(2) Hier et Demain (Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1910) (1 volume) 63K words
The last short story collection by Verne was published posthumously in 1910. It contains four novelettes and a couple of short stories ("In the Twenty-ninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889", and "The Humbug"). Like the previous collection ("Dr. Ox"), this one was published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages. And, like the posthumous novels in the series, the stories here were edited and modified by Jules Verne's son, Michel.
I'm reading this in Spanish, but I have to warn you that this collection is difficult to find in English. A translated collection called "Yesterday and Tomorrow" was published in 1965, but it doesn't contain two of the stories here ("Adventures of the Rat Family", and "The Humbug"), and in exchange it contains some of the stories that were originally published, not in a short story collection, but accompanying one of the Extraordinary Voyage novels. The reader in English who wants to read the whole thing would need to hunt for the missing stories somewhere else (for example, both missing stories have been published in standalone editions in English). If you are interested,
https://www.isfdb.org/ is a useful resource to see where each story was published.
Having said this, let's talk about the stories.
La Famille Raton ("Adventures of the Rat Family")
Plot: The adventure takes place "in the age of fairies and magicians, and also during the time that animals talked." A whole family of rats has been magically transformed by the evil magician Gardafour and is now languishing as a family of oysters. Can Ratin, our hero, wait for Ratine, his beloved, until she is transformed to her true form once again? Can he, with the help of the fairy Firmenta, outfox Gardafour and the evil Prince Kissador, who scheme to keep the beautiful Ratine locked away forever?
Comment: As the plot indicates, this is a fairy tail for children. Verne tells it in a very colloquial tone, sometimes addressing the readers as "my dear children". I found it imaginative and occasionally amusing, although it probably went on a bit longer than it needed to.
M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle Mi-Bémol ("Mr Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flatt")
Plot: The story centers around two young children in a small village near Lake Constance in Switzerland. The town is visited by a mysterious Hungarian named Effarene, “at once artiste, tuner, organ vendor, and organ builder.” The village elders are grateful when Effarene offers to replace the recently departed church organist, but we soon learn the macabre details about his proposal to outfit the organ with a specially built register of children’s voices.
Comment: A dark fantasy tale, reminding me at times of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is told in first person by one of the children who sings in the school choir; the "Mr Ray Sharp" from the title refers to him, while "Miss Me Flatt" refers to the girl he likes, who also sings in the choir. The story plays with the anxieties about the dehumanization brought about by technology and mechanization. For those who hate stories where children are hurt, I'll say that the resolution was much less dark than I was expecting. A cop-out, some might say, but I did enjoy the story.
La Destinée de Jean Morénas ("The Fate of Jean Morénas")
Plot: Jean Morénas is serving a sentence of penal servitude for a crime he did not commit, the murder of his uncle Alexandre. Years later, a mysterious man gains access to the prison under the pretence of philanthropic work, but actually intending to help Jean escape and flee to a foreign country. Jean, however, has different ideas: he cannot leave without visiting his beloved Marguerite in their village. There he will face a tragic dilemma.
Comment: After two fantasy stories, this one is a more realistic family drama/adventure. The story is more tragic than you usually get with Verne, but enjoyable.
Le Humbug ("The Humbug: The American Way of Life")
Plot: On board the steamship Kentucky, traveling between New York and Albany, the French narrator meets an eccentric merchant named Meade Augustus Hopkins. Hopkins intends to found a kind of privately-owned World Fair near Albany. But, while this ambitious project is being built, an astonishing discovery is made: the gigantic skeleton of a human-like being that has been buried for countless centuries. But is it a genuine discovery, or part of the schemes of a charlatan?
Comment: I have commented elsewhere that Verne had a half admiring, half amused attitude towards US citizens. He admired their initiative and entrepreneurship, but at the same time he saw the funny side of it and liked satirising it. This is clearly apparent in this short story, which Verne presents as one of those things that could only happen in America. The over-the-top entrepreneur Hopkins has that can-do attitude that gains the admiration of his countrymen, but is he the real deal or is he full of hot air? I found the discovery of ancient human fossils an interesting subject for a Verne story, but this one concentrates on social satire much more than on paleontology. In fact, the interest here is mostly the satire, since the plot is quite basic.
Au xxixe siècle : La Journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889 ("In the Twenty-ninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889")
Plot: The story, set in the 29th century, follows a day in the life of an American journalist and businessman named Francis Bennett, who owns a newspaper called the Earth Chronicle. Throughout the story, Firmin Bennett uses various technological advancements to conduct his business and personal life, and we see some of the wonders of the future world.
Comment: A bit shorter than the other stories in the book, this is one of those science-fiction tour de forces where the author tries to anticipate what life will be like in the future, and what technological advances will be available. As often happens with these things, Verne does some interesting things extrapolating from what existed in his time, and presents suitably wondrous advances in communication, transport, energy. However, he of course missed things that he had no way of guessing, like the rise of computers, the internet and AIs. He is also blind to social change, and in that sense the society he describes is not that different from Verne's own. The positions of high qualifications and responsibility are filled by men; while the main character conducts his business, his wife is in Europe buying clothes and hats, although in frequent contact with him through teleconference. He does get some political guesses right, like the impossibility of wars between superpowers because of mutual assured destruction or China's one-child policy. All in all, it's fun seeing how Verne envisioned the future from his late 19th century perspective.
L'Éternel Adam ("The Eternal Adam")
Plot: Zartog Sofr-Aï-Sran, an archaeologist from a civilization much different from ours, is in the middle of a scientific controversy about the origins of humankind. Due to their interpretation of the archeological record, some scientists believe that humanity's ancestors lost craneal capacity at some point, before recovering it again. Zartog discovers a buried ancient document, that he is eventually able to translate. It is the journal of a man claiming to be a survivor to the total destruction of civilisation.
Comment: This may be my favorite Verne short story. It feels like a Golden Age science fiction story, with sense of wonder and a lot to think about. It's a pity Verne did not expand it into a novel.
---
With this, I have finished reading all of the Extraordinary Voyages. "The Barsac Mission" was actually published after this collection, but since I read the novels first, this is the last book I have read in the series.
I'll now finish my Verne reading project with two posthumous novels that are not part of the Voyages. They were discovered and published for the first time nearly a century after Verne's death: "Backwards to Britain" and "Paris in the Twentieth Century".