Quote:
Originally Posted by Calenorn
My impression of Verne's Voyages is that he was always answering the question: what would it be like to go ... THERE!!!! Flying in the air! Under the earth! Under the sea! To the moon!
The info dumps are a product of the times. I think Verne was motivated to persuade the reader that his ideas were feasible. Victorian-era authors frequently include educational material in their adventure novels (see also G. A. Henty's war novels). I suppose more people would find them worthwhile that way, especially for young readers.
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Yes, I agree they had less reluctance back then to tell readers about their research, since the average reader had a longer attention span, but I think in Verne's case he was particularly interested in science and progress, beyond just the adventure element of exploring unknown regions. Even in his more traditional adventures, without a science fiction element, he still surprises you with his ideas. For example in Captain Hatteras, the one I'm reading now, we get the characters in winter polar conditions, without ammunition and stalked by a hungry polar bear. Then one of the characters has the idea of making a bullet with frozen mercury from a thermometer... It's a kind of thing that I don't expect in an adventure novel from a different writer.