s of miles an hour), and the skies(soaring with the agility of the birds). Mr. Stock, a goverment ageant investigating a strange occurence in the mountains, is accidently pulled aboard the Terror and sees the true genius and maddness of Robur. In the end the very elements Robur sought to conquer destroy him. Showing that only nature can stop the "Master of the World".

This book is nothing like the movie with Vincent Price, which is actually a strange combination of both "Master of the World" and "Clipper of the Clouds". The story mainly follows the adventures of U.S. secret agent John Stark as he tries to solve the strange appearances of a fantasy craft along the eastern American seaboard. Robur doesn't make an appearance until the last quarter of the book, but its an exciting read. The chase across Lake Ontario and Robur's escape over Niagara Falls is one of the most memorable scenes from the book. The Terror definately stands out as one of the best of Verne's incredible machines since the Nautilus.

Verne's "Master of the World" is usually published with its prequel "Robur, the Conquerer" as part 1 of the book. In "Robur, the Conquerer" we meet the engineer Robur who has built the great aeronef "Albatross" which he proposes to use to destroy all fighting ships and machines in the world, thus ending once and for all the scourge of war. He kidnaps Mr. Prudent, a weapons maker from Philadelphia, his son-in-law and principle antagonist in their mutual desire to build the ultimate ballon, and Mr. Brock, an American agent, who accompany him on his tour of the world but who ultimately bring about his downfall. In "Master of the World", Robur returns at the helm of the amazing all-terrain vehicle, the "Terror", once again preparing to try to end war and assuming upon himself the title of "Master of the World". The Terror can zoom at great speeds across land or water, submerge like a submarine, or soar into the air on a pair of retractable rotors. This effort, too, comes to naught, but as we progress we see more of the genius and pain of Robur.

This book did not resemble 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. In fact, I would hazard to guess that it is a different book entirely. Still, I give it three stars because I am afraid of Jules Verne's vengeful ghost.

Jules Verne's "Magellania" is a fascinating glimpse into looking at life in an idealized, libertarian society. Here he has one of his most charismatic figures since Captain Nemo in the figure of the expatriate European Kaw-djer (name means "benefactor" in the local American Indian language) who forsakes his monastic existence to help a shipwrecked colony of nearly one thousand immigrants. Eventually he agrees to become their leader, judiciously ruling during times of famine and strife caused by a gold rush on the island. This translation is among the most lyrical I have read of Verne's works, yet I agree that the story often resembles more an outline for a great novel than a slender, well-written tale. Still, this is one of Verne's most interesting works since it is a fictious examination of his political philosophy, which was apparently a lot more libertarian in scope than many have regarded previously.

Jules Verne, the ardent supporter of capitalism? That is the greatest surprise in Magellania, the newly translated original text of the book previously known as The Survivors of the Jonathan. The latter was enlarged by roughly 60% from the text bequeathed to Verne's son and literary executor, Michel, prior to its 1909 publication (with the English-language appearance not occurring until 1962). In guiding to posthumous publication six of his father's completed novels, Michel altered all of them, but none so substantially as Magellania. The extent of Michel's intervention was unknown until the manuscripts in the elder Verne's hand were unearthed in France in the 1980s. ...
Magellania and The Survivors of the Jonathan relate the building of a new society on an island, but only three themes are treated in the same way by Michel and Jules Verne: the kindly attitude toward the Fuegians (including intermarriage with an Anglo Canadian woman), the valuation of national independence, and the horror of gold fever. Nonetheless, the introduction to Magellania by Olivier Dumas, president of the French Jules Verne Society, makes the case against The Survivors of the Jonathan with excessive vehemence. Although Michel's The Survivors of the Jonathan is a reflection of his own views, not those of his father, it is also a vivid, literary novel which comprehensively develops its many ideological crosscurrents.
The elder Verne's Magellania, by contrast, reads like an outline rather than a polished book. Half of Magellania, one hundred pages, pass with little happening, before the shipwreck that triggers the main plot. Too often the narrative is told, rather than shown through characters and events--and Michel's determination (along with that of his publisher, Louis-Jules Hetzel) to "flesh out" these limitations of the novel is understandable. Some of this same problem plagues other manuscripts that Verne completed but which neither he nor Michel saw into print, such as Journey to England and Scotland (translated as Backwards to Britain) and Paris in the Twentieth Century. Verne himself commented, "I consider that my real labor begins with my first set of proofs, for I not only correct something in every sentence, but I rewrite whole chapters. I do not seem to have a grip of my subject till I see my work in print," and Michel thought he had to interpret what his father would have changed in this phase.
For all the faults of Magellania, this is an important publication in English, elucidating the actual political thought of Jules Verne. A shipwreck of immigrants turn the unpopulated shore of Hoste Island into a prosperous colony. They overcome strife caused by radicals, the depredations of a gold rush, and most importantly, initially fail in self-government, turning to a benevolent dictator. Michel saw the inevitable outcome as bloodshed and discord in The Survivors of the Jonathan.
In Magellania, Jules Verne portrays his hero, the Kaw-djer (a local Indian term for benefactor), as leading the successful creation of a small, free nation along the lines of Verne's earlier Robinsonade novels The Mysterious Island, Two Year Holiday, and his Swiss Family Robinson sequel, Second Homeland. No less important is the Kaw-djer's commitment to free trade as a means of attracting business, while the taxes and restrictions imposed upon a neighboring island by Argentina hamper development. Hoste Island becomes a literal new beacon of hope and freedom in the New World, economically and politically. The novel ends on the beams flashing out from the Cape Horn lighthouse, built according to the Kaw-djer's vision to save ships from future wrecks in the region. Verne also lauds the nationalism of Hoste Island and its commitment to self-determination; Michel had portrayed these as failed goals in The Survivors of the Jonathan. Both versions of the story decry Argentina and Chile's imperialist assertions over the islands of Cape Horn.
Many scholars, most particularly Jean Chesneaux, suggested that The Survivors of the Jonathan indicated Verne had a sympathy for anarchism. This seemed plausible, given the inclinations of such classic scientific Verne heroes as Nemo and Robur, who share a similar fate with the Kaw-djer in Michel's version, in which he returns to his original convictions and an isolated life. However, Magellania proves that Jules Verne thought the opposite. Although the Kaw-djer began as an atheist and anarchist, whose beliefs made him a refugee from Europe, the demands of governing force him to renounce such impractical theories. Fleeing the territorial claims of Chile and Argentina, he had been on the verge of suicide at the time of the shipwreck. However, in guiding its outcome, creating orderly government and discovering a dawning faith in God, the Kaw-djer discovers fulfillment. Verne, who also served on the council of his home town of Amiens, may have felt much the same.
Ironically, with the debate over the merits of anarchism having lost cachet since the composition of Magellania in the 1890s, concerns over nationalism and free trade remain, and it is these aspects that give the novel its greatest relevance to modern readers. The translation, by Benjamin Ivry, seems to be faithful to the text, although I will defer to the more exacting judgement sure to come from the growing community of Verne translators. Fortunately, a number of parenthetical notes, some from the French edition, have been included. The Dumas introduction was poorly edited, confusing the titles of books and retaining outdated information only relevant to the original French edition; it should have been modified and updated to add the necessary information for English-language readers. Most of all, Magellania requires what the French edition included: a map of the region, with Hoste Island itself. The dust jacket offers a faux map-style cover, when an actual map page (such as given in Wesleyan University Press's new editions of The Mysterious Island and The Invasion of the Sea) would have been more useful. Nonetheless, Welcome Rain publishers must be lauded for undertaking the very first translation of the posthumously published Verne novels rewritten by Michel, and hopefully other such projects will follow.

Just finished reading this book and a grand tale it is! Verne is a master
craftsman! He justly deserves the title (together with H.G. Wells) of
"Father of Science Fiction." But whereas Wells developed science fiction
as a means of conveying definitive utopian visions, for Verne the genre
facilitates the exploration of classic dilemmas confronting humankind.

Think of "Mysterious Island" as "Robinson Crusoe" meets "Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea" and you'll get an idea of where Verne is headed
with this story. There is certainly the emphasis on technology, science
and learning with which all sci-fi fans are familiar. What makes the
book worth reading, however, is the variation it represents on classic
themes found throughout literature. "Mysterious Island" is essentially
the age-old story of man versus nature and man versus his fellow man and
what consequences these confrontations have upon the human condition in
general. The interaction of these opposing forces constitutes the
enduring appeal of "Mysterious Island" and make it much more than just a
science fiction story.

Considering Verne's reputation and how well he writes I am surprised his
works are not more often taught in school. Perhaps the moniker "Father
of Science Fiction" hangs too heavily with him. Maybe it would just be
too easy to write a report on his ideas. Whatever the case, many people
are acquainted with his works only through their movie versions, and that
is a lost opportunity! Verne's works seem worthy of consideration
equally great as those of Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Daniel Defoe,
or Jonathan Swift. It is a joy to read Verne's works to see how he
develops many of life's classic oppositions in his tales.

"Mysterious Island" does not represent Jules Verne's best work. Even the
Verne fan may find it somewhat dull or overwritten when compared with
better known works such as "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" or
"Around the World in Eighty Days." The latter two works do greater
justice to Verne's style and grace, especially his powers of characterization. But Verne's ability to create the classic oppositions
of the human condition and present them to the reader makes "Mysterious
Island"--along with his whole body of work--worthy of reading among the
best in world literature.

I love the work of Jules Verne, and this is by far his best work. The island is really a symbol for the world, and how we could make use with it and still live in harmony with it. This translation (Signet Classic version) was very readable, and I believe that it was not edited in any way, but I can't find that anywhere on the book itself. I only mention this, because some Jules Verne novels are shamelessly cut apart, and censor the reading before the reader even has a chance to judge. The introduction and afterword are negligible. The characters are great, and even though they may be a little unbelievable by today's standards, the whole point of the novel is about what GREAT men can do even with nothing to start with. A MUST read after 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (be especially careful which version of that book you get)

This is the 1875 translation, by WHG Kingston, which cuts sections of text, changes the names of the characters and is generally not faithful. Choose instead Sidney Kravitz's version for Wesleyan University Press to really understand what Verne intended to say.

I give this book a perfect score simply because I find it highly enjoyable. Make no mistake, though, the plot is basically the same as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" only this time set in the sky. Also, there is a racist depiction of an African-American servant who is very cowardly.

This novel is just one of Verne's many science fiction stories that ended up becoming (more or less) science fact. An amusing story at the start and end of the book concerns aeronaut enthusiasts who believe balloon travel is the way of the future. Robur (stating Verne's own beliefs that heavy machines being able to fly was possible and would be far superior) proves them wrong and becomes "conqueror of the skies." Others may have different opinions, but I found the book inspirational in that Robur's great willpower enable him to do the impossible (break free from gravity's hold) and become master of himself, not held down by anyone or anything.

Verne's Robur the Conqueror and Master of the World begins with almost Swift-ian satire as the reader is introduced to the members of the Philadelphia Institute, a scientific society in the process of launching a motorized balloon. It devolves into a meandering, and poor travelogue as the two principle members of the institute, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, are abducted by the mysterious Robur. Robur has crafted a heavier than air machine and despite seeing it operate while onboard the two prisoners stubbornly cling to their idea that only lighter than air ships are the wave of the future.

In trying to create another enigmatic character similar to Captain Nemo Verne leaves out ANY characterization or background on Robur. The man is completely one dimensional and therefore uninteresting and unsympathetic. The rest of the story is an around the world tour on Robur's ship the Albatross, part helicopter with multiple ascender propellers. Verne describes places from the prairies of America to the cities of China and India, but all literally from a distance as the ship never touches down at any point so no characters can interact or form any semblance of a story.

Continued in the Master of the World Vern introduces Strock the American Police officer who is sent to investigate mysteries in Georgia and later to chase equally mysterious road, water and submersible technological terrors across the United States. It is not hard to guess the operator of these machines is Robur again. Just as cardboard and just as devoid of motive for doing the things he does. The character of Strock is once again along for the ride in Robur's craft; always as narrator, never as participant. Dry and plodding with only the fact of Verne's uncanny forecast of technology to supply any interesting points.

When bright lights and strange aerial phenomenon begin to be seen around the world, everyone is perplexed as to what such a thing could be. But, when the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute (a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA balloon enthusiast society) are kidnapped by a seemingly mad engineer, Robur, they quickly find that he and his fantastic airship are responsible for the strange phenomenon. Robur has mastered heavier-than-air travel, with his giant electric-powered helicopter, and he is out to rebuild the world in his image. Can his poor prisoners escape from the clutches of Robur, and how will they stop his plans?

This book was first published in 1886 by that early master of science fiction, Jules Verne (1828-1904). In many ways it is reminiscent of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but set in the air. For it's time, it was quite forward thinking in its science, and it has a very interesting story. However, it does drag at times, and overall the author does not succeed in generating any real drama therein.

Also, there is another reason why this book will never be considered one of Monsieur Verne's great works, and this is the character Frycollin, the only African-American character in the story. He is presented as an unvarnished Stepin Fetchit-type character, complete with calling his employer "Master", even though he had never known slavery. Indeed, at one point, Mr. Verne mentions Frycollin crying, "Like a child, like the Negro he was..." Yes, I do know that you cannot demand modern thinking out of people of the past, but Verne does go far too far with this character, Frycollin is definitely the poison pill of this story.

So, let me just say that I found this to be an OK book, decidedly inferior to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and with the poison pill of racism included. Overall, I do not recommend this book.

For those who, like me, have found great pleasure in surrounding oneself with great literary works, the Easton Press edition books seem to have a lot of draw. However, it has been my experience that many of their novels by foreign authors can be found to contain older and flawed translations. So it is highly recommended that buyers be careful before making these costly investments. Sometimes, e.g. with 'Les Miserables', the cheapest paperback on the shelf is the best one you could buy! Happy reading.

The Easton Press edition of Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is one case to judge a book by its cover. Two other Easton Press editions: From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon are two more examples of this rule. To me, Easton Press has outdone itself with these gorgeous Verne covers. To brass tacks on the 20,000 Leagues edition: the English translation is by Mercier Lewis with an introduction by Fletcher Pratt and illustrations by Edward A. Wilson. One may have wished for one of the more modern translations, but the cover IS stunning.

This is the sequel to Jules Verne's earlier book, From the Earth to the Moon. Basically, we have a cartographic exploration of the lunar body, and exploration. Those aboard must also struggle to find a way back to Earth safely, so that they may continue to go on living, and not be the first human corpsicles on record.

The sequel to From the Earth to the Moon I found incredible, for the charaters make a very accurate map of the moon. However, they eventually get caught in a predicament of returning to Earth, but they make it back.

I very like this book and i wont that you send me the books and i very thenk to you.

Jules verne the author of Round the World in Eighty Days, which is a good science-fiction book, takes you into the world of Phileas Fogg. He is an englishman who wanted to
sail around the world in the shortest amount of time inhis time which would be in the 1800s.

I didnýt really like this book it was the one when you just start to drift off to sleep, because it is so boring.

Jules Verne has been one of my favorites authors since I first read his "Journey to the center of the earth". Combining the prophetic scientifical ideas and the masterly skill of a storyteller, Verne never fails to astound and fascinates his readers.

Although not an "juvenile" any more, I still from time to time grabbed one of his books from my bookshelf and regaled myself with his captivating voyages. I always wonder how can a man have all those great ideas; are they derived from his imagination or his industrious study on science?

Now Lottman's book partly answers the question and solves the mystery of Jules Verne, whose public image is often out of accord with his real life. Lottman's research, including a lot of Verne and his family and his friends' correspondences, is detailed and authoritive.

Many anecdotes are interesting. For example: the idea of "Twenty thousands leagues under the sea" was first suggested by George Sand! In his youth, Verne exceled in Greek and literature but his scores on physics and chemistry were often poor. And, many books of Verne are influenced by Hetzel, Verne's book publisher, whose opinion often changed the plot of the whole story; captain Nemo, whose identity had been originally a Pole sworn to revenging the russia, but due to Hetzel, was finally changed into a Indian prince.

However, this book does not make one truly "understand" the character of the founding father of SF. Intending to be objective, Lottman does not judge Verne but only lists all relating facts that, after a lot of exhausting descriptions, we sometimes still do not know the true character of Jules Verne and many strange incidents about him: why should a cousin(Gaston Verne) shoot his uncle(Jules Verne) and make him lame for the rest of his life? What's really wrong with Jules Verne's son, Michel Verne? We read a lot of scathing reprimands about the latter from the former's letters but still don't know the reason. Was Michel Verne really a prodigal or had he commited some horrible crime, which must be kept a secret?

In spite of the weaknesses mentioned above, Lottman's biography still deserves reading, especilly for those longtime Verne's Fans. Though the master's life is still an enigma, this book at least shed some light on it.

Several books on Jules Verne (1828-1905) have been translated from French into English, including biographies by Verne's cousin (1928) and grandson (1976), and a study of the political themes in Verne's novels by Jean Chesneaux (1972). Now, for the first time, the reverse has occurred: a book on Jules Verne originally written in English has been translated into his native language. Sadly, Herbert R. Lottman's new biography of Verne, also published in France (in a translation by Marianne Véron), is not worthy of holding such a distinctive position in Verne studies. Although described by St. Martin's Press on the dust jacket as the first "modern biography" of Verne ever written, there is a long tradition of writing about the author, not only in French, but in English as well.
Lottman offers little literary analysis of Verne's works, and that which is present is cursory and often ill-considered. While the details of Verne's life are more developed, they are frequently marred by the author's determination to indulge in amateur Freudian analysis and to draw often highly questionable conclusions from his biographical data.
Generally, Lottman's discussion of Verne's writing is shallow, seldom extending beyond simple plot analysis. There is little evidence that Lottman has personally studied Verne's more than sixty novels and many additional short stories, plays, non-fiction, speeches, and poems. Approaching Verne's books in chronological order, Lottman makes little effort to examine the links between the works or the broader themes and narrative formulae which characterize Verne's oeuvre as a whole. Important issues such as narrative structure, 19th-century ideology, and stylistic innovation in Verne's works discussed over the past few decades by writers and scholars on both sides of the Atlantic are almost totally ignored (despite the fact that the author cites many of these critical works in his endnotes).
Lottman does not elucidate the cultural conditions that have played such a large role in determining Verne's literary reputation, nor does he attempt to explain how Verne still remains a best-selling author in this context. His observations on Verne's influence on science, culture, and literature are perfunctory.
Lottman does occasionally raise tantalizing questions about Verne's personal life, but despite his subtitle, An Exploratory Biography, many of these points are then never investigated. For instance, Verne wrote to his brother in 1893: "You and I both committed an enormous and irreparable blunder; you know which one, without having to be specific. Tear up this letter. But what a life we'd have had, without that blunder." Despite Lottman's dwelling on Verne's anti-semitism, he fails to examine the impact of Jules and his son Michel's different reactions to the Dreyfuss Affair; Lottman is typically content merely to say, "it was not the only time a family split over Dreyfuss".
Instead of using such material as a key to exploring Verne's creative psyche, Lottman chooses to classify him according to a preformulated psychological profile. He sprinkles the book with bits of Freudian analysis, but never fully develops this methodology so that it might lead to a full portrait of Verne the man or writer. Lottman labels Verne an "anal" personality, which
is used as a catch-all justification to explain such diverse matters as Verne's worries about income and the spendthrift proclivities of his son Michel.
With this book, Lottman lives up to his reputation for meticulous attention to detail, although at times he seems to dwell on minutiae. For a nonacademic, commercial writer, Lottman has done an impressive quantity of research, taking advantage of the Verne libraries in Amiens and Nantes. He has thoroughly perused the well-indexed Bulletin de la Société Jules Verne, a quarterly which, since the 1960s, has published scholarly articles and primary texts about Verne. Extensive endnotes cover twenty-three pages in the English edition, and thirty pages in the French edition.
To Lottman's credit, he does follow in the footsteps of many French Verne scholars to correct a number of factual errors that have appeared in earlier Verne biographies, and incorporates much of what has been discovered in the two decades since Jean Jules-Verne's biography. Lottman is much interested in the business details of Verne's life, as might be expected from one also who
makes his living by his pen, and these financial matters receive a full airing. He provides the first thorough account in any English-language biography of Verne's collaborations with Adolphe d'Ennery on turning his novels into plays. On the other hand, Lottman offers little discussion of Verne's occasional collaboration on novels with Paschal Grousset (André Laurie), or of
the role played by Verne's son Michel in the composition of the posthumous Voyages Extraordinaires. In the last decade, the original manuscripts have appeared in print, revealing that the first versions published in the decade after Verne's death were extensively rewritten by, and in some cases originated with, Michel.
Lottman's prose is generally highly readable and engaging. He has labored to produce what he clearly intends to be the definitive biography of Verne. He has accumulated a wide array of data, but has been unable to synthesize this mass of information in a meaningful way. Lottman's book is especially disappointing because the time is so ripe for an account that would fuse the new biographical discoveries about Verne with the many insights of recent Vernian literary criticism. By analyzing the strictly material side of Verne's life, Lottman has neglected the creative talents and the well-springs of imagination that produced the fiction for which Verne is remembered. Those readers seeking to understand the reasons why Verne is one of the most widely translated and enduringly popular authors of all time will find little explanation in this biography.

A truly great graphic novel. Amazing visuals, beautiful use of color, fantastic action, and a classic story.

First of all, this is a stunningly produced book. Absolutely beautiful, rich, popping color inside and out, printed on lovely paper, great endpapers, all as one might expect from art publishers Abrams. However... the actual story is a haphazard postmodern deconstructivst mess -- so much so that the best advice one can give readers is not to bother reading, but to simply absorb Serge Micheli's art for its own sake.

The book was born from co-creators Riviere and MIcheli's childhood love for the works of pioneering science-fiction author Jules Verne -- especially 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In his afterword, Riviere talks about the influence of another pioneering work of science-fiction, Ian Watson's 1973 debut The Embedding, which explored linguistics and posited language as a means to bridge the gap between human consciousness and the otherness of the objective world. Somehow these two fascinations, along with a memoir by Verne's niece, resulted in this unfortunate blend of the fictional characters and world of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with the real world of Jules Verne as he was writing the story, along with a few other fictional characters. This isn't the worst premise in the world, a certainly successful examples of such a concept exist, however in this case the creators agreed that "above all, some kind of demiurgic madness was what [we] felt should be given paramount importance in the narrative we imagined".

Well, some people's madness is other people's mess. You get Verne as the tormented artist figure, a mysterious orphan, an Indian princess, a little demon, and a few other assorted weirdoes. There's occultism, weird green luminescent fluid, and drugs to spice things up further. You know you're in for a rocky ride when the back cover even admits that it is a "cryptic" tale. And if you haven't read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, it'll all be that much more confusing. This is the kind of free-form non-storytelling that probably would have gone over really well in the late '60s or early '70s (especially with some pot or mushrooms), but has little to offer the average graphic novel reader. It's doubtful it would have ever been translated and published outside of France, expect that Abrams is owned by a French media conglomerate...