[db105]

Paris au XXe siècle (Paris in the Twentieth Century, written around 1860, first published 1994) (1 volume) 38K words


Like "Backwards to Britain", Verne wrote this around 1860, when he still had not published any novels (although he had published some plays and stories). Again like "Backwards to Britain", the editor Hetzel rejected it, calling it lackluster and lifeless, so Verne set it aside and forgot about it, until it was rediscovered and published in 1994, close to a century after the author's death. Therefore, it's not part of the Extraordinary Voyages, and it lacks the editing and polishing that a novel would normally go through before publication.

While "Backwards to Britain" was a travelogue, "Paris in the Twentieth Century" is science fiction. It tells the story of a young man called Michel, who is finishing his studies in the year 1960, in a futuristic version of Paris (well, futuristic since the novel was written a century before that date). Being an orphan, he is poor and depends on the charity of unsympathetic relatives. Additionally, he possesses an artistic temperament, at a time when art is despised as unproductive, and only numbers, technology, commerce and profit are appreciated.

The premise reminded me of Verne's short story "In the Twenty-ninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889", included in the collection "Yesterday and Tomorrow". That short story showed us a day in the life of a far-future newspaper magnate. It was short on plot, and mostly a pretext to show us some technological and scientific wonders. In the case of "Paris in the Twentieth Century", the situation is somewhat similar: there is not much plot, and Verne's objective is showing us a possible future society. We see some important technological advances, but the emphasis in this case is sociological. Basically this 20th century society has completely abandoned the arts and humanities in favor of productivity.

This disregard about the arts goes to extremes that make this a dystopia. Michel wins a prize for Latin poetry, but he is mocked and jeered at when he receives the award. Then he starts working in a bank, doing a job he hates. He meets some like-minded people, but ultimately this is a story of alienation and despair.

The conventional wisdom is that, as a young writer, Verne was optimistic about technological progress, and during the last part of his life he became more cautious and disillusioned. However, the fact that Verne wrote this at the very beginning of his career as a novelist goes to show the limitations of that conventional wisdom. This novel shows that a certain weariness about technological progress was already there. Perhaps the reason we do not see more of it in his works at this point is the influence of his editor, Hetzel, and, in general, commercial pressures.

So how good is this story? I found it interesting, at least most of it, but at the same time I can understand why Hetzel rejected it. It is very short for a novel (the only other Verne novel that can be compared in terms of length is "A Floating City"). However, the lack of a clear plot made me feel that it would have worked better as a novelette. There are some long dialogues about literature and the arts that may be a bit pretentious, and descriptions of the future Paris that went on for too long.

I liked reading it, and seeing Verne's ideas about the future, but it is not a thrilling story. A lot of his cultural concerns still seem relevant today. I was amused by the situation of the dramatic arts, where there was a public institute devoted to remaking and adapting classic works, while sucking all the individuality out of them... not that different from modern Hollywood, maybe? Some of the technology he describes is not that different from what was really available in 1960. It's not where I would advice you to start if you are new to Verne, however.