Action Verne, Jules: The Adventures of a Special Correspondent. v2. 15th Feb 2010

[HarryT]

Claudius Bombarnac, a reporter is assigned by the Twentieth Century to cover the travels of the Grand Transasiatic Railway which runs between Uzun Ada, Turkestan and Peking, China. Accompanying him on this journey is an interesting collection of characters, including one who is trying to beat the round the world record and another who is a stowaway. Claudius hopes one of them will become the hero of his piece, so his story won't be just a boring travelogue. Before the journey is over, Claudius finds his hero.

Enjoy!

EDIT: 15th Feb 2010

Recreated the book with improved formatting. Uploaded v2.

Previous download count: 374

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[The GreatGonzo]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes Verne ... some of his best stories are virtually unknown in English-language countries ... there was a great 20-volume edition of his works in German when I was a kid which I completely devoured and can still quote from .... great yarns like the one with the Kilimanjaro cannon or the chase after the golden meteor.

I'm wondering if some of these, now that they don't need to be "in print" in order to be accessible, will become more widely known...

[HarryT]

I agree. Verne is best known as an SF author, and yet most of his books are not SF at all, but "travel adventures", such as this one!

I intend to post all the Verne that's available on PG, although that's certainly not all that he wrote - I would guess that fewer than half his books are currently available on PG. Perhaps many of them were never translated into English?

[The GreatGonzo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Perhaps many of them were never translated into English?

I'm piecing together my Verne collection from various sources, and since my French is lousy, I have to use the German and English translations.

I think you're right, roughly half of his output is available in English (albeit in translations of greatly varying quality), and good amount is available in German out-of-copyright turn-of-the-century translations.

Some titles, though, like Mistress Branican, I can only find in French. Still, who knows, maybe that'll be incentive enough for me to get back to learning French...

I assume you know about the Jules Verne Virtual Library at http://jv.gilead.org.il/works.html ?

[igorsk]

Mistress Branican is available in Russian if you can read that
More links:
http://www.phys.uu.nl/~gdevries/languages/languages.cgi
http://www.phys.uu.nl/~gdevries/maps/maps.cgi

[RWood]

I loved what little Verne I could find as a kid. As I grew older my tastes drifted to other areas and I never looked back to see if there were other Verne available. Thanks Harry for opening up another new area of reading to me.

PS: love the Dr. Who robot you are using for your avatar.

[Tattncat]

Thank you.

[HarryT]

Recreated the book with improved formatting. Uploaded v2.