Reading Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires

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(19) Les Tribulations d'un chinois en Chine (Tribulations of a Chinaman in China, 1879) (1 volume) 66K words


The nineteenth Extraordinary Voyage takes us to China. It's the second one taking place in Asia, after Michael Strogoff. It also abandons the more cautionary tone of the previous novel (The Begum's Millions), and presents us with a fun adventure story, with dramatism but also comedic elements.


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me, although it reminded me of movies that had taken the same premise.


What is it about?: A Chinese man, Kin-Fo, despite being young, wealthy and about to get married, is bored with life. When he receives news about the failure of his investments abroad, which leaves him in poverty, he decides to end his life. He signs up for an expensive life insurance policy that, in the event of his death within two months, will make his fiancée and his old mentor rich. Wanting to experience some emotions before dying, Kin-Fo asks his mentor, a former revolutionary assassin, to kill him before the policy expires. Unfortunately, when he changes his mind, the would-be killer proves impossible to locate.


Because of its plot, involving the travels of an eccentric millionaire and his comic-relief servant, this novel has been compared with Around the World in Eighty Days. I can see the similarities, but they are quite different in some ways.

Tribulations of a Chinaman in China is probably funnier. Not so much because of any jokes, but because of the situations and characters. We have the stolid millionaire who has arranged for his own murder but, now that he no longer wishes to die, is unable to cancel the arrangements and travels around China hoping to keep ahead of his murderer. We have the two agents of the American bank that sold him the insurance policy, who are determined to accompany him and keep him alive at any cost, at least until the policy expires. These two agents, of such identical appearance and temperament that they can be mistaken by twins, are an antecedent of Thompson and Thomson, the two bumbling detectives from the Tintin comics, except that Craig and Fry are much more competent. We have the lazy and incompetent servant, Soun, who after each of his gaffes gets a piece of his braid cut by his employer...

Verne, as always, is well documented in his descriptions of 19th century China, and I thought he did a good job when creating Chinese characters who, despite sharing the same universal human emotions, have a way of thinking different from his European characters. Without being in any way a deep philosophical novel, this one is more concerned than I would expect from Verne with questions about the meaning of life and the pursuit of happiness.

He is also critical of British imperialism here, decrying the pernicious effects of the opium trade.

Despite it being a simple adventure tale, Verne does not forget to include some cutting-edge technology, like phonographs and the Boyton apparatus (a kind of diver suit with some extra features).

So this is a fun, short adventure with a good premise (used later in several movies) and other interesting elements. It had everything to earn a place among Verne's best works. Unfortunately, for me at least, it did not always achieve that delicate balance between informative descriptions and action that I have seen in his best novels. Until we get to the last third of the novel there is not enough action, and because of that the story felt less dynamic than Around the World in Eighty Days.


Enjoyment factor: This was not a bad read. I enjoyed the premise and the characters, but it occasionally dragged a little. That improved by the end, but with this material Verne might have written one of his best novels if he had found a better balance between description and adventure.


Next up: The Steam House

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(20) La Maison à vapeur (The Steam House, 1880) (2 volumes) 116K words


The 20th novel of the Voyages Extraordinaries takes us to India. We had been there in Around the World in Eighty Days, but only in passing. Verne introduces here another one of his wondrous vehicles, although not one of his best known: the mechanical elephant, a steam-powered road vehicle that travelled along the paths and roads of India pulling two large carriages with all the comforts of a 19th-century house.


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


What is it about?: Nana Sahib is wanted for the atrocities he committed during the Sepoy revolt in India in 1857. Ten years later, an engineer named Banks invites Colonel Munro, Captain Hood, a Frenchman named Maucler and their associates to accompany him on a tour of the northern parts of India via a unique conveyance. The conveyance's engine resembles a huge elephant, only this elephant is powered by steam. As the adventurer's head north it becomes obvious to them that Colonel Munro (whose wife was reported killed at Cawnpore) has plans to for revenge. Unknown to him, Nana Sahib has similar intentions. (Plot description taken from http://epguides.com/djk/JulesVerne/works.shtml)


I have to admit that my first thought after reading about this vehicle was "OK, Verne is trying too hard. I mean, I can see the balloon, the Nautilus, the hollow projectile that travels to the Moon... but, a steam-powered elephant?" There are, of course, steam-engines designed to travel on roads instead of over rails, but this elephant walks on legs instead of using wheels, although the carriages it pulls go on wheels. It seems to me kind of unpractical, although nowadays they have built a giant machine inspired by Verne's elephant and it's a thing of wonder: search for videos of "Machines de L'ile Great Elephant" to see it.

Anyway, despite my initial misgivings about the vehicle, I'm fine with it after reading the novel. This felt a lot like a group of friends (the typical Victorian group that we expect in a Verne novel), traveling with an autocaravan all across India. Which is appropriate for the novel, because this is a trip done for pleasure, not for exploration.

This is a problem for Verne, actually. He was writing adventure books, but contemporary adventures, not historical adventures (they only seem historical to us because of how long ago they were written). The problem is that, in the last decades of the 19th century, while there were still unexplored parts of the world, most of the it was already known. And, like it or not, when it comes to adventure, exploration is more thrilling than tourism. Of course, Verne could have placed all his adventures in the depths of Africa, or the poles, or desert islands, or under the ground, or the sea... but it's not just the adventures he is interested in. He also wants to visit with us as much of the world as he can, and to be our guide and teacher about it.

So, this time, it's India's turn. Obviously, India was not unexplored, except for the most inaccessible parts of the Himalayas. It was, at the time, part of the British Empire, and a lot of it was densely populated. So we come across that problem: tourism is not as thrilling.

It's not the first time Verne deals with this. Books like A Floating City, Around the World in Eighty Days or Tribulations of a Chinaman in China also have this "tourism" feeling, and Verne manages not to let them become boring. Incidentally, those were all one-volume novels, while this one is two volumes. ¿Maybe this could get a bit too long for a travelogue?

I think Verne mostly avoids this pitfall. This is not the most fast-paced of his novels. Perhaps a few chapters of the first volume dealing with the cities they visit before getting to the Himalayas, or the first chapters of the second volume describing their hunting activities may try the patience of some modern readers, but I was fine with them (take into account that I enjoy Verne's Victorian style).

It's good that the plot is complemented by the story of the rebel leader Nana Sahib, a real-life leader who rebelled against Britain during the 1857 upraising and was responsible for several massacres of British civilians, including the wives and children of British officers. Then he disappeared without a trace after being defeated. In the novel he had survived, and was still full of hate for Coronel Munro, one of Verne's characters. The hate was mutual, because Munro's wife and mother in law had been murdered by Nana Sahib in the Cawnpore massacre, while Colonel Munro had killed Nana Sahib's lover, a leader herself in the rebellion, in the midst of a battle.

I enjoyed Verne's accounts of the Sepoy Mutiny. Despite his Victorian mindset, I think Verne was not completely unsympathetic to the Indian struggle for freedom (after all, didn't he make Captain Nemo a former Indian prince, sympathetic to all struggles against foreign oppression?). Here, Verne tells about the rebellion in a rather neutral way, describing atrocities committed by both sides, although Nana Sahib who, to be fair, was particularly savage in his methods, is the villain of the story, while Coronel Munro and the others, as representatives of European civilization, are the heroes. Certainly not an example of 21st century anticolonialism, but for his time Verne was not very imperialistic, although he shared the contemporary belief in the current superiority of Western civilization. I remember him discussing that in Five Weeks in a Balloon, where one of the characters said he believed Africa would the the most advanced part of the world in the future, once Europe's and America's natural resources were exhausted.

Anyway, the revenge plot between Nana Sahib and Colonel Munro helps keep the novel interesting.

There is a fair amount of hunting here, by the way. Captain Hood, one of the travellers, is a great hunter, much like Dick Kennedy in Five Weeks in a Balloon. For Verne, hunting for food or sport is part of the adventure, and clearly in the 19th century it had none of the negative connotations that it has for many people nowadays. There are some scenes where groups of animals make a coordinated attack on the caravan. I'm not an expert, but this sounded fanciful to me.

There are also dangerous storms, forest fires... even though India was not unexplored, there was still a fair amount of wilderness.

Most of the plot twists were predictable, and there was one particular point where the villains acted in a stupid way because of plot demands, but all in all this was a pleasant read. I was amused by the fact that, despite it being written in first person from the point of view of Maucler, a French traveller who was a member of the group, the last chapters change to third person since they told of events that Maucler did not personally witness. In fact, Verne explicitly warns us about this change in perspective. It did not bother me, but I wondered why he didn't just tell the whole story in third person, like most of his novels.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. This is not top-tier Verne, and because of that I wouldn't recommend it as the place to start, but it was still an interesting adventure and journey.


Next up: Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

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(21) La Jangada (Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, 1881) (2 volumes) 93K words


The 21th Extraordinary Voyage is the first one to take place on a river. The setting is the Amazon, the fabulous fluvial system that is by far the largest in the world by discharge volume of water. This is also the first novel in the series to be fully set in South America (we had explored South America before, albeit further south, with "In Search of the Castaways", but not for the whole novel).


First read or reread?: I had read it as a kid and, even though I liked it, it was not among my favorite Vernes.


What is it about?: A Brazilian man called Joam Garral lives on a thriving plantation with his family, in Peru, by the upper Amazon. When his daughter is set to marry a Brazilian army surgeon named Manuel Valdez, the couple decide to have their wedding in Brazil, in a city called Belém at the mouth of the river at the Atlantic Ocean, so that Manuel's invalid mother can attend. Joam seems strangely reluctant to leave his plantation and set foot in Brazil, but eventually he decides to do so and confront the dark secrets in his past. The Garral family and their workers build a giant jangada (a Brazilian timber raft) to ride down the Amazon River towards their destination, carrying a large amount of trade goods from the plantation.


Before introducing the heroes, the novel starts with a couple of chapters from the point of view of the villain, which was a nice way to arouse our interest, since the first half of the story is kind of slow.

The building of the raft (so large that it's the size of a small village) and the first part of the journey are described in detail, and it's relatively uneventful in terms of adventure. The course of the river is known and, although there are certainly native tribes with little contact with western civilization living by the shores, at this point in history they are mostly content to be left alone and not be crushed by civilization, so the characters only see them from a distance. There are wild animals, of course, although there is not as much hunting as in other Verne novels.

Nevertheless, I found the details of the trip interesting. I have come to think of Verne's Extraordinary Voyages as the National Geographic documentaries of the time (the actual National Geographic Society would be founded a few years after the publication of this novel), combined with adventure stories. This first part of the novel, which seemed too slow when I read it as a kid, was now more interesting for me because it felt like a travelogue about the 19th century Amazon River. I enjoyed following the characters' progress in the maps included with the novel. Verne, of course, had not made these voyages himself, so his descriptions are not first-hand, but his documentation were the actual travelogues available at the time.

The second half of the novel is more fast-paced, becoming a gripping mystery thriller, with blackmail, old crimes, fugitives, duels and a race against time. Like in "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "In Search of the Castaways", cryptography plays a role, since deciphering a coded message becomes a central plot element. Here Verne explicitly pays homage to Edgar Allan Poe's story The Gold-Bug: one of the characters, Judge Jarriquez, is a fan of that story and tries to use a similar kind of analysis to decipher the message.

The story is basically an adventure/thriller/travelogue, again with no science fiction elements. In terms of technology, the most we find here is the use of a diving suit which must have been state-of-the-art at the time.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it more than I remember enjoying it on my previous read. In his best novels, Verne finds a nice balance between adventure and his didactic/geographic exploration elements. The pace of the first half of this story is not his best, but nevertheless the adventure is quite gripping when it gets started.


Next up: Godfrey Morgan, aka School for Crusoes

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(22) L'École des Robinsons (Godfrey Morgan, aka School for Crusoes, 1882) (1 volume) 62K words


The 22nd Extraordinary Voyage is Verne's second robinsonade (after "The Mysterious Island"). Verne would later revisit the genre again in "Two Years' Vacation", "The Castaways of the Flag" and "The Survivors of the Jonathan". "In Search of the Castaways", despite the title, is not a robinsonade, since it's not really about the castaways, but about the people trying to locate and rescue them.


First read or reread?: I had read it as a kid. I enjoyed it, although it's a lighter, sillier, less detailed and epic story than "Two Years' Vacation", which was one of my favorites among the Verne novels I read in my youth.


What is it about?: Godfrey Morgan of San Francisco, California, is a good-natured but slightly pampered and naive young man. Before marrying his sweetheart, encouraged by his deportment and dance instructor, Professor Tartlett, he wants to cruise around the world and gain "life experience". His uncle, the millionaire William Holderkup, consents to this demand. Therefore, Godfrey and the much less enthusiastic Professor Tartlett set out to travel around the world. However, the two of them are cast away on an uninhabited Pacific island.


This novel is at the same time a robinsonade and a spoof on the genre. Like Kipling's "Captains Courageous", it's also a coming of age story about a young man growing up and finding his self-confidence in the face of adversity.

It's probably Verne's funniest story. The humor is provided by the ridiculeness of some of the situations and the unlikely pair of castways, particularly Professor Tartlett, who is completely unfit for any practical endeavour. People do not think of Verne as a funny writer, but he had proved he had some eye for comedy in books like "From the Earth to the Moon", and he often added comic relief characters.

One thing I like is that even if it's comedy Verne doesn't forget to tell an adventure story. As I mentioned, this story is shorter, lighter and less gritty and detailed than other Verne robinsonades like "The Mysterious Island" or "Two Years' Vacation", but there's still adventure, suspense and danger.

Verne also goes back to telling a story with a twist. When I read it as a kid I didn't see them coming, but in this novel Verne foreshadows the twists so thickly that I do not think he meant them to be a surprise.

The author has some fun with the conventions of the genre, comparing the fortunes and misfortunes of his castaways with the ones happening to Defoe's Robinson Crusoe or to the castways in The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. It's a fond parody, paying homage to them more than making fun of them.

As in other Verne novels, expect some 19th-century clichés on "savage" people that would be considered racist today.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. It was a quite pleasant read although, you know, it's light. If you are in the mood for an epic adventure, this is not it.


Next up: The Green Ray

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(23) Le Rayon vert (The Green Ray, 1882) (1 volume) 46K words


The 23rd novel of the Voyages Extraordinaries is the second one to take place in Scotland (the first was "The Child of the Cavern").

Since Scotland is not an exotic, unexplored land, both of those novels are rather offbeat as Verne adventures. A lot of "The Child of the Cavern" is set underground, and "The Green Ray" is not exactly an adventure novel. "In Search of the Castaways", a more traditional Verne novel, also starts in Scotland, but most of it takes place in the Southern Hemisphere.

The reason for so much attention to Scotland in his work (he also has a good number of Scottish characters in other novels) is that Verne had an emotional bond with this country. He had travelled there and he considered it downtrodden by the English, linking the history of Scotland to his anti-British imperialist views. He also greatly admired Walter Scott.


First read or reread?: This one is a reread for me. I found it disappointing at the time and it was my least favorite among the Verne novels I read as a kid.


What is it about?: After reading a newspaper article about the Green Ray's elevating effects on the mind and soul, rich heiress Helena Campbell vows to experience it for herself. She refuses to marry the man her well-meaning but clueless uncles, Sam and Sib Melville, have selected for her until she sees it. Therefore, they set off on a attempt to witness the elusive atmospheric event. Their quest takes them to the west coast of the Scottish mainland and the Hebrides. Joining them in the search are two would-be suitors for Helena, one an artist, the other an amateur scientist.


This is the first novel in the series that I wouldn't call an adventure. It's mostly a romance and a travelogue, although you could justify using the term "adventure", since there are a few moments of danger, mainly at the end. It's danger caused by the characters' imprudence, though, more than by the actual danger of their touristic trip.

Let's say it bluntly: by writing a romance novel, Verne was not playing to his strengths. His is the adventure, the exploration, the scientific sense of wonder. But romance? Not so much. I think his characterization is normally adequate for his purposes. He creates sympathetic characters, and can make them funny, energetic, daring or noble as needed, in a Victorian kind of way. However, he is not into creating deep, complex characters nor into describing their internal life, their hopes and dreams, their growth. And a romantic novel fails or succeeds on the strength of its characters. So, no, Verne falls short at that.

The novel, having not much of an adventure plot, lacks tension. Even the romance lacks tension. Sure, Helena's uncles want to marry her to the hilariously awful scientist, Aristobulus Ursiclos, but only because they are too clueless to realize how much a young woman would dislike Mr. Ursiclos as a suitor. However, they are well-meaning, doting uncles, and Helena has them wrapped around her little finger, so there's never any question of them forcing her to do anything she doesn't want to do. And it's clear from the beginning that she is not going to marry Aristobulus. This is reinforced by the fact that Verne makes this scientist a caricature. He is a bore, awkward, conceited, sexist, with bad timing and no ability to read the mood of his interlocutors. This would be fine for a comic relief character, but for one who is part of the love triangle at the center of the novel he is too obviously unsuitable to keep the suspense alive. The artist Oliver Sinclair, who is the other suitor, is of course perfectly appropriate and compatible with Helena. So the interest here is seeing Aristobulus make a fool of himself and the two young lovers be drawn to each other.

The story is not without its positive points. It's rather pleasant as a travelogue and description of the Hebrides and the Firth of Clyde. And the characters are amusing. Because of that, I found it less boring than I had found it as a child. Of course, I remembered not liking it, so I did not have high expectations, and that helped.

The atmospheric phenomenon that gives the novel its name is a MacGuffin, something that provides the characters' motivation but is not important for the story in itself. It's curious, because the green ray, a spot of green light that can sometimes be observed just at sunset, is quite elusive, more than the novel implies, and was not well-known in Verne's time. In fact, this novel helped popularize it and impulse research on it. Wikipedia informs me that the scientific explanation Verne gives in the novel is, in fact, incorrect, probably because the phenomenon was still poorly understood at the time. The green ray is not created by the last ray of the sun going through the water of the ocean at sunset. Instead, the effect is related to the refraction of sunlight into different colors, caused by the atmosphere, not the sea. It's often seen at sea because it requires an unobstructed horizon. So, because of Verne I have believed the false explanation for half my life.

Once thing that shocked me as a kid is that I had an image of Verne as very science-friendly. Here, instead, he goes for the artistic, romantic angle, to the point that the heroes excoriate Aristobulus for rejecting the mythological, romantic explanation of it being caused by fairies and instead offering the scientific explanation. The thing is that as a kid I thought the scientific explanation more interesting and filled with wonder, and I still do (even if it turned out to be inaccurate). Your thing is science, Jules, leave romantic notions and fairy tales to other writers. Not that I was sympathetic to the insufferable Aristobulus, but I was sympathetic to the scientific worldview.

By the way, this is the first novel in the series with a woman as the main character. She is not a "strong female character" in any action-oriented way, but she doesn't need to be, since this is not an adventure. Paulina Barnett, from "The Fur Country" fits that kind of action role much better. But, even if she is not action-oriented, Helena is strong enough to get what she wants. Although she comes across as kind of spoiled.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it more now than I did as a kid, but it's my least favorite novel in the series so far.


Next up: Kéraban the Inflexible

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(24) Kéraban-le-têtu (Kéraban the Inflexible, 1883) (2 volumes) 100K words


The 24th Extraordinary Voyage takes us on a trip around the Black Sea, through Turkey, Russia and other countries, motivated by the eccentricity of the title character.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Jan Van Mitten and his valet Bruno (both of Rotterdam, Holland) are in Constantinople, Turkey. The pair are going to meet with Van Mitten’s wealthy business associate, a famously stubborn man named Kéraban. Kéraban decides to take them to dinner at his home in Scutari, on the other side of the Bosphorus Strait. Just before getting into a boat, they find out a new tax has been imposed on all crossings of the strait. Enraged, Kéraban decides to take his associates to Scutari the other way around, by traveling seven hundred leagues around the perimeter of the Black Sea so that he won’t have to pay the paltry 10 paras tax. Kéraban, this man of principle, and his reluctant traveling companions, who cannot afford to offend him, begin the journey. The only deadline for Kéraban is that he must be back in 6 weeks time so that he may arrange for his nephew’s wedding to a young woman who must be married before she turns seventeen. If she doesn’t meet that deadline, she won’t inherit 100,000 Turkish pounds. Unfortunately for Kéraban and friends, the villain Seigneur Saffar and his henchmen have plans to kidnap the young woman and force her to marry Saffar instead.


Like Godfrey Morgan, this is one of Verne's funniest novels. The humor in this case comes from Kéraban's stubborness and the bewildered dismay of his companions. I think Verne was skillful in making the Turk merchant mostly likable and kind, in all matters not related to his boundless obstinacy. He can be infuriating, but also resourceful and brave. That way, the reader can look at his follies with certain sympathy, and be amused by his companions' efforts to avoid disagreeing with him openly, so as not to provoke him into further fits of stubborness.

The novel has been compared, disfavorably, to Around the World in Eighty Days. In both novels we have an eccentric millionaire going on a long trip with a few associates, while racing against a deadline. While the similarity exists, I thought that this story was original enough.

I will agree that, in terms of pace, this novel is not as perfect as Around the World in Eighty Days. I think that at this point of his career Verne had found a comfortable formula that many of his novels follow. We have the epic trip, which Verne uses to introduce his readers to some remote region of the world, we have some characters with interesting personalities and we have an adventure plot mixed with the travel. The speculative element that is present in some of his novels is usually not to be found in the ones following this formula.

Also, I cannot claim that this is a very deep depiction of the different countries and cultures they go through. Because of that, some modern readers have accused it of orientalism. This is a light adventure, however, and I think that such a deep analysis is beyond the author's goals.

Even though Verne followed this formula skilfully, a formula is still a formula, and perhaps because of that it does not feel as fresh here as in Around the World in Eighty Days. Let's not forget that Around the World was a short novel, in one volume, while this one is two volumes. In Around the World, Verne didn't have a problem going from one interesting episode to the next, while here he is more methodical in following the travellers' progress, and because of that at a couple of points it feels like Verne is just enumerating the towns they go through. I have to admit that I have fun following the progress in the map included with the novel, but not all readers will feel the same.

Having said that, I think critics who dismiss this novel are being overly harsh. It may not be as good as Around the World, but the characters are a lot of fun (not just Kéraban), it has moments of danger and the overall adventure plot is quite good.

I have said in other reviews that when Verne sets his novel in civilized countries it tends to feel less adventurous than when he takes his characters to unexplored lands, but he does compensate by creating other types of obstacles, normally villains conspiring against the heoes.

It is worth mentioning that the conjugal problems that Van Mitten is running away from are a reflection of the problems of Verne's matrimony at the time. Speaking of Van Mitten and his romantic problems, we go back to the tradition of Verne's novels having final twists, in this case humorous, with the misunderstanding that almost causes him to be married to the noble Kurd widow Sarabul.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. Perhaps not in the top ten of Verne's best novels but a rather likable and funny adventure story all the same.


Next up: The Vanished Diamond, aka The Southern Star

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by db105

The speculative element that is present in some of his novels is usually not to be found in the ones following this formula.

It seems clear that Verne's visionary innovations are only used when needed to explain how the characters could make their journey. He set out to be a travel writer, not a futurist. It's a testimony to his thorough research that he got so much right when anticipating things like submarines and space travel.

[db105]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

It seems clear that Verne's visionary innovations are only used when needed to explain how the characters could make their journey. He set out to be a travel writer, not a futurist. It's a testimony to his thorough research that he got so much right when anticipating things like submarines and space travel.

I think that's a fair assesment, although sometimes Verne used cutting edge technology in his stories, not travel-related, like the diving suit they use to look for a corpse in Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon. Mostly, I would say he writes a mixture of adventure story with documentary, often travel/exploration documentary but sometimes related to other sciences (like geology in Journey to the Center of the Earth).

Even in stories that otherwise are not speculative, he sometimes surprises with a science-related twist that you'd never expect in a regular adventure novel.

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(25) L'Étoile du sud (The Vanished Diamond, aka The Southern Star, 1884) (1 volume) 71K words


The 25th Extraordinary Voyage takes us back to Africa, a continent that was also the setting of previous novels like "Five Weeks in a Balloon", "The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa" and "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Victor Cyprien, a French engineer currently living in the "Diamond Fields" of Griqualand (South Africa) desires to marry the beautiful daughter of Mr. Watkins, a man who owns the land where the "Diamond Fields" are. Watkins has other plans for his daughter, which includes her staying in South Africa and marrying one of the wealthier diamond miners. To put himself in a better position to win the hand of Alice, Victor buys a share and begins working his own claim. However, Alice convinces him to return to chemistry and pursue his theory that he can synthesize a diamond. As a result of one of his experiments, an extraordinary 243 carat diamond is created. Victor names it "The Star of the South" and gives it to Alice. When the diamond is stolen, Cyprien and three other potential suitors for the hand of Alice, travel northwards beyond the limits of South Africa in an epic persecution of the suspected culprit.


Although set in South Africa, the plot of "The Star of the South" might serve as inspiration for a Hollywood western, with a frontier setting, a gold rush (diamond rush, in this case), boomtowns, exploration of human character, frontier justice, greed... Of course, this novel predates that genre and is, in fact, contemporary with the Old West. Like the classic P. C. Wren adventure novel "Beau Geste", which would be published 40 years later, it features the theft of a large jewel that derails the life of many of the characters. The tone of this Verne novel, however, is less tragic than Beau Geste's.

I also found it interesting as a contemporary historical depiction of 19th-century South African colonization that would later result in the Apartheid regime. The historical conflict and resentment between the Boers and the English and the exploitation and racism towards black natives play a part in the story.

In addition to all those themes, we have Vernian elements that we wouldn't find in a western or in a normal adventure novel. The extraordinary jewel that drives the plot has been obtained in a scientific experiment designed as an attempt to produce synthetic diamonds. Verne, of course, takes the opportunity to teach his readers about the chemistry of diamonds, at least the 19th century understanding of it. We also have twists involving cartographic mistakes.

Some of the recurrent weaknesses of Verne's adventures are also present, like some unlikely animal behaviors and extraordinary coincidences that drive the plot forward. The treatment of native characters is, at the same time, enlightened and, well, of its time, as in other Verne novels. Verne's heart is in the right place when he denounces their mistreatment at the hands of European colonists and shows how they are not lacking in intelligence, even if they are in education. However, even the heroes who treat the natives decently have a paternalistic relationship with them, and Verne never met an African tribe completely free of cannibalistic tendencies.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. The Southern Star is not without flaws, but it has a more intense focus on the character's personalities and motivations than other Verne novels, which helps give the story more depth. It has an interesting setting and a good pace, despite the chemistry lesson in one chapter.


Next up: The Archipelago on Fire

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(26) L'Archipel en feu (The Archipelago on Fire, 1884) (1 volume) 62K words


The 26th Extraordinary Voyage takes place in Greece and the Aegean Sea. While most of Verne's Voyages are set at the time they were written, this one tells of (fictional) events happening during the Greek War of Independence, around 60 years before the publication of the novel. It is the first out of four historical novels within the Extraordinary Voyages (the others, all of them written during the following five years after this one, are "North Against South", "The Flight to France" and "Family Without a Name").


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: On the 18th of October, 1827, a small Levantine vessel piloted by Captain Nicholas Starcos returns home to Vitlyo, an ancient village in the Peloponnesus, only to be denied entry by his widowed mother. At the same time Lt. Henry d’Albaret, along with many other young men from France and the rest of Europe, has joined the cause of Greek freedom in the war against the Ottoman Empire. While he is recovering from a wound received in battle, d’Albaret meets Hadjine Elisundo, his banker’s lovely daughter. They fall in love and make plans to marry, but Starcos, who holds a devastating secret against the girl’s father, demands her hand in marriage.


Although a historical novel is a new side of Verne, the author had already told a war story in "Michael Strogoff". Also, "The Steam House", even though it does not take place during a war, was rooted in a previous war, and Verne showed his didactic nature there by telling the reader many details about the Indian Rebellion of 1857. "The Archipelago on Fire" is also like that, being a war story and also an opportunity for Verne to tell the reader about the Greek War of Independence. In a modern writer, these asides would be considered strange, but as we know for Verne this is a feature. Ideally, the reader goes along for the story and also to learn something.

I have noticed a certain tendency in this part of Verne's career to tell stories with more dramatic depth. For example, in "The Vanished Diamond" there were some tragic consequences of the disappearance of the fabulous jewel. Here there's also dramatic depth in the story of Nicholas Starcos and his conflict with Henry d’Albaret.

I can't say there's a similar depth in the characters. I like Verne's characters, but he is not one for character development. His characters tend to be static. There's usually no hero's journey in his novels that leaves the protagonist changed or transformed, except perhaps for younger heroes like Dick Sands from "A Captain at Fifteen", who necessarily matures as a result of the sudden responsibility placed in his hands and the adventures and privations he goes through. So, in this novel, d’Albaret and Starcos do not evolve and learn new things about themselves. This is one of Verne's limitations as a literary writer, although on the other hand it leaves him free to concentrate on what he is interested in, which is the plot and the documentary element. After all, you can tell good stories with static characters, see for example the Sherlock Holmes canon.

As an adventure novel I thought "The Archipelago on Fire" was successful. Although it's not action all the time, it has the pathos that the story requires and the pace is good. Some reviewers of course complain about the historical digressions, but well, this is Verne, not Tom Clancy. On the minus side, the ending was a bit easy, in the sense that the villain allowed a situation that he had under control to get out of his hands.

The twists are not very surprising here, you see them coming, but I still read it with pleasure and wanted to know what would happen next. I also got an overview of a war I knew almost nothing about, even though two centuries ago it captured the imagination of many Europeans, who had sympathy for Greece's struggle for freedom, as the cradle of western civilization. Lord Byron, for example, was one of the philhellenists who took up arms in support of the Greek revolutionaries, and he would die in the war some years before the start of this novel.

The novel is mostly set at sea, as the hero is given a ship with the task of cleaning the Aegean of pirates. It's not the first time we have pirates as villains in Verne's novels, but here there's more focus on piracy than in any other of the Extraordinary Voyages so far. There's also plenty of strong women featured here, even though their deeds are not the focus of the novel.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. It was an entertaining adventure with a historical setting. At this point in Verne's career his most popular novels were already a thing of the past, but he was still very readable.


Next up: Mathias Sandorf

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(27) Mathias Sandorf (Mathias Sandorf, 1885) (3 volumes) 154K words


The 27th Extraordinary Voyage takes place at several different locations along the shores of the Mediterranean. Verne dedicated the novel to the memory of Alexandre Dumas père, expressing his hope that Mathias Sandorf would be the Monte Cristo of his Extraordinary Voyages. After the dedication, the book also includes a warm response from Alexandre Dumas fils, calling Verne his brother and the true literary heir of his father.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: In Trieste, 1867, three Hungarian patriots (Count Mathias Sandorf, Stephen Bathory and Ladislas Zathmar) are conspiring to liberate their country from Habsburg-Austrian rule. A couple of petty criminals, with the help of a corrupt banker, discover the plot and form a plan to deliver the conspirators to the Austrian authorities in exchange for a rich reward. Fifteen years later, the renowned physician Dr. Antekirtt sets out to avenge his friends. Enlisting the aid of two resourceful French acrobats, Pescade and Matifou, he scours the Mediterranean seeking to reward the surviving relatives of the conspirators and punish those who planned the betrayal. Rich beyond all imagination and master of an island fortress filled with advanced weaponry, Dr. Antekirtt will not rest until justice is done.


Although the details are different, there's no doubt that the central conceit of this story is taken from Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. Since Verne openly acknowledged this, I will call it a homage rather than a rip-off.

Nevertheless, when one imitates a masterpiece one is open to comparisons. And I have to say, this Verne novel is inferior to Dumas' magnum opus. I don't mean this as a way to put down this story. It's just that The Count of Monte Cristo is such an excellent adventure tale.

Mathias Sandorf does not have the same epic weight as Dumas' novel. Its characters do not have the same psychological depth. This is a known limitation of Verne as a writer. He is into adventure, exploration and the wonders of human knowledge, but not into deep characterization.

Having said that, this novel is a lot of fun to read, despite its flaws. The first part, detailing the conspiration, the betrayal and the doomed efforts of the main characters to escape their execution, is almost perfect. We get several of Verne's typical techniques, like starting the story from the point of view of the villains or the use of cryptograms (decyphering a secret message is key for the villains to find proof of the conspiration).

After that, the plotting is not as tight as in some of Verne's best novels. The story becomes a bit rambling, which allows Verne to explore different locations on the Mediterranean shores, from Trieste down the Adriatic coast, to Sicily and the shores of North Africa. "I wish my readers to learn everything they should know about the Mediterranean," Verne wrote his editor," which is why the action transports them to twenty different places". Several of the settings come from Verne's own travels, and others from his reading and research.

Like its model, Mathias Sandorf is rather convoluted and melodramatic, perhaps too much so (I did not understand, for example, why the heroes had to simulate Pierre Bathory's death even to the point of driving his aged mother to dispair, it seems drama for drama's sake. Or why Sarcany couldn't force Sava to marry him already, given that she was in his power, even if the ceremony was just a sham).

The irony of how revenge can be self-defeating is explored here less than in Monte Cristo, another reason why this novel is inferior. Verne plays it straight, not stopping to wonder whether the revenge is justified in all cases (after all, even though they are undoubtedly villains, one could argue that the betrayers owed no loyalty and, although they committed other crimes, the main reason for the revenge was that they denounced a conspiration to the authorities, even if it was just for money). Don't spend too much time feeling sorry for the villains, though, they are very bad apples, particularly the ruthless and intelligent Sarcany.

As an example of Verne's signature technological wonders, we have Dr. Antekirtt's electric ships, which the heroes use to travel fast through the Mediterranean Sea, or some of the weapons used to defend his island. Nevertheless, the main reason for this novel to be called SF&F is the fact that Dr. Antekirtt is able to use something called "magnetic hypnotism". Basically he has a superpower, which occasionally enables him to enslave the mind of some weak-willed people. Apparently the concept was popular at the time the novel was written, and Verne treats it as a legitimate scientific effect.

Despite its flaws, the story is never boring, even though it's one of Verne's longest novels (only three of his Extraordinary Voyages were published in three volumes, the others being "In Search of the Castaways" and "The Mysterious Island", both of those longer in fact than "Mathias Sandorf"). Certainly this one is nowhere as long as The Count of Monte Cristo, which Dumas, publishing it as a serial, extended more than he should have.

I read it in Spanish, but for those reading in English, a reminder: Verne's contemporary English translations were not very good, so when possible seek a modern translation, in this case the 2011 translation by Edward Brumgnach.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it, acknowledging that it's not in the same league as its model. The plot was a bit rambling and melodramatic at times, but the story is epic and Verne always entertains.


Next up: The Lottery Ticket, aka Ticket No. 9672

[Little.Egret]

Thanks for your efforts, by the way. Very useful and interesting.

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Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Thanks for your efforts, by the way. Very useful and interesting.

Thanks to you for commenting, Little Egret.

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(28) Un billet de loterie (The Lottery Ticket, aka Ticket No. 9672, 1886) (1 volume) 48K words


The 28th Extraordinary Voyage takes us to a small village in the beautiful region of Telemark, in Norway. It's one of the least adventure-focused novels in the series. Some readers consider it one of the two romance novels Verne wrote (the other being "The Green Ray"), but I'd say this one is more connected to Romanticism as an art movement than to romance as a genre.


First read or reread?: This is a reread for me. I distinctly remembered the plot and the climax of the novel, but the slower first half was new to me. Maybe I forgot it, but I suspect the version I read as a kid may have been abridged. Anyway, without being among my favourite Verne novels then, the story made an impression on me and I did enjoy it.


What is it about?: Hulda Hansen of Dal, Norway anxiously awaits the return of her betrothed, Ole Kamp. Ole works on a fishing ship, which is scheduled to return soon from Terranova. However, the ship fails to return and is feared lost. While this is going on, Hulda and her brother Joel also worry about their mother, who hasn't been acting like herself since the visit from a man known as Sandgoist. A guest staying at the Hansen family inn is Sylvius Hogg, who is taken with Hulda's story and uses his position within the government to help out with the search. One trace of the ship is found, a bottle that contains a note for Hulda written by Ole on a lottery ticket, numbered 9672. News of the tragedy and the hope of the possible riches of the lottery ticket spread around the countryside, especially interested is the man Sandgoist.


Like "In Search of the Castaways" this is a novel about the search for the survivors of a shipwreck. However, the heroes of "In Search of the Castaways" were the ones physically doing the search, while the heroes in this story are the relatives and friends waiting at home. They are therefore very different stories. "In Search of the Castaways" is focused on adventure and exploration, while "The Lottery Ticket" involves very little traveling. A map is included, but while in other stories I enjoyed following the trip in the map, here there's little point.

I mentioned that I do not consider it a romance novel, and that's because the bridegroom is basically not present in the story. I think the novel is better for it. As I said in my review of "The Green Ray", Verne's skills were not well-suited for writing romance.

For this novel, Verne was inspired by his own trip to Scandinavia, and by some travellers' accounts that he had read. He includes some descriptions of the country and the characters do a bit of travelling inside Norway, having some minor adventures, but unlike most other novels in the series, these travels are not the A-plot. The center of the story is the uncertainty about the fate of the lost ship, the effect this loss has on the characters, and the question of the lottery ticket.

I found this story more compelling than the actual romance we got in "The Green Ray". It does involve some rather incredible coincidences, so I think of it as a fairy tale more than a realistic story, but it's memorable and feel-good, and I enjoyed it.

It's true that this novel might have been even shorter. A novella, perhaps. The first half of the story is quite uneventful, used mostly to introduce the characters. You could cut a lot of it without affecting the actual story. But the novel is quite short as it is, so it's a quick read anyway. But this is the main flaw: Verne's wish to tell us a bit about the country is not as well integrated in the story as in other novels of his.


Enjoyment factor: Not one of the most dynamic Verne novels and not very adventurous, but I enjoyed it as a feel-good fairy-tale. Certainly better than "The Green Ray", for my taste.


Next up: Robur the Conqueror, aka The Clipper of the Clouds

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(29) Robur-le-Conquérant (Robur the Conqueror, aka The Clipper of the Clouds, 1886) (1 volume) 59K words


The 29th Extraordinary Voyage is the second one featuring air travel, after "Five Weeks in a Balloon" (I'm not counting the space travel ones here). It's a different kind of air vehicle, though: heavier than air. Much superior to a balloon, if the fierce members of the Weldon Institute will forgive me for saying so.


First read or reread?: First read for me, although many years ago I read the sequel (Master of the World).


What is it about?: Strange events are occurring around the world, involving lights, sounds and flags that are hung in seemingly impossible to get to locations. At the meeting of the Weldon Institute in Philadelphia, PA, Uncle Prudent (President) and Phil Evans (Secretary) and the membership debate about whether their balloon the Goahead, should have its directional screw located in the front or the back. A man called Robur interrupts and takes over their meeting; he insists that to master the skies, a flying vehicle must be heavier than air. His remarks infuriate the balloonists and after their meeting, Uncle Prudent and Phil are kidnapped and taken on an around the world trip in the Albatross, Robur's heavier than air "Clipper of the Clouds".


The first chapter sets up the mystery, and I was amused to see a mention to the events of "The Begum's Millions". Most of Verne's novels are standalones, and it's unusual, but not unknown, to find a reference to another of his stories.

Then we are introduced to the Weldon Institute, a boisterous club set up in Philadelphia by fans of balloons and other aerostats, who are obsessed with building a practical lighter-than-air craft than can be used for air travel without being subject to the whims of the wind. The club reminded me of the Baltimore Gun Club in "From the Earth to the Moon", filled with people who are so exceedingly devoted to their technological goals that they become a bit comical.

We also get one of those Vernian info dumps, this time about the history of the human efforts to conquer the air, going up to the 1880s when this novel was published.

The meeting of the Weldon Institute is interrupted by an arrogant stranger called Robur, who addresses the assembly, enraging the honorable members by ridiculing lighter-than-air crafts and claiming that the future of air travel is in heavier-than-air vehicles.

He is almost lynched by the crowd, and that night, in revenge, he kidnaps the president and the secretary of the Weldon Institute, along with the president's servant, and spirits them away on board the Albatross, a heavier-than-air ship that he has secretly built.

The Albatross is basically a ship where lift and thrust are supplied by a group of spinning rotors. A kind of very large proto-helicopter, one could say. Keeping the pair of irascible fans of lighter-than-air craft on board against their will, Robur takes them on a trip all over the world, taunting them as much as he can in the process.

Apparently, this lighter-than-air vs heavier-than-air debate was a real thing back then, and the fact that we have never heard about it is a testimony to how superior heavier-than-air craft turned out to be in the end, making any debate unnecessary. But, at the time, lighter-than-air craft had achieved more success. Once again, Verne was on the right side of the technological debate (ever the visionary). In fact, Verne was an active member of the Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier-Than-Air Machines, recently created in Paris.

This illustrates how, if Verne was a science fiction writer, he was a near-future kind of SF writer. He normally did not take big leaps of fancy, instead basing his ideas on technology that already existed or at least looked achievable based on current knowledge. He had a curious mind and looked ahead, but he was not a prophet. As a curiosity, a few years earlier Verne had been thinking about writing a novel where the heroes of several of his previous novels make an air trip in a heavier-than-air machine, but he abandoned it when another French writer, Alphonse Brown, who funnily enough was heavily influenced by Verne, published a novel with a similar premise (The Conquest of the Air, 1875).

I found this novel quite interesting from a proto-science-fiction point of view, but it's not one that you can normally find on any list of Verne's best novels. So... why is that?

Well, the novel has a few problems. For example, none of the characters are very sympathetic. The two kidnapped members of the Weldon Institute, who are the audience surrogates and discover the airship at the same time as the reader, are such fanatics about lighter-than-air crafts that they are unable to appreciate the wonders they are witnessing. They want to escape at any cost and, if possible, destroy the ship. Robur has his moments, but often he is not very sympathetic either. What, aside from his own arrogance and egotism, moves him to kidnap two fans of a technology that has been rendered obsolete by Robur's invention, just to rub their faces in it and gloat at them? It's implied that he does not intend to ever release them, too.

It is also fair to say that at times the novel becomes a travelogue. We are treated to descriptions of several parts of the world as the Albatross flies over them, and I can see how this may be boring for some readers. I think that the modern readers who complain about this are failing to put themselves in the place of a 19th century reader, though, and missing the sense of wonder of the whole thing. I didn't find it boring, and it was a short, quick read. There are also some adventures involved, related to the involuntary guests' attempts to escape and to other set pieces. These include the hunt of a whale for sport, which was probably thrilling to contemporary readers but now offends many readers.

Speaking of offending modern sensitivities, the servant of the president of the club is one of those comic-relief figures that Verne sometimes has. Cowardly, dumb and ridiculous. Add the fact that he is also black, and you can understand how this has aged like milk, as illustrated by the enraged reviews in Goodreads.

All this is valid criticism, but certainly not deal-breakers for me. Perhaps a bigger criticism is that it's too similar to another Verne novel. If you are familiar with "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", you'll recall that it involves three people (one of them a servant) taken more or less against their will on board a marvellous vehicle owned by a mysterious maverick engineer, who takes them on a trip all around the world. That describes this novel perfectly too, except with an airship instead of a submarine. Some of the details are different, yes, but this still feels a bit derivative because of the similitude with the earlier, more famous novel.

Having said all that, after reading this novel and the user reviews at Goodreads, I felt this was underrated. I'm not saying I would put it in a Verne top ten, but I found it worth reading. I enjoyed how ridiculous all the characters were, in their own ways, and I could appreciate some of the sheer joy and wonder of it, even though it's harder for us modern readers, for whom air travel is a matter of routine.

This novel has a darker and better-known sequel, "Master of The World", published nearly twenty years later, near the end of Verne's life. But there will be time to comment on that when I get to that one. For the moment it's enough to say that "Robur the Conqueror" tells a complete, standalone story.

By the way, this was published in 1886, a year that some Verne scholars mark as the start of the second part of his career, when he began publishing darker works (although this is just a trend, it does not mean that all his work became dark after this point). Two traumatic events affected Verne's life that year. While he was doing revisions for this novel, Verne was shot in the leg by a mentally-disturbed nephew, giving him a permanent limp. Also, Hetzel, the editor who had been so influential on his work, died that year, being succeeded by his son.

As I have mentioned in other reviews, I'm reading these in Spanish, but if you want to read it in English, it is worth seeking a modern translation when possible (in this case, Alex Kirstukas' 2017 translation for Wesleyan University Press), because many contemporary English translations are questionable.


Enjoyment factor: Yes, I enjoyed it. I found it more dynamic than many contemporary reviewers, and the concept is great, if you can put yourself in the place of these 19th century characters. The depiction of one of these characters, judged by modern standards, can only be called racist, but then again reading such old literature is a chance to discover how standards and social attitudes have changed throughout the centuries, a chance to travel in time, more authentic than anything offered by modern historical fiction.


Next up: North Against South, aka Texar's Revenge