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(43) Clovis Dardentor (Clovis Dardentor, 1896) (1 volume) 58K words


The 43rd Extraordinary Voyage takes us to the Mediterranean Sea and the north of Africa. The locations more extensively described are the city of Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, and the province of Oran, in Algeria.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Two recently orphaned cousins (Jean Taconnat & Marcel Lornans) are traveling from Cette, France to Oran, Algeria to enlist in the French army (5th Chaussers d'Afrique). On their trip across the Mediterranean, they meet the Désirandelle family and their friend Clovis Dardentor. Dardentor is accompanying the family on their trip to Oran, where the son (Agathocle) is to meet a girl (Louise Elissane) whom it was arranged long ago that he would marry. A discussion on board ship gives Jean Taconnat the idea that either he or his cousin should save the life of Clovis (from fight, flood or flame), so that legally they can be adopted. On a tour of the Algerian countryside, Jean waits for an opportunity to save Clovis, and Marcel becomes enamored with Louise.


Rather than an intense adventure, this novel is a gentle, character-based comedy. There are a few moments of adventure and danger (it wouldn't be Verne otherwise), but mostly it describes a sightseeing trip, first by ship through the Mediterranean and later by land inside Algeria.

So this is part travelogue, part light comedy based on the dialogues and the personalities of the characters, some of them eccentric, some good-humored and some rather ridiculous. It is more character-oriented than most Verne novels, which tend to be more plot-oriented.

There is a romance, which, for all of Verne's reputation for writing about men going on adventures, happens with some frequency in his works ("The Green Ray", "The Archipelago on Fire", "The Lottery Ticket", "Mathias Sandorf"...). As I commented in my review of "The Green Ray", writing about romance is not Verne's forte, so it's a good thing that the emphasis is more on the comedy, and the travel descriptions/adventure elements.

It's not a novel that takes itself very seriously, and it's another example of Verne's pleasant sense of humor, with a slightly burlesque tone in the narration and dialogues. For other examples of Verne novels with an element of comedy you could check "Godfrey Morgan" and "Captain Antifer", among others.

This story was inspired by two plays, Verne's own one-act comedy "Un fils adoptif", and a four-act comedy titled "Le Voyage de M. Perrichon", by Eugène Labiche. Between those two, a lot of the premise of this novel is covered. Even though this is the only one of Verne's novels that is inspired by a play, Verne loved theater. In fact, before starting his career as a novelist, he wrote some plays, with modest success. Later, after making his name with the Extraordinary Voyages, he actually made more money from plays based on his most famous novels than from the novels themselves.

This theatrical influence and the relaxed tone of the narration is shown in the last line of the novel: "But, it will be said, our story ends like a vaudeville. Well, what is it if not a vaudeville, without songs, but with the inevitable finale of marriage?"


Enjoyment factor: Not among my favorites, but not an unpleasant read either. It helps that I enjoy Verne's sense of humor. A few parts might strike some readers as too uneventful. They might ask, what's the point of describing the touristic highlights of Palma de Mallorca? But such is Verne's style, telling his readers about the locations visited in his books so that they, too, may travel with their imaginations. It does get a bit more intense in the interior of Algeria, but one has to admit that the trip here is touristic rather than exploration, and only occasionally there are moments of real danger. If you are looking for a good Verne adventure, you will probably enjoy the next book in the series more than this one.


Next up: An Antarctic Mystery, aka The Sphinx of the Ice Realm