Reading Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires

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(49) Les Histoires de Jean-Marie Cabidoulin (The Sea Serpent, 1901) (1 volume) 51K words


The 49th Extraordinary Voyage takes us on a whaling campaign, both in the South Pacific near New Zealand and in the North Pacific near Alaska and Kamchatka. Previous novels in the series taking place at sea include "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras", "A Floating City", "The Survivors of the Chancellor", and "An Antarctic Mystery".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: The Saint-Enoch was a French whaler ship commanded by Captain Bourcart, with a crew of around thirty people. The start of their campaign was delayed because they were missing a cooper and a ship doctor. A doctor was found, but for a cooper they had no other option than convincing old Jean-Marie Cabidoulin to come out of retirement. Captain Bourcart was reluctant because Cabidoulin, although a good professional, was pessimistic by nature, always foreseeing the worst and telling his shipmates the most terrible stories about the ocean and its monsters (the original title translates as "The Stories of Jean-Marie Cabidoulin"). At last, the ship was able to leave Le Havre bound for the Pacific Ocean. Their campaign was sometimes successful, sometimes dismal. More and more mysterious events occurred: Natural phenomena or the sea monster that Cabidoulin was always prophesizing?


This is a good example of minor Verne novel: not as thrilling as his best works, but nevertheless a pleasant read and not lacking in elements of interest.

In the beginning, when the cranky and eccentric Cabidoulin was introduced, I thought that this was going to be one of those Extraordinary Voyages with humorous elements, but that turned out not to be the case, since the emphasis was not on his idiosyncrasies.

The book is mostly the opportunity to follow a whaling campaign from the beginning to the end. Many modern readers may consider whaling as a cruel practice, but from the point of view of Verne's contemporaries it was just a tough and daring way to make a living, involving sea trips that lasted several years and dangerous combats between powerful cetaceans and small boats full of sailors and harpooners.

It is another rather short novel, and most of it is devoted to showing us the day to day life on board a whaling ship, how they went from on place to the other, always in search of whales, and often coming in contact with the same ships who are involved in their own campaigns, both colleagues and rivals.

Although it did not happen often, sometimes several whaling ships in the same area would compete for the same prey, and it could lead to a lot of tension and even violence.

This slice-of-life adventure element is spiced up with the rivalry between the French ship and an English whaler which refused to salute them (Verne shows his Anglophobic tendency by depicting them as conceited and rude), and which they will meet several times in the course of a couple of years.

Another plot thread is the increasing number of clues about the possible presence of a large sea creature. Verne plays a "will they, or won't they?" game (will they eventually meet the sea monster that Cabidoulin is always expecting, I mean). The signs are there, but they could perhaps be explained more easily as unusual but natural phenomena.

Although the subject of a whaling campaign is interesting, for most of the book the adventure is low-key, being an unexceptional trip, until the last part of the novel, when events speed up and there's a lot of danger. Like in "The Village in the Treetops", one could say the ending is... well, maybe not abrupt in this case, but at least faster than it might have been.


Enjoyment factor: Another short, fast read. I found it enjoyable, without being one of my favorite Vernes. These novels from the last few years of Verne's life have a reputation for being less eventful, but I am still finding them very readable and always with elements of interest, even if sometimes it takes them a while to get to the most thrilling parts.


Next up: The Kip Brothers

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(50) Les Frères Kip (The Kip Brothers, 1902) (2 volumes) 102K words


The 50th Extraordinary Voyage takes us to Oceania, where we had already been in "Mistress Branican" and "Propeller Island". We visit New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands and Tasmania. The first part of the novel is a sea adventure, and the second a crime thriller.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Aboard a merchant ship called James Cook, Captain Gibson is waiting to leave New Zealand for New Ireland (in Papua New Guinea), but his crew is not complete due to desertions, very common at that time because of a gold fever in new Zealand which led many sailors to desert and seek their fortune. Flig Balt, his boatswain, and Vin Mod, one of his sailors, take it upon themselves to recruit new sailors, men of dubious character who are just looking for easy money. Captain Gibson, accompanied by his son, Nat Gibson, and the owner of the ship, Mr. Hawkins, finally sails to the islands north of Papua. But Mod and Balt, with the help of the new sailors, are only looking for one thing: to take control of the ship and use it to do piracy in the islands of the Pacific. During the trip between Wellington and New Ireland, the James Cook comes to the aid of two castaways: the Kip brothers. Eventually, there will be a mutiny, and due to the machinations of the mutineers, the Kip brothers are framed for a murder they have not committed.


The novels Verne published during the last few years of his life have a certain reputation for being slower and less eventful, but I'm not finding that to be the case. Not exactly, at least. This novel is certainly not uneventful: plenty of things happen, and it has a rather good plot. I think the reputation comes from the fact that some of Verne's writing during this period is quieter than usual, with less tension. When I say "quieter" I do not mean it in a good way, but it's a matter of storytelling style more than plot.

I notice a bit of that in the first part of the novel. There's a lot going on: the travels among the Pacific islands, the conspiration of the mutineers, the rescue of the castaways... There's also Verne's usual geographical descriptions, but that's something that veteran Verne readers always expect. It's part of his signature style. He was an adventure writer but also tried to take his readers on an imaginary trip, describing faraway lands or surprising science ideas. In this case, however, some parts of this first half of the novel are not as gripping as his best novels. There's just less tension in the storytelling.

It does not become a big problem, though, because there is always something happening and the characters are likable.

Then, at the end of the first half, the pace of the story speeds up: murder, mutiny, unfair accusations, a court case... From there, I found all the second half of the story quite gripping, from the point of view of the unfairly accused brothers.

The story was inspired by the real case of the Rorique brothers, accused of piracy despite their heroic past, and it's also a meditation on the miscarriage of justice during the Dreyfus affair. Brotherly love is an important theme of the story, and Jules Verne dedicated the novel to his brother Paul, who had always been very close to him and had died a few years earlier. Jules would join him only three years after the publication of the novel.

On that second part of the novel, the brothers are sent to prison, and the plot thickens with an escape attempt organized by some Irish political prisoners. This part of the story is not really a mystery, because we are always aware that the brothers are innocent and of what really happened, so I would call it a crime/prison thriller and, as I said, I found it quite gripping. I was eager to know what would happen to the brothers and whether (and how) they would be vindicated.

Verne's biases are in play here, with his wariness about the British Empire and also with some less than laudatory descriptions of the natives.

The resolution of the story, which I will not reveal, is one of those Verne twists relying on a scientific effect, the kind of thing which was more common in the first part of his career but not so much in this period. When I read this ending, I thought it was some weird pseudoscience belief from the 19th century, but researching it afterwards it turns out it's not completely unscientific and has been seriously studied, although it's too inconsistent and unreliable to be useful in practice for criminal investigations.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. There are some sections in the first half of the novel which are lacking narrative tension, but we don't have much time for boredom because there's a lot going on. After that, the story becomes gripping.


Next up: Travel Scholarships

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(51) Bourses de voyage (Travel Scholarships, 1903) (2 volumes) 90K words


The fifty-first Extraordinary Voyage takes us on a tour of the West Indies. This sea adventure is also considered the last of the four Extraordinary Voyages to have boys as the main character (the others being "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen", "Two Years' Vacation" and "Foundling Mick"), although in this case the boys are seventeen or older.


First read or reread?: This is a reread for me. This one was not among my favorites when I read it as a kid.


What is it about?: The Antilian School is a renowned London school, which hosts only European boys born in the Caribbean. Nine of its students are to be awarded travel grants offered by the school's sponsor, a wealthy Barbados woman. Meanwhile, Harry Markel, a former captain turned pirate, has been captured and transferred to England, but he escapes along with his right-hand man John Carpenter and the rest of his accomplices – known collectively as the "Pirates of the Halifax". The pirates end up seizing the Alert, a three-masted ship waiting in port, after massacring its captain and crew. It is precisely the ship that's just about to embark the scholarship winners, accompanied by their mentor Horatio Patterson, the bursar of the school. Markel's intention is to murder his passengers and use the ship to go back to a life of piracy, but on learning that the students are also going to be awarded a cash prize, he decides to wait and play the role of a honest ship's captain, until the boys are given those awards, so that he can also steal that money.


This was published just two years before Verne's death, and although you could argue that there was a certain decline in the last part of his career, in this novel the decline is much more marked, to the point that I would not recommend Travel Scholarships except to Verne completists. This does not necessarily mean that the remaining books are all going to be disappointing since, for example, Master of the World, which would be published the following year, is generally well-regarded.

But there will be time for that later. For the moment, let's go back to this novel. What's wrong with it is not the premise. The idea would make for a tense adventure. Unfortunately, Verne does not develop the idea in a compelling manner. He concentrates on the description of the West Indies islands that the boys visit as part of their travel program, but he does not do so with his usual charm, ending up with a dull travelogue, and he forgets to develop the plot at the same time. I would have expected some incidents to happen, and some of the characters to start becoming suspicious, but mostly nothing happens until we get to the final part.

Most of the characters are not developed either, with the exception of Mr. Patterson, the adult mentor accompanying the boys, who is an ineffectual comic relief figure, and to a certain extent Tony Renault, the jokester among the boys. Then, when the time comes for the story to reach its climax, the leading role is not taken by any of those characters, but by a new one, just introduced.

All in all, a disappointing addition to the series. Clearly Verne, by then plagued by health problems, was not at his best.


Enjoyment factor: I found this one disappointing. It follows a familiar Verne formula, mixing adventure and geographic descriptions, but the usual life and inspiration is missing. Maybe I have made it sound a bit worse than it is... it's not offensively bad, just bland and kind of boring, which is a pity considering that the premise is full of danger and possibilities for a tense plot.


Next up: A Drama in Livonia

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(52) Un drame en Livonie (A Drama in Livonia, 1904) (1 volume) 54K words


The 52nd Extraordinary Voyages takes us to the Baltic states (at that time, Livonia was a Baltic governorate of the Russian Empire, now divided between Latvia and Estonia). Rather than a travelogue, adventure story or science fiction, this is a suspense story, a crime drama with political elements. Other Verne novels taking place in the Russian Empire include "Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar" and, partially, "César Cascabel".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: In the Russian governorate of Livonia, there are ethnic and social tensions between the population of German origin, mainly making up the aristocracy and and upper middle class, and those of Slavic origin, mainly lower classes. The Germans have more wealth and political power, but the Russian government is following a policy of Russification, trying to put more of that political power in Slavic hands. In the upcoming elections in the city of Riga, professor Dimitri Nicolef is expected to become the candidate of the the Slavs. However, these plans are derailed when a bank employee who was transporting money is murdered at the inn of the Broken Cross. The victim was about to get married, which further moved public opinion. Soon, professor Nicolef becomes the main suspect. He was the only person present, apart from the innkeeper. It is also discovered that the professor owed a large sum of money to the Johausen bankers, leaders of the German faction in the next election. Moreover, the professor refuses to reveal why he was traveling, which only increases the suspicions against him. From that point, he and his family are subjected to intense pressure from the police investigators and from the citizens, causing much suffering.


After a rather lackluster novel ("Travel Scholarships"), the Extraordinary Voyages get back in shape with "A Drama in Livonia". Although published in 1904, one year before Verne's death, it seems this novel was actually written ten years earlier, in 1894. More on that later.

This novel is quite short and, unlike "Travel Scholarships", it's never boring. It starts in the middle of the action, with a political prisoner who had escaped from Siberia being pursued by the police. Then we are introduced to the main characters of this drama and witness the circumstances surrounding the crime and the ensuing investigations and political tensions.

The sympathetic way in which the Nicolef family is presented makes us readers think that professor Dimitri Nicolef is innocent, but damning proof starts to accumulate, making us doubt.

It's a different type of story from other Verne novels, a crime drama that is mostly interested in the effects of the situation on the suspect and his family. It's a fast read and has a good pace. You can notice that it's designed to be published as a serial, as many chapters end with a twist or cliff-hanger. In fact, most Verne novels were serialized in the "Magasin d’Education et de Récréation" before being published in book form, but this serialized origin is more noticeable in this one.

The main weakness is that the ending is quite sudden, and a bit of a deus ex machina to reveal the truth of what happened. Because of that, I can not consider it a detective or police procedural novel, as the focus is not on how the truth is uncovered.

For a time, it was thought that this story had been inspired by the Dreyfus affair. It's mostly the story of a man under intense suspicion, the political tensions surrounding the case and the possibility of a miscarriage of justice that reminds us of the Dreyfus affair, although the novel does not have the antisemitic elements and the circumstances are different, the accusation being murder and robbery instead of treason. However, modern understanding is that it was written just before the start of the Dreyfus affair, so the similarities would be coincidence. The publication of the novel was delayed ten years, perhaps to avoid being seen as commentary on that real-life situation.

I found the depiction of the social conflicts in Livonia interesting, although I don't know how accurate they were. Perhaps not much because, unlike in many of his works, the descriptions of the the country where the story is set are superficial. This may be just a result of the novel being so short, or a sign that Verne had done less work of documentation. Verne presents the German faction in a much more negative light than the Slavic one, which I see as part of the author's antipathy against Germany, an antipathy that was born after the Franco-Prussian war and that can be noticed in several of his novels.

The tone is perhaps darker than in most Verne stories. The crime investigation element with a possibly innocent suspect reminded me of "The Kip Brothers", although this novel lacks the element of sea travel and, unlike in "The Kip Brothers", here we do not find out what really happened until the end.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it, although the resolution was rushed. It was short, with a decent pace. The kind of plot and the tone is different from what you would expect in a more typical Verne novel. Not among his greatest works, but a fine late effort.


Next up: Master of the World

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(53) Maître du monde (Master of the World, 1904) (1 volume) 41K words


The 53rd Extraordinary Voyage takes place in the United States, and brings back one of Verne's most eccentric inventors.


First read or reread?: Reread. It impressed me on my first read.


What is it about?: Set in the summer of 1903, a series of unexplained events occur across the Eastern United States, from unexplained volcanic activity to objects moving with great speed along the roads and rivers. The first-person narrator, John Strock, 'Head inspector in the federal police department' in Washington, DC, travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and other locations to investigate.


This is one of those shorter Verne novels that are little more than a novella. It has a good pace, even though not that much actually happens, and I see why I was impressed when I first read it. The mysterious going-ons, the fantastic vehicle, the megalomaniac personality of Robur...

On the other hand, this was one of the first Verne novels I read, and I was very young then. Rereading it now, I notice that Verne was retreading some of his usual plots and themes. This is true of much of his later work: he does reuse his more successful formulas, although often he manages to make it different enough to seem fresh. Perhaps you could say this one is more derivative than usual, but it still worked for me, mostly.

The first part of the novel is devoted to the investigation of unexplained events, and is therefore very similar to the start of "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", although in this case a much larger part of the novel is devoted to the investigation.

This section of the novel, when the police inspector is trying to figure out what's going on, is full of questions rather than actual advances of the plot. Then the investigator is captured and gets to witness the technology that was behind the unexplained events. But, again, nothing much happens until the sudden end. The whole time, the point is more the sense of wonder rather than the actual plot. In that sense, it makes me think of later science fiction novels like "Rendezvous with Rama", and I'm not surprised it captured my imagination as a kid. This time around I'm familiar with Verne's typical stories, and I remembered very well the plot of this one, so the mystery does not have the same impact.

The resource of having the outsider, who serves as the audience surrogate, captured and thus getting to witness all the truth is also typical of this kind of Verne stories ("Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", "Robur the Conqueror", "Facing the Flag"...). This, and the megalomaniacal personality of the villain, makes it a precursor of stories like James Bond's.

The fact that the point here is the wonder rather than the actual plot may bother some readers, but it fits my personal taste, so I was fine with it.

It is the second to last Verne novel published during his lifetime, just one year before his death, and it's typical of the more pessimist last part of his career. Science and technology can still be wondrous, but they now represent a threat to the human race, as well as an opportunity.

This is a sequel to "Robur the Conqueror", in the sense that it continues the story of the title character, but it is a separate story rather than a direct continuation, so it can be read independently. In fact, as Verne does when writing sequels, at some point in the novel he gives the reader a summary of the previous story when it becomes relevant.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it, although I was less impressed than the first time round. It's short, and places more emphasis on sense of wonder than on plot. The pacing seemed good to me. In many ways it is derivative of other Verne stories.


Next up: Invasion of the Sea

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(54) L'Invasion de la mer (Invasion of the Sea, 1905) (1 volume) 53K words


The 54th Extraordinary Voyage is the last one published in Jules Verne's lifetime. It takes us to the Sahara desert, mostly in Tunisia. Eight more novels would be published posthumously in the series, for a total of sixty-two, but this is the last one where the author had the opportunity to review the print proofs and make the final corrections.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Captain Hardigan and other members of the French forces in Tunisia accompany an engineer named de Schaller on a survey of the abandoned plans and works of Captain Roudaire. Schaller works for a company planning to resurrect Roudaire's plan to flood a lower portion of the Sahara Desert, creating an inland sea with the objective of opening up the interior of North Africa to trade and improving the climate for agriculture. However, the party is attacked by members of a Tuareg tribe opposed to the plan, whose leader Hadjar had recently escaped the custody of the French.


Apart from the sentimental consideration of being the last Verne novel published during the author's life, "Invasion of the Sea" is among the least-known Extraordinary Voyages. It was published in English for the first time in 2001.

Nevertheless, it's not completely without interest. I found the premise fascinating, being based on a project that was seriously considered in real life, but that I had never read about till now. The idea was opening a channel from the Mediterranean to flood certain areas in the Sahara Desert that lie below the sea level. The goal was to create an inland sea that would bring humid air, rain, and agriculture deep into the desert, also opening up the region to trade. The project was contemplated seriously, but the French government withdrew its support when it was discovered that, due to errors in the surveys, the area that was below sea level was smaller than previously thought. However, the idea has not been completely abandoned, and in fact in the 21st century it is still being considered.

The novel, a rather short one, starts promisingly, with an action-filled first chapter describing the daring escape of a Tuareg leader from a French military prison. Unfortunately, right after that the pace of the story becomes glacial, as we accompany a French survey expedition to examine the remains of the works already done to dig the channel that would flood parts of the desert. After several dull and uneventful chapters, the pace picks up again for the last part of the novel, detailing the fights between the French expedition and the Tuareg tribe, and the surprising ending.

In addition to the pacing problems, the characters here are rather lackluster. Even though it starts in a promising manner with the escape of the Tuareg leader, the novel mostly follows the French expedition. Verne tries to make the most important characters distinctive, but he is less successful than usual. (It's true that Verne's novel are not character-focused, but at his best he can create compelling characters like Phileas Fogg or Captain Nemo).

Besides the adventure story, which falters for a good part of the novel but picks up steam at the end, the interest here is in the idea of the Sahara Sea project. It's such an ambitious engineering project. It's also an illustration of the colonial mentality that a foreign power would take it upon itself to do something so radical. It's true that compensations are mentioned for the few native farmers who would be affected, but presumably it's the French who would decide how much those compensations would be. In any case, unlike what a modern novel would do, Verne presents the natives opposed to the project as the bad guys (on the grounds that they are basically outlaws whose livelihood comes from assaulting trading caravans), and the French engineer and soldiers as the good guys.

The book also shows the warier attitude towards technology of Verne's later years, with the dangers of the ambitious project not being as under control as the engineers believe, and it also shows certain environmental concerns, not in the modern sense, but about the scarcity of food that the project seeks to address.

All in all, an interesting read, even though as an adventure it's below Verne's usual standards.


Enjoyment factor: Not among Verne's best novels, as a good chunk of the novel is kind of dull, although it improves later. The premise is certainly interesting, and I get the feeling that Verne would have made better use of this material if he had been in his prime. It's a fast read, being rather short.


Next up: The Lighthouse at the End of the World

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(55) Le Phare du bout du monde (The Lighthouse at the End of the World, 1905) (1 volume) 41K words


The 55th Extraordinary Voyage, published shortly after Jules Verne's death is the first of the eight posthumous novels in the series. The story takes us to an island at the Southern tip of South America, near Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn. The series had previously visited South America in "Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon", "The Mighty Orinoco", and in the first volume of "In Search of the Castaways".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: The Argentine navy has just built a lighthouse at Isla de los Estados, a large, barren island on the southern tip of South America, near the Magellan Strait that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific. This structure, nicknamed "the lighthouse at the end of the world", is to be operated by three keepers, who will serve for three months before being relieved. After the lighthouse is completed, the first keepers are left on the island, supposedly alone. Unfortunately, the island has other residents, a group of pirates who've been waiting for the opportunity to seize a vessel with which to leave the island. They murder two of the keepers and take possession of the lighthouse. The other keeper manages to escape, and it's up to this lone survivor to remain alive until the relief comes in three months and, if possible, fight back.


As I mentioned elsewhere, the eight posthumous Extraordinary Voyages were attributed solely to Jules Verne for almost a century. However, after the discovery by Verne scholars of the Hetzel (the publishing house) archives we now know that Michel Verne, Jules' son, edited and modified these posthumous novels. The modifications he made are important, and I think it's appropriate to call these last eight novels collaborations between Jules and Michel. I wouldn't attribute them solely to Michel (except maybe in the case of "The Thompson Travel Agency", where no Jules Verne manuscript was discovered), since the younger Verne worked on the story and writing his father had produced.

"The Lighthouse at the End of the World" was almost ready for publication when Jules Verne died, and the edits that Michel did are slight, so the published version is very similar to Jules' manuscript. The only relevant change he made is adding the episode where one of the characters swims towards the pirate vessel in an attempt to blow it up. In the other seven posthumous novels Michel made more changes, but I'll comment on that when I get to them.

The original versions of the posthumous novels, as Jules Verne wrote them, have also been published, so people can read both and compare if they want. Opinions among Verne fans are divided regarding Michel's modifications: Some think that they are an artistic betrayal, in some cases even going against Jules' intentions (see for example the changed ending of "The Golden Volcano"). Others think that Michel was a decent writer who came along at the right moment, as the posthumous manuscripts were slow and lacking in action, and Michel's changes made the plots more entertaining and adventurous. One also has to remember that these posthumous manuscripts had not been submitted for publication yet, so Jules might have edited or modified them himself if he had lived (he also made modifications sometimes following suggestions from his editor).

In any case, I care more about entertaining stories than about artistic integrity, so I'll read and review the versions modified by Michel, which are the ones that were published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages series.

Coming back to "The Lighthouse at the End of the World", it is one of the shortest Extraordinary Voyages, barely more than a novella. It is a fast read and I found it quite entertaining. The premise was also very good, setting up a tense scenario.

I wouldn't place it among Verne's best works, though. I thought the beginning, with the description of the island, is not as evocative as Verne's best geographical writing, and the characters of the three keepers are not explored enough that we care about them before they are attacked.

Immediately after the attack, the narration was again a bit distant, although the pace soon quickened and the last part of the story was thrilling.

Overall, I though it was a good adventure short novel, maybe not among Verne's best, but very deserving of its place in the series..


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. It's a short, fast read. I thought Verne might have taken better advantage of this interesting premise, at least during the first part, but the story is never boring and it becomes quite gripping.


Next up: The Golden Volcano

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(56) Le Volcan d’or (The Golden Volcano, 1906) (2 volumes) 115K words


The 56th Extraordinary Voyage is the second out of eight posthumous novels in the series. The story takes us to the Klondike, in northwestern Canada, near the frontier with Alaska. The novel is set during the Klondike Gold Rush, which happened at the end of the 19th century.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: In the middle of the Gold Rush, two French-Canadian cousins inherit from their late uncle a mining claim on the shores of the Klondike. They travel to the Yukon to investigate their claim. Instead they find disaster, until chance gives them information of a volcano filled with gold.


As I have commented in previous reviews, the version I'm reading of the posthumous novels is the one that was modified by Michel Verne and originally published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages. Much later, in the last part of the 20th century, the original manuscripts left by Jules Verne were discovered, and the fact that his son Michel had edited and modified those manuscripts for publication became known. Nowadays, the original versions without Michel's modifications have also been published, but they are more difficult to find than the originally published versions. For the eight posthumous novel, if your edition doesn't explicitly say that it's the unmodified Jules Verne version, you can assume that you are reading the version edited by Michel, which after all is the one that was published originally.

The reason I haven't sought the unmodified Jules Verne versions is that the modifications Michel introduced consisted mostly in adding a few more episodes of action and adventure, which in my opinion is a good thing, since these posthumous novels were a bit lacking in that department.

On the other hand, this particular story, The Golden Volcano, is the one where Michel's changes were more controversial, since he changed Jules' ending, undermining the message that his father had intended. Indeed, Jules Verne had been very wary of the greed associated with the gold rushes, and had intended this novel as a cautionary tale, where the characters did not profit despite their efforts and suffering. Michel added a romantic subplot and changed the ending to a more conventional happy ending.

Be that as it may, I read the version with Michel's modifications, the same as I'm doing with all the other posthumous Extraordinary Voyages.

The novel starts rather slowly, mostly presenting the two cousins who are the main characters and showing how they find out about their late uncle's claim that they had inherited. Summy Skim is a quiet man, satisfied with his lot in life, while his cousin Ben Raddle, an engineer, is much more adventurous and restless.

The two of them depart for the Klondike to try to determine the value of their claim, since they do not want to blindly accept a purchase offer they have received. The journey is not the same kind of adventure as in many early Verne novels, since they are not completely on their own in the wilderness, but they take advantage of all the infrastructure that has popped up to cater to the traveling miners. Nevertheless, the natural conditions are harsh, and Verne depicts well the suffering that many miners and their families experienced.

During the journey they find a couple of female prospectors and associate with them (this is part of the romantic subplot that Michel added, since in the original they were nuns), while they have clashes with a group of villains. After much work, all seems to be going well with them when a natural disaster makes them lose everything. It is then that by chance they find information about a legendary Golden Volcano filled with gold, and they depart on a risky adventure to try to find it. This part has more action and adventure than the first part of the novel.

Michel's change to the ending makes the story more conventional and safer from a commercial point of view. However, despite my general satisfaction with Michel's changes, in this case it might have been more interesting to keep the original ending, so as not to undermine the original message.


Enjoyment factor: The story is relatively long, and maybe the first part goes a bit slowly, but I found it a pleasant and interesting read, even if it did not grab me as much as some Verne novels.


Next up: The Thompson Travel Agency

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(57) L’Agence Thompson and Co (The Thompson Travel Agency, 1907) (2 volumes) 126K words


The fifty-seventh Extraordinary Voyage, the third one published after Jules Verne's death, takes us first on an organized travel tour of the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands, and later to the western coast of Africa. Other novels in the series that feature travel adventures from a touristic rather than exploratory point of view include "Travel Scholarships" and "Clovis Dardentor", and in a looser sense one could include in that group books like "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Claudius Bombarnac".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Robert Morgand, a Frenchman in dire economic straits, finds a job as a guide and interpreter for a British tourist tour that will visit the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands. Mr. Thompson, the owner of the travel agency, has lowered the prices to an excessive extent, in an effort to underbid other competing agencies. As a result, he wants to cut costs as much as possible. The group of people that have signed on for the tour are an eclectic bunch; between their quirks, the thriftiness of tour director Thompson and the almost un-seaworthiness of the ship Seamew, Robert Morgand has his work cut out for him.


As I have commented in previous reviews, after Jules Verne's death, his son Michel took charge of his unpublished manuscripts and prepared them for publication. These novels were published under Jules Verne's name, and for almost a century no one doubted his authorship. However, near the end of the 20th century, Verne scholars found the original Jules Verne manuscripts and could compare them with the versions modified by Michel. As a result, it was discovered that Michel made significant contributions and modifications, less extensive for some of the novels and more for others. He added plot lines and characters, in general making the stories more eventful, to the extent that it's fair to think of the posthumous Extraordinary Voyages as collaborations between Jules and his son.

"The Thompson Travel Agency" is a special case among these posthumous novels because no Jules Verne manuscript was found, only Michel's. This led the investigators to conclude that this novel was exclusively the work of Michel Verne.

I'm not completely persuaded that no Jules Verne manuscript discovered necessarily means that there never was one, though. It is known that Michel was a competent writer himself, to the extent that people did not suspect his involvement in the posthumous novels until the manuscripts were discovered. However, if this novel was completely his own original work, I have to say he did an excellent job channeling his father, because it fits seamlessly with the style of other novels from the second half of Jules Verne's career, and in fact it features a lot of the sardonic sense of humor that Jules showed in some of his novels.

I have read that some scholars, through stylistic analysis, believe that the first twenty chapter may be Jules Verne's work and the last ten Michel's. This sounds plausible to me, but I guess we will never know for sure. In any case, for "The Thompson Travel Agency" do not bother looking for a published version of Jules Verne's original manuscript without Michel's additions, like you can find for other posthumous novels. In the case of this novel, if there ever was a Jules Verne manuscript, it has been lost.

But enough chat about the authorship and let's look at the contents.

During Verne's life, the age of sail ended, as steamships came to dominate the oceans, making sea travel faster and safer. The unknown parts of the Earth were gradually explored and mapped, making our planet seem a smaller, less mysterious place. There were still adventures to be had, but they were of a different kind, involving less exploration of unknown, uncivilized regions.

This was reflected in the Extraordinary Voyages which, particularly during the second half of Verne's writing career, increasingly took place within the reach of civilization. We see this clearly in the premise of this novel. For the first time in the Voyages, it features a travel agency like the ones we are used to in the modern world. The closest thing in the series until now would be "Travel Scholarships", although that novel described a more informal organized trip for a group of schoolboys, not a tour open to any customers of a travel agency.

What the novel lacks in exoticism and adventure in the wilderness, it makes up with its satiric sense of humor in the way it describes the characters and their interactions. In that sense, I thought it compares, not unfavorably, with "Clovis Dardentor", for example. Verne often did not aim to be funny in his novels, but when he did I rather enjoy his wry sense of humor, and I recognized that same sense of humor here, which is why I find it difficult to believe he played no part in the writing of this novel. If he did not, then Michel did a remarkable job following his father's style.

Besides the sense of humor, the plot also follows familiar lines. We get the descriptions of the different islands the tourists visit, which is something that I think is less interesting for modern readers. After all, we can go on the internet and see pictures and videos of any part of the world. I suspect that Verne's contemporary readers found these descriptions more interesting, though, as the Voyages were a way to travel with the mind and get to know parts of the world that most readers would never see.

Even for modern readers, I don't think these descriptions get too boring, because they are balanced with the different adventures the travelers go through and their personal drama. That includes quite a lot, from Roberto and his friend Roger's romances with two American sisters, to people traveling under false names, robberies, attempted murder, accidents, epidemics... A lot of humorous moments are caused by Mr. Thompson's thrifty ways and the indignation this causes in some of the travelers.

The first two thirds of the novel are more episodic and more humorous, as the tourists visit the different islands, and the last part becomes a more straightforward adventure story when the group gets into serious difficulties and dangers.


Enjoyment factor: I quite enjoyed this one. It's long (2 volumes) and a bit slow at times, but I found it entertaining because of the humor and the personal dynamics of the characters. It does follow a familiar Verne formula, mixing adventure and geographic descriptions. These geographic descriptions may bother some readers more than they bothered me.


Next up: The Chase of the Golden Meteor

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(58) La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor, 1908) (1 volume) 59K words


In the fifty-eight Extraordinary Voyage, the fourth one published posthumously, Verne returns to the science fiction genre. This book is the first to deal with astronomical events since "Off on a Comet" (I'm not counting "The Purchase of the North Pole" here because that one only involved Earth). This novel also includes a trip to Greenland, where, if I remember correctly, the series had only taken us for a short visit in "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: Two amateur astronomers in the same American town independently spot a new meteor and each attempts to claim the credit for the discovery. The bitter rivalry that results threatens the projected wedding between the daughter of one of the astronomers and the nephew of the other. This rivalry worsens when it's discovered that the meteor is made of gold and thus extremely valuable. Meanwhile, another amateur scientist, this time a very eccentric inventor, tries to create a device which will cause the meteor to fall on Earth.


On paper, the book is science fiction, but the focus is really on the social satire, with a humorous portrayal of how greed and vanity affects people and countries. I had expected Verne's posthumous novels to be somewhat glum, but that's not really the case, and the last two I have read ("The Thompson Travel Agency" and this one) are comedies.

Perhaps one element that differentiates these posthumous novels is the denunciation of greed. This message was somewhat lost in "The Golden Volcano" because of the modifications Michel Verne (Jules Verne's son) did before publication, but here the message is intact, and the author has fun depicting how greed makes people act like fools and how it threatens peace between countries. There is also a satire of the stock markets.

Comparing the final product with Jules' original manuscript, we see that Michel's main contribution was introducing the character Zéphyrin Xirdal, the extremely eccentric but brilliant French inventor who tries to bring the meteor to Earth (in Jules' manuscript the meteor fell on its own).

It's in Xirdal's work that we find the science-fictional elements of the story. The device that the inventor produces is explained with technobabble, although it's interesting to see in it the influences of the contemporary research on radioactive materials and also, with a certain prescience, some musings on the equivalence of matter and energy.

But, as I said, this is not the real focus. Despite the speculative elementas and the journey to Greenland, the main pleasure is following the quirky set of characters as they are affected by the riches that may be about to fall from the sky.

The novel is quite short and moves at a decent pace, without the slower sections that some of Verne's longest novels have in their first half.


Enjoyment factor: I liked this one, although I did not find it as amusing as "The Thompson Travel Agency". It's short and a quick read, and the plot is entertaining, even if the science is dubious. Your enjoyment will depend on how much you appreciate the quirkiness of the characters. I can see them being a bit too much for some readers.


Next up: The Danube Pilot

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(59) Le Pilote du Danube (The Danube Pilot, 1908) (1 volume) 60K words


The fifty-ninth Extraordinary Voyage, the fifth one published posthumously, takes us on a boat trip along the Danube River, from its source in the Black Forest of Germany to its mouth in the Black Sea. It's the third and last Verne novel describing a river journey, after "Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon" and "The Mighty Orinoco".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: An unknown Magyar fisherman, Ilia Brusch, unexpectedly wins the fishing competition organized by the Danubian League. He then publicly announces his intention to make a trip along the Danube, 3000 kilometers in all, living only on his fishing (either eating the fish or selling them to obtain other products). At the same time, a wave of murders and burglaries is happening along the river. The gang of criminals have eluded the police forces of the different countries, to the point that a multi-national task force, headed by the famous police detective Karl Dragoch, has been created to catch them. Dragoch has reason to be interested in the mysterious Ilia Brusch and his boat trip.


This book was heavily modified by Michel Verne before being published. The unmodified Jules Verne manuscript was only published in 1988 with the title "Le Beau Danube Jaune". In the version that was published in 1908 as part of the Extraordinary Voyages, Michel gave much more weight to the storyline about the gang of criminals, sacrificing most of the geographical descriptions in his father's manuscript and its more relaxed, humorous tone. That way, Michel changed the humorous travelogue into a dark detective story full of action and plot twists.

As always, for these posthumous novels I'm reading the version originally published in the Extraordinary Voyages, including Michel's modifications. These versions are usually easier to find than Jules' unmodified manuscripts.

Detective stories are not very common among the voyages. "In Search of the Castaways" could be considered one of them, and also "Facing the Flag", and, later, "The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz". On the other hand, as I have mentioned, the geographical descriptions that you usually find in Verne's travelogues are absent here, sacrificed, along with Jules' satire, to make room for a more dynamic plot.

Another theme here is a political one: The background of some of the characters is linked to the struggle of the Magyars for their political freedom against the Ottoman Empire, a subject also explored in "Mathias Sandorf" and, in the case of the Greeks, in "The Archipelago on Fire". A more sympathetic portrayal of the Ottoman Empire can be found in "Kéraban the Inflexible", a novel with a more humorous tone.

So, does the approach taken by Michel work? It mostly did for me. It was a quick read (only one volume) and the eventful plot always kept me entertained. On the other hand, it's not the most sophisticated detective story: most of the surprise revelations are easy to guess, and I had to suspend disbelief regarding the, let's say, eccentric way Karl Dragoch had of leading the investigation. The lack of geographical descriptions means that the novel was a bit more generic than usual in Verne's travelogues. By that I mean that the setting could have been changed without modifying the story too much.

As an anecdote, Michel Verne used the name Jackel Semo for one of the secondary characters he created. This was the name of a real person Michel had met in Belgrade. The real Jackel Semo sued Verne and his publisher, so they changed the name of this character to Yacoub Ogul.


Enjoyment factor: I found it enjoyable, with a lot of action, even though the plot is not very sophisticated. It's interesting to compare it to other travelogues by Jules Verne, which tend to feature many more geographical descriptions.


Next up: The Survivors of the "Jonathan"

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(60) Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (The Survivors of the "Jonathan", 1909) (2 volumes) 142K words


The 60th Extraordinary Voyage, the sixth one published posthumously, takes place in the southern tip of South America, in the region around the Straits of Magellan. We had been in this same part of the world a few novels ago, in "The Lighthouse at the End of the World". Curiously, both novels involve the construction of a new lighthouse to help ships in those dangerous waters, although this time that's just a side plot.


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: An enigmatic man has chosen to live far from civilization in the region around the Straits of Magellan. He only uses the name Kaw-djer, which was given to him by the indigenous people of the area, as a token of respect and recognition for the help he is always willing to lend, using his knowledge of medicine. Kaw-djer, a philosophical anarchist whose motto is "Neither God nor master", assists a group of settlers who end up being shipwrecked on a nearby island (Hoste Island). When the settlers receive an offer to establish a colony right there, Kaw-djer remains with them. Despite his exceptional knowledge and charisma, he refuses to accept a position of authority. However, as the colony begins to fall apart, Kaw-djer is forced to choose between his own principles and the well-being of his friends.


This is another book that was heavily modified by Michel Verne, to get it ready for publication. Jules Verne's manuscript (which has been published recently with the title "Magellania"), is half the length and supplies little detail, mostly giving an outline like a history book and only developing the character of Kaw-djer. Michel made the story much more detailed and introduced many characters.

One goodreads reviewer calls Magellania (Jules' original manuscript) the work of "an experienced writer dealing with serious issues in a mature manner", and calls Michel's additions fluff. I have to disagree. For me, fleshing up the story and letting us share it with the characters does not dilute the underlying psychological conflict of the main character. On the contrary, for me those ideas are strengthened if they are integrated in a solid story. Then again, I like plot, that's why I read Verne.

Be that as it may, I found Kaw-djer quite intriguing, joining the ranks of Verne's best characters, with the likes of Nemo, Paganel or Phileas Fogg.

With Michel's changes, this becomes an adventure novel in Verne's usual style, but still remains a political one. Verne always had a soft spot for oppressed nations that were fighting for their freedom, but here he examines questions like the legitimacy of governments of any kind. He treats anarchist ideas with respect (the anarchist Kaw-djer is morally ahead of most people) but, just like communism, Verne's position seems to be that on paper they can be admirable ideas, but if put in practice they prove to be incompatible with human nature and lead to disaster.

There is a large cast of characters, many of whom were created by Michel. I was amused to see two of them (the young boys Dick and Sand), whose names are a shout-out to the main character of "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen". It's interesting, because Dick Sand, the teenage captain, has been interpreted as Verne's image of an ideal son, as opposed to his actual son Michel who, at that time, had a very conflictive relationship with his father (later the two of them would become closer). I wonder if Michel was aware of that interpretation, and if so how he felt about it.

This novel closes Verne's cycle of Robinson stories, and I think he did a good job of not repeating himself. We have "The Mysterious Island", an epic story that plays a central role in Verne's mythology; the humorous "Godfrey Morgan"; "Two Years' Vacation", with a group of boys as the castaways who handle their situation and internal conflicts much better than the ones in Golding's Lord of the Flies; "The Castaways of the Flag", perhaps the closest one to "The Survivors of the Jonathan" since it also deals with the creation of an island colony as the aftermath of a shipwreck, even though it takes a different, less political approach...

Apart from the examination of political philosophies, what distinguishes this novel from other Verne Robinsonades is the large number of people involved in the shipwreck (the Jonathan is a large, four-masted clipper), which makes for a less manageable society. Inevitably, the organization of such a settlement becomes a political matter rather than being based on personal relationships. Still, the conflict between the Kaw-djer's ideas and the political reality remains the highlight.

This was mostly a riveting read. Perhaps the story is longer than it needed to be (the invasion arc could easily have been removed), and I found unlikely that Chile would be willing to offer independence to the colony, no matter how much they wished to encourage colonization of the area. On the other hand, I found the gold rush arc enjoyable and finally Jules Verne's condemnation of gold and greed becomes explicit (it was also present in "The Golden Volcano", but the message was lost with Michel's changes).


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed this one a lot, even if it's not perfect. I had been afraid that the posthumous novels would be disappointing, but that hasn't been the case so far, and I think they could be favorably compared to, for example, the last few novels published within Jules Verne's lifetime.


Next up: The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz

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(61) Le Secret de Wilhelm Storitz (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz, 1910) (1 volume) 54K words


The 61st and second to last Extraordinary Voyage, the seventh one published posthumously, takes place in the fictional Hungarian city of Ragz. It's the last science fiction novel by Verne (if we don't count some futuristic technology in "The Barsac Mission"), and despite the urban setting it also has some elements of Gothic horror, combined in a way that reminded me of "The Carpathian Castle".


First read or reread?: First read for me.


What is it about?: French engineer Henri Vidal is invited by his younger brother Marc to visit him in the (fictional) city of Ragz, Hungary, on the occasion of his wedding. Marc is engaged to Myra Roderich, from a respected and well-liked local family. Before leaving Paris, Henri learns that a man named Wilhelm Storitz had proposed to Myra, but had been refused. Wilhelm, who is the son of a famous physicist and chemist, the late Otto Storitz, has sworn vengeance against the family that rejected him, claiming to have powers beyond human understanding. Soon it becomes apparent that Wilhelm's threats were not empty, and he uses his astonishing powers to harass the Roderich family in an attempt to prevent the wedding.


As always for these posthumous novels, I'm reading the version that was originally published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages, the one edited and modified by Michel Verne, and not Jules Verne's unedited manuscript. In the case of this novel, Michel's changes are less extensive than in the previous two novels: He just changed the timeframe, taking the story to the 18th century, and made a modification to the ending, making it happier.

Moving the story from the 19h to the 18th century seems rather pointless, since it doesn't really play a role in the story. According to the correspondence between Michel and the publisher it was done at the request of the publisher. Maybe he thought that taking the story back one century would make the popular superstition around Otto Storitz's work seem more natural, although I think that in fact the end of the 19th century would work better for the kind of scientific discoveries that his son Wilhelm put to such evil use.

The change to the ending is easier to understand, being an attempt to make the story more pleasing to the general public and therefore more commercial.

The plot here was a bit thin, and maybe it would have worked better as a novella rather than a novel. As a result, the first part is slow, which is something unusual in Verne's shorter novels (the one-volume ones). We get an account of Henri's trip to Hungary, and in the short section where he sails down the Danube we probably are treated to more descriptions about the river and the riverside cities than we got in "The Danube Pilot", where the whole novel was devoted to such a trip. Not that there are that many descriptions here, it's just that there were barely any in "The Danube Pilot".

The characterization is quite conventional. The female characters are delicate, quick to faint and lose their minds. I mean, Verne is a writer of his time, and I don't ask for all of his female characters to be like the title character from "Mistress Branican" or like Paulina Barnett from "The Fur Country", but this fragility was a bit excessive. The male characters are also pretty conventional, nothing like the Kaw-djer from the previous novel ("The Survivors of the Jonathan"), who was full of internal conflict.

Verne's dislike of Germany, which as I have commented elsewhere began after the disastrous Franco-Prussian war, is apparent here, while Hungary is described as being friendly with France.

The plot includes a couple of unlikely coincidences. However, even a minor Verne has good things to offer, and once the hostilities began in the second half of the book, the atmosphere became tense and frantic, in a very enjoyable manner. I think Verne made the right choice in telling the story from Henri Vidal's perspective, since for this kind of story a first-person narration makes the reader feel closer to the characters as they go through the whole ordeal.

Readers familiar with H.G. Wells' work will notice that the premise of this story is similar to one of Wells' most famous novels. Wells' novel was published before this one, and maybe Verne got the idea from there but, beyond the premise, the two stories are different. Still, the idea is more what one would expect from Wells than from Verne. After all, Verne's science fiction was usually more grounded on contemporary scientific knowledge, while Wells didn't let a lack of scientific basis deter him. This is definitely more a Wells kind of plot.


Enjoyment factor: I did enjoy it, despite some flaws. Maybe a minor work, but in the second half the atmosphere was suitably disquieting and the whole thing was entertaining.


Next up: The Barsac Mission

[Dr. Drib]

After you finish the final novel - The Barsac Mission - do you plan to do the two collections of short stories, in addition to the seven individual short stories?

I would like to suggest Anthony Trollope for your next venture; that is, when you finish with Jules and Michel Verne.

[Calenorn]

Would it be possible to collect all the reviews you've written here into an ebook and offer it here for downloading?