Reading Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires

[Dr. Drib]

Commenting backwards:

Ok, I'm currently on Chapter 5.

Chapter Four contained a notorious info dump from the Observatory of Cambridge to the Gun Club explaining the time and way to fire a cannon toward the moon. Although I found it boring, I continued to read that chapter all the way through.

What I liked so far is the outlandish physical condition of the members of the Gun Club and the fact there were no more wars so they might utilize their weapons and kill people:

"One day, however - sad and melancholy day! - peace was signed between the survivors of the war..." He laments the fact that plants began to grow "luxuriantly in the well-mannered fields...the Gun Club relegated to profound inactivity" due to the end of conflict. Yes, I can see how that would be a sad day, indeed! (One moment, while I wipe away a commiserating tear. )

And the physical aspects associated with the members of the Gun Club:

"[Members had] marks of indisputable valour. Crutches, wooden legs, artificial arms, steel hooks, caoutchouc jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses, were all to be found in the collection..."

Impey Baricane, however, who is the President of the Gun Control is "punctual as a chronometer...with all his limbs intact." He's a wonderfully described character.

Well, onward toward reading the book, but I'll be taking my son go-carting today so I won't be able to read much until later tonight.

Please don't hesitate to continue your reading of this novel on my account. (I also have that obligation - an enjoyable obligation, to be sure! - on the NetGalley ebook given to me.)

[db105]

Originally Posted by gmw

The humour is one of the things I remember from my reading of the "From the Earth to the Moon". I did wonder if perhaps Americans might not find it quite so funny (as a lot of it was at America's expense).

He does make fun of Americans in this book, but it doesn't strike me as an offensive kind of humor, because it's mixed with admiration for their daring and can-do attitude. So it's satire, but kind of a fond satire. You'll notice that a lot of Verne's protagonists are English, or, in this case, Americans.

Most members of the gun-club are also rather ridiculous, but I don't think that satire extends to all Americans.

From the novel:

Nothing can astound an American. It has often been asserted that the word “impossible” is not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical difficulties, they are overcome before they arise. Between Barbicane’s proposition and its realization no true Yankee would have allowed even the semblance of a difficulty to be possible. A thing with them is no sooner said than done.

Originally Posted by gmw

db105 - I am enjoying reading over your reviews! I've never attempted to read everything of Verne's so lots for me to learn here.

Thank you! I'm just starting, but if all goes well I hope read all, even though it will take time.

[db105]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Please don't hesitate to continue your reading of this novel on my account.

That seems fine. Instead of coordinating we can read at our own pace. Since you are behind, when you want to make a comment you can say where you are and I'll comment to that point.

So, spoilers up to chapter 5:

Chapter Four contained a notorious info dump from the Observatory of Cambridge to the Gun Club explaining the time and way to fire a cannon toward the moon. Although I found it boring, I continued to read that chapter all the way through.

Infodump, yes, but it's a really short chapter! Basically the gun-club has written to the Cambridge observatory (Cambridge in Massachusetts, not in the UK), asking the astronomers what would be required for a projectile to reach the moon, and the astronomers take it very seriously and respond, putting themselves at their disposal for any help they can give the project. Chapter 4, then, is their response, suggesting the best moment for the experiment and the best locations for the cannon, and what the speed of the projectile would need to be.

Once Barbicane announces his project there is kind of a national enthusiasm, as would happen a century later, when the actual Apollo program inspired the whole country. In that Verne was visionary, imagining how a project of that nature would capture the imagination of the world. Of course, he was living in an age of discoveries and optimism about scientific progress.

His communication to the gun-club reminded me of the beginning of Five Weeks in a Balloon, where Dr. Fergusson makes a speech to the Royal Geographical Society in London, to announce his project to explore Africa in a balloon, and is also met with enthusiasm (and some incredulity). But here the Gun-Club will play a more central role in the story, apart from being a source of humor. So far this is the funniest Verne novel I have read. Journey to the Center of the Earth had funny moments too, but not as many.

The chapter you are reading, chapter 5, is also a popular science infodump, about the formation of the moon, the planets and the stars... It's also quite short, and I found it surprisingly accurate, taking into account this was written in the 1860s. You can skip it if you want, really, but I find it interesting. I found some of the discussions about ballistics that are still ahead for you a bit more boring.

So, there's quite a lot of infodump in this first part of the book, more than in other Verne novels, which I think is explained by the unprecedented nature of the project.

What I liked so far is the outlandish physical condition of the members of the Gun Club and the fact there were no more wars so they might utilize their weapons and kill people:

(...)

And the physical aspects associated with the members of the Gun Club:

Yes, the members of the gun-club, which is more like the artillery-designers club, are hilarious. They are so self-centered and single-minded about their hobby/profession that they are outraged that the nation is at peace. They take it as a personal insult. And of course the physical description of their amputations is a running gag:

"and it was calculated by the great statistician Pitcairn that throughout the Gun Club there was not quite one arm between four persons and two legs between six."

Impey Baricane, however, who is the President of the Gun Control is "punctual as a chronometer...with all his limbs intact." He's a wonderfully described character.

He's a very distinctive type of Verne character: the visionary who conceives of the exploration project and is the driving force behind it. Later, there will be Verne novels without that archetype, but in the books I have read so far we always have it: Dr. Fergusson in Five Weeks in a Balloon, Professor Lidenbrock in Journey to the Center of the Earth, or the titular character in The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. In a way they are admirable, but they are also almost scary, because their dedication to the project is so absolute that they take no notice of the risks to themselves and to others.

[db105]

(4) De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865) (1 volume) 55K words

From the Earth to the Moon is the fourth novel in Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires. In the first part of his career the author was filled with optimism about scientific knowledge, technology and human progress. Previous novels told awe-inspiring tales of exploration and discovery: the exploration of Africa from the air (Five Weeks in a Balloon), the interior of our planet (Journey to the Center of the Earth), and the North Pole (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras). However, he managed to surpass himself in ambition with this one, turning his eyes towards the Moon. This story is an early example of hard science fiction, and would decades later inspire people like Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut who became the first human being to leave the Earth and reach outer space.


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me, although I was familiar with the story from other media.


What is it about? (from wikipedia): The Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, attempts to build an enormous Columbiad space gun and launch three people in a projectile with the goal of a Moon landing.


While this is an early classic of science fiction, one thing you need to know is that this is a very geeky kind of adventure novel. Basically, the story told here is not about traveling to the Moon, but about the planning and preparation stages. Because of that, there is not a lot of action. All Verne novels have some popular science info-dumps, but this one has more than its share of that. That is quite understandable, given the unprecedented difficulties of the task, but it can make for a less dynamic read. That's why I said this is a geeky kind of novel. A lot of the enjoyment comes not from actual adventure, but from the audacity of the project and from how reasonable and possible Verne makes it sound when he tackles the technical details. There are a lot of planning meetings where the characters discuss the details of the project, and a lot of building and testing.

Despite this lack of action, the novel has several things going for it. There is the already mentioned geeky enjoyment of the planning. Looking at it from a modern perspective, Verne's calculations and plans are surprisingly accurate. The main failing that would make the project impractical is that, in order for the passengers not to die due to the acceleration when the projectile was shot, the barrel of the cannon would have to be much longer, to allow the projectile to reach the same escape velocity with a smaller acceleration.


Another thing worth mentioning is the humor. This is the funniest among the Verne novels that I have read so far. The beginning is quite similar to Five Weeks in a Balloon, with a visionary character making a speech to a scientific society (if we can call the Baltimore Gun Club a scientific society) and describing a daring exploration project. However, the Gun Club plays a much greater role here than the Royal Geographical Society played in Five Weeks in a Balloon, and it allows Verne to use his satirical abilities to the maximum.

The Baltimore Gun Club's members are so absorbed in their hobby/profession that they consider the fact that the Civil War ended and the country is at peace as an outrage and personal insult against themselves and against the art of gunnery. Even their physical descriptions are funny, with the ridiculous amount of mutilations among their members becoming a running gag.

Verne certainly makes fun of Americans in this novel, but in my opinion is a fond kind of satire. He makes fun of Americans while at the same time admiring them for their daring, their can-do attitude, and the greatness of their enterprises. There is a moment in the novel mentioning their dream of planting the American flag on the Moon that would come true in an iconic moment a century after this novel was published.

Another thing Verne does to maintain the reader's interest is introduce some personal conflict among the characters, in this case mainly between Impey Barbicane, the president of the Gun Club and the driving force behind the project of reaching the Moon, and his long-time rival and nemesis, Captain Nicholl of Philadelphia, a designer of plate armor and thus the natural rival of cannon-designers. Their antics and bets, including even a duel, help a lot to advance the plot of the novel in an entertaining way.

This is also the first time Verne uses a Frenchman as one of his main characters, Michel Ardan, a French poet and adventurer who conceives the idea of a human crew inside the projectile. Verne tends to use a lot of Anglo-Saxon characters in his novels, probably out of admiration for the ambition of their exploration projects, as I have mentioned. However, from this novel on, he often includes a French character too.

Another big component of the novel is the public's reaction and enthusiasm for the project. There is a public subscription to finance it, and people from all over the world help, allowing Verne to have some satirical fun describing how much each country contributes and why. This is of course part of Verne's general optimism about science and the human spirit, which makes his work very appealing to me.

The novel ends shortly after the cannon is shot, leaving the story somewhat incomplete. A few years later, Verne would continue and finish the story with a sequel novel (Around The Moon), which I'll review in turn.


Enjoyment factor: I quite enjoyed it. The sense of wonder is very strong here, although it may be harder for modern readers to appreciate since this is retro science fiction. We have already been to the Moon, after all. I understand that this novel is not for everyone, in any case, because of the lack of action and abundance of info-dumps.


Next up: In Search of the Castaways, aka Captain Grant's Children

[db105]

(5) Les Enfants du capitaine Grant (In Search of the Castaways, aka Captain Grant's Children, 1867-68) (3 volumes) 201K words

This is the fifth of the Voyages Extraordinaires and the longest one so far, being the first triple-volume novel in the series. (This whole novel, complete, is a bit longer than The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.) I read an unabridged Spanish translation, but the English versions I see in Project Gutenberg are abridged. My review applies to the unabridged version.

Anyway, this is another straightforward adventure story, with fewer speculative elements than any of the previous ones. Even Captain Hatteras, another adventure tale, involved the exploration of polar regions that were unknown at the time. This one is also an exploration story, but through parts of the world that, while faraway, were not completely unknown in the 1860s. So, the point here is not geographical discovery, but finding a missing person.


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me. I was somewhat familiar with the story from the movie, but that only covered a small part of the novel.


What is it about? (from wikipedia): The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a message inside a bottle that Captain Grant had cast into the ocean after his ship was shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. The government refuses to launch a rescue expedition, but Lord and Lady Glenarvan, moved by the children's plight, decide to do it by themselves. The main difficulty is that the message is deteriorated and only a few words can be made out. The latitude of the wreckage can be read (37 degrees 11” South), but the longitude is unknown. Only by trying to interpret the few remaining word fragments can the rescuers decide where to search.


I was a bit worried coming into this novel because it's longer than the previous ones and the reviews were mixed. And it does have some problems, but many more things to enjoy. Let's explore the pros and cons...

By now, Verne's style is clear. He tells adventure stories but spiced up with educative explanations. In this case we have an exploration novel, but combined with geographical and anthropological asides. This bothers some readers, because the conventional wisdom is that "info-dumps" should always be avoided, but if you want to enjoy Verne you should change the chip and embrace them, since they are an integral part of his style. There will usually be a character who is a scholar and can tell the other characters about the lands they are traveling through or any relevant scientific knowledge. And it gives the stories a bit more depth than a simple action tale would have.

The novel is divided in three volumes subtitled South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Together they tell a single story, but it's a natural way to divide it, because each volume involves the search in a different part of the world, as the interpretation that the searchers make of the message changes.

To begin with, I enjoyed the device Verne uses to motivate the characters. The message in a bottle found inside a shark, which is so deteriorated that it's not really clear where the shipwrecked captain might be, is a great starting point for such an epic adventure, giving the characters a goal and allowing for the exploration of very different regions. And this book is really epic. All the effort, dangers and adventures these characters go through in their seemingly hopeless attempt to find the elusive captain are really impressive.

I also liked the characters. Reviewers sometimes complain that they are too formal, but it's the Victorian style, which I like, always polite and dignified. In some ways they are a typical Verne cast, but the presence of the orphans give the story more emotional weight. Among the main characters, we have Lord and Lady Glenarvan, the owners of the ship that finds the message. They are noble, generous people, and also wealthy. When they realize the government won't look for Captain Grant, they are moved by the plight of his children, and make it their mission to help them find their father. They are accompanied by Major McNabbs, a relative of Lord Glenarvan. McNabbs is the experienced man of action, the same kind of role as Dick Kennedy in Five Weeks in a Balloon. We also have the French character, Jacques Paganel, a scholar and geographer. He plays the role of the "human wikipedia", always filled with knowledge he is willing to share with the other characters and the reader. He is also the source of humor, with his notorious absent-minded moments (in fact he originally got on Lord Glenarvan's ship by mistake) and his friendly bickering with Major McNabbs. Of course we have Captain Grant's children, Robert, who is only 12 but brave and unwilling to be left out of any danger, and his eldest sister Mary, who is 16 and has looked after his brother since their father was lost. Then there is John Mangles, the young captain of Lord Glenarvan's ship, who falls in love with Mary.

Guided by the known latitude and by their changing interpretation of the rest of the massage, they travel through the Southern Hemisphere. Even though they have an excellent ship, they sometimes need to disembark and cross whole continents to try to locate the missing Captain, whom they believe taken prisoner by natives.

The first part takes place in South America: Chile, the Andes Mountains, the Argentinian Pampas... They have plenty of adventure there, although the pacing is not the best I have seen from Verne and some of the adventures are a bit far-fetched (like what happens high in the Andes). It does have nice, iconic moments, like the characters marooned on a gigantic tree during a flood.

The second part takes place in Australia. They have to cross the continent, but luckily for them the 37th parallel only crosses some of the southmost part, avoiding the impenetrable deserts. In fact, a lot of it is civilized to a certain extent, which makes for less adventure, although it was interesting seeing the gold boom towns and the squatter settlements. The pace starts slow because of this lack of adventure, but eventually it becomes very intense and exciting, with a long plot involving a ruthless band of outlaws.

The last part takes place mostly in New Zealand, were the natives are much more aggressive, in contrast with the peaceful Australian tribes. This part is also frenetic. And the ending is excellent, explaining the mystery in an unexpected and satisfying way, and with some of the most moving moments I have encountered in Verne's books.

This is the first Verne novel where the female characters have an important role, particularly in the second and third parts. Do not expect "strong female characters" in the modern style, though. This was written in the Victorian period, where it was considered that women were meant to be cherished and protected from physical danger. But here they do face danger, because they go along for every part of the adventure except the crossing of South America.

Speaking of Victorian attitudes, you can expect the normal supercilious attitude towards uncivilized tribes, although Verne is modern in some ways, like his condemn of the genocide of native Australian people by the British, or the way characters like Thalcave show intelligence, bravery and honor.

I have to say that this being a longer than usual Verne novel helped not just the epic feel, but also my involvement with the characters' fate. If your edition does not have maps, you can find them in the book's wikipedia entry, for example, and follow the journey there.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. It has some flaws: it occasionally required suspension of disbelief and the pace was not always the best, but it was filled with adventure and well thought-out, the pace gets very good in the second half and it has a satisfying epic feel and a great ending. Worth reading, even if not necessarily the one I'd recommend for a first Verne read.


Next up: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas

[davtay]

db105, I am enjoying your reviews of Jules Verne very much. I don't know that I will ever actually read his works, but I am digging your "condensed" versions...and who knows, maybe I'll give one a shot.

[db105]

Originally Posted by davtay

db105, I am enjoying your reviews of Jules Verne very much. I don't know that I will ever actually read his works, but I am digging your "condensed" versions...and who knows, maybe I'll give one a shot.

Thanks for telling me, davtay. I like writing short reviews so that I can keep track of what I read and my reaction to it, and when I started this project I thought that if I wrote slightly longer reviews and put them together it wouldn't be much work and it might be useful for some Verne fans (or even for someone who wants to try a Verne book for the first time). And if someone comments and we can talk a bit about Verne or some of the books, so much the better.

Most of Verne's best-known books are from the first part of his career, so I'm interested in seeing what happens when I get to the little-known books, which of them I'll think are worth reading and which are not that good. Is The Village in the Treetops worth the time of a Verne fan? If I finish the project, that's the kind of question I'd like to answer (in a necessarily subjective manner, but at least speaking from the position of having read them all).

[db105]

(6) Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, 1869-70) (2 volumes) 142K words


The sixth novel in Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires is probably the best-known, slightly ahead of Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

I'm reading the Voyages using unabridged Spanish translations. If you read this novel in English, the most extended English version is Mercier's 1873 translation, which is abridged and rather inaccurate. There are several modern translations, and I'd recommend looking for one of them (to see some options, read the wikipedia entry for this novel). If you must have a free ebook, your best option is F.P. Walter's 1991 translation (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2488).


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me, although I was familiar with the story from other media.


What is it about? (from Goodreads): When an unidentified “monster” threatens international shipping, French oceanographer Pierre Aronnax and his unflappable assistant Conseil join an expedition organized by the US Navy to hunt down and destroy the menace. After months of fruitless searching, they finally grapple with their quarry, but Aronnax, Conseil, and the brash Canadian harpooner Ned Land are thrown overboard in the attack, only to find that the “monster” is actually a futuristic submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by a shadowy, mystical, preternaturally imposing man who calls himself Captain Nemo. Thus begins a journey of 20,000 leagues—nearly 50,000 miles—that will take Captain Nemo, his crew, and these three adventurers on a journey of discovery through undersea forests, coral graveyards, miles-deep trenches, and even the sunken ruins of Atlantis.


This is widely regarded as one of Verne's best, but reading goodreads reviews, I see a number of complaints about boring passages about the types of fishes inhabiting each part of the ocean. Both of those opinions have a point, as I'll comment in this review. I do think that this novel gets more than its fair share of criticism about those descriptive passages. The reason is that when people read only one Verne novel, it's often this one, so you get a lot of reviews from readers who are not used to his style.

The beginning is very interesting, with the hunt for the "sea monster" that is threatening the international sea routes, but the main part of the story, of course, begins once the adventurers get into the Nautilus, which turns out not to be a giant cetaceous animal but a submarine.

So this is one of those Verne novels where a futuristic vehicle plays an important role. But it's not his style to jump wildly ahead. The first submarine had just been invented when Verne wrote this novel, although of course it was far more primitive than the Nautilus. From there, Verne rigorously extrapolated what could be accomplished, and in some ways the Nautilus is surprisingly similar to modern submarines. He also described diving suits quite similar to modern ones. In his descriptions, Verne shows a good understanding of the effects of pressure under a deep layer of water, and also how apparent weight decreases inside the water due to Archimedes' principle. However, it seems to me he overestimated the visibility range you can get underwater. Also, he tends to have divers walking on the sea floor, when it seems that swimming would be easier.

In any case, this book is another example of Verne being good at extrapolating from existing technology. It's also another novel where the sense of wonder plays a huge role. Unfortunately, this is something that many modern readers are going to miss, since nowadays submarines and divers are quite common. It's only when you put yourself in the frame of mind of someone from 1869 that you can gaze in wonder at how this story opens the underwater world to people who had no access to it.

One problem this novel has is that the plot is a bit unfocused. After being saved by the crew of the Nautilus, the adventurers are treated well, but are basically prisoners. They are forced to accompany Captain Nemo and his crew in their exploration of the oceans. That makes the story rather episodic, as we contemplate some of the wonders of the underwater world. This episodic structure reminds me of Five Weeks in a Balloon, but that one was a faster story, being only one volume versus the two volumes of this novel (in the original edition of Verne's work, one volume typically was around 65K words). Also, the point of view characters were in charge, while here they can only go where they are taken. In the second half of the novel, the pace improves, and the plot focuses on the adventurer's planning a way to to escape. However, until then the story can be a bit slow, particularly for readers who are unable to appreciate the sense of wonder in these adventures. In these episodic chapters we get some moments which are more contemplative, like the visit to the submerged remains of civilization, and others which are more exciting, like trying to get to the South Pole and getting trapped under the ice.

Another enjoyable element of this novel is Captain Nemo, possible Verne's most intriguing character. In this novel we do not learn his true identity (Nemo just means "nobody", and it's the pseudonym the sea-faring hero Odysseus used in Greek mythology to outwit the Cyclops Polyphemus, in the Latin translation of The Odyssey). This character, however, would be revisited in a future Verne novel (The Mysterious Island). What makes him interesting is his complex and ambiguous nature. He's a well-educated and civilized man, but has also a dark side and a tragic past. He is a misanthrope, resentful of the human race, but at the same time he can't disengage completely from it, and gets involved in supporting groups of people who fight for their freedom. I can not describe him as an ecologist in the modern sense, but for the first time in a Verne novel there is some conscience in this character that nature's resources, seemingly unlimited, can actually be exhausted by human depredations.

Among the other main characters we have Professor Pierre Aronnax, who narrates the story. He is a French marine biologist (as I have said in other reviews, at this point it was normal for Verne to have a French character in his novels). This is the second novel of the Voyages told in first person, after Journey to the Center of the Earth, and once again the narrator is a scientist, allowing Verne to explain through him the scientific aspects of the story.

We also have his servant, Conseil, who seemingly knows the scientific classification of all animals, but is unable to distinguish one from the other in practice. Like other Verne characters with a similar role, Conseil is faithful to his employer to a fanatical extent.

Finally, we have Ned Land, a highly skilled Canadian harpooner, who is the man of action and feels particularly constrained by his imprisonment.

Before we finish, we have to talk about the scientific info-dumps. As I mentioned before, reviewers who complain about them have a point. It's Verne's style to educate his readers about science and the wonders of the world as he tells his adventure stories. It's a feature of his writing, but I found the scientific info-dumps rather dry here (pun not intended), as we often get enumerations of sea-life that take several pages. As I'm not into marine biology, I confess that I sometimes skipped them, jumping a few paragraphs ahead, which was easy to do without missing any part of the story.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. In the first half of the novel, the pace was not as good as in Verne's most dynamic stories, but it was compensated by the sense of wonder and by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. Do not get the impression that nothing exciting happens here, though. Despite the slower parts there is still plenty of adventure and danger.


Next up: Around The Moon

[db105]

(7) Autour de la lune (Around The Moon, 1870) (1 volume) 57K words

This is a continuation of From the Earth to the Moon, starting right where the previous novel finishes. In fact, we only consider them as two different novels because they were originally published that way, but it would make sense to think of them as a single novel in two volumes, and sometimes it's published that way.


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


What is it about? (from goodreads): Having been fired out of the giant Columbiad space gun, the Baltimore Gun Club's bullet-shaped projectile, along with its three passengers, Barbicane, Nicholl and Michel Ardan, begins the five-day trip to the moon.


In my review of From the Earth to the Moon I commented that the book was short of action, being more about the preparations than about the actual space trip. Well, at last here is what happens in the actual trip.

The tone is different from the previous book, with less humor and more action. There's still the problem that, while a lot of things happen, the characters have limited influence on the events, given that, once the projectile is shot, its occupants have a limited ability to influence its ballistic movements.

Because of that, the emphasis is in the interaction between the characters (even though this is not as satirical as the first part, there's still some humor because of that) and the scientific sense of wonder of the journey. In fact, the characters seem more scientifically competent here than in the first book (well, except for Michel Ardan, who is as incompetent in that sense as ever). But Barbicane, who seemed a glorified cannon-maker, is here quite knowledgeable about astronomy.

What doesn't change is how geeky this novel is. To give you an idea, there's a whole chapter devoted to discussing an equation. That is played for laughs, showcasing how unable Ardan is to understand maths, and I'm afraid readers who know little physics won't make sense of the maths either. With Ardan's constant interruptions it's not explained clearly at all, but the equation itself is a simple conservation of energy formula, describing how the total energy (kinetic and gravitational potential) of the projectile must remain constant after the launch, thus allowing us to calculate the speed as a function of its distance to the Moon. They do discover a mistake the Observatory of Cambridge made, which seemed unrealistic (one would think the calculations would have been rechecked many times before the launching).

Anyway, there is also a lot of direct observation, and scientific discussions about the Moon, its formation, the possibility of it being able to support life (now or in the past)... Of course, some of the science is outdated (there's even discussion of aether), but it's fascinating how Verne tries to keep everything grounded and believable in the context of the knowledge available at the time. This is indeed hard science fiction.

Among the mistakes, one example is how Verne is unaware of the effects of opening a window into space. He knows that the air would go out and that it must be closed immediately to avoid losing all of it, but he absolutely underestimates how violently air would leave. This goes to show just how little knowledge there was about space at the time, which in a way makes this book more meritorious.

One thing that strikes me about this story is how blindly optimistic the characters are about their chances. They know it's very risky and they are willing to die, but they seem unaware of just how impossible their survival seems. They are upbeat about finding water and a breathable atmosphere on the Moon, even if it's only in the deepest valleys. And they handwave a lot about how exactly they intent to survive the impact against the Moon. Sure, the gravity is lower, but even so...

The ending is good. I'm noticing that Verne was quite good at writing endings that give a satisfying payoff after all the adventures.

I suspect the success of this story depends a lot on how much the reader is able to appreciate the wonder of this voyage from the point of view of people living in the 19th century. For those unable to appreciate retro-science-fiction, a lot of that sense of wonder will be lost. The two novels are also heavy in the scientific exposition, so readers who dislike these not-plot-related infodumps may be advised to choose a different Verne novel. Or even a different writer altogether, because those digressions are quite common in Verne's work, even in the more adventure-oriented. One thing that redeems Verne even for these readers is that he was a good storyteller. Some readers will tolerate his digressions because they enjoy his adventures, while others appreciate his didactic style as well. Personally, I appreciate his didactic style, being a reader of popular science too, but even so I understand why people complain about infodumps.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed this novel, along with the first part. It may not be the easiest one for casual readers to enjoy, though, unless they are interested in the early science fiction element. There's a lot of sense of wonder, if the outdated science doesn't prevent you from getting into the story. There's humor, and there's excitement about the fate of the explorers. There's also a lot of talk about astronomy, so if that's not your thing at all, you might want to try a different novel.


Next up: A Floating City

[gmw]

Originally Posted by db105

(7) Autour de la lune (Around The Moon, 1870)

This is a continuation of From the Earth to the Moon, starting right where the previous novel finishes. In fact, we only consider them as two different novels because they were originally published that way, but it would make sense to think of them as a single novel in two volumes, and sometimes it's published that way.[...]

I did read the two as a single book (using the version from here prepared by HarryT), but I still found the divide between the two parts quite stark. While I enjoyed the first, with the humour helping to break up more geeky parts, I found this second part quite hard work. As you suggest, it interesting from the historical Sci-Fi perspective, but (for me) that was about all.

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Originally Posted by gmw

While I enjoyed the first, with the humour helping to break up more geeky parts, I found this second part quite hard work.

Yes, I can understand that reaction. As I say in my review, this one is not the easiest to enjoy. Possibly if you had read it before the space age, the sense of wonder of it would have compensated better for the limited agency of the characters and all the talk about astronomy.

Curiously, for the same reason it is so interesting (the early science-fiction element), it's also one of Verne's novels that have aged worst. An adventure novel is always an adventure novel, and we don't care the technology is different because it's set in the 19th century, but here we know what's actually on the Moon and how space travel actually works.

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(8) Une ville flottante (A Floating City, 1871) (1 volume) 37K words

The eight novel in Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires is the shortest one yet (it's barely more than a novella). In the original Hetzel edition it was paired with the short story The Blockade Runners. This review is only for the novel. I'll get to the short stories later.


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


What is it about?: A Floating City tells the story of a trip across the Atlantic on the steamship Great Eastern, which was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of its launch in 1858. The novel was the direct result of the trip which Verne actually made to America in 1867 on that ship. He gives us a faithful picture of the incidents of an ocean voyage of those days, enlivening these by introducing a romance aboard ship.


This is certainly not among the best-known Verne novels nowadays, although it was quite successful in its time. The novel is told in first person by an unnamed narrator and it has two mayor threads: One of them is a travel narrative, including a description of the ship, of life and entertainment aboard, how periods of bad weather were handled, etc, and the other is a romantic story involving a friend of the narrator who has had his heart broken when his fiancé was married for financial reasons to a morally disreputable man. All the people involved are also traveling on the ship, so the conflict is certain.

The main characters include the unnamed narrator; Captain Fabian Mac Elwyn, his broken-hearted friend; Captain Archibald Corsican, another friend of Fabian's and his regiment mate in the British Indian Army; Ellen Hodges, Fabian's former fiancé; Harry Drake, her villainous husband; and Doctor Pitferge, another friend they make who is convinced that the ship is destined to sink.

I found it a very pleasant read. I enjoyed the travel narrative. Obviously Verne has first-hand experience of this huge ship, so large and with so many passengers that it's compared to a floating town. That personal experience allows for a quite grounded and realistic narration. There are none of the outlandish elements of tales like Around the Moon, where the spaceship feels more like a Victorian sitting-room, or In Search of the Castaways, where the Andes are exaggeratedly depicted as an unstable mountain range filled with active volcanos and huge landslides. And Verne has an engaging way of describing the trip and the ship. I particularly enjoy how earnest he is, and how joyful when it comes to technical achievements (although there is also an unquiet feeling at how vulnerable even this huge ship is before the natural forces of the ocean).

This is a fast read, with a good pace and some humor in the dialogues. There are none of those Verne scientific info-dumps. The closest thing is the initial description of the ship, but it's handled quite quickly.

The adventure element, involving the narrator's friend and his romantical problems, is also handled well. It's nothing exotic or high concept, like many of Verne's stories, but it does provide tension, conflict and even danger. Funnily enough, even though this is the first time I read this novel, I guessed how this plot thread was going to end, based on my knowledge of Verne's dramatic style and some foreshadowing. Again, it's a satisfying resolution, which is something I have commented in a previous review: Verne knows how to give his readers a good payoff.


Enjoyment factor: This is a short and relatively low-key Verne novel, half romantic adventure and half travel story. I found it quite pleasant. It shows a different side of Verne, almost cosy, without his science-fictional elements, his popular science descriptions and his more intense adventures.


Next up: The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa

[gmw]

I'm tempted to grab this one. I recently re-watched the "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World" TV series and building The Great Eastern was the first episode. It would be interesting to get a contemporary account of what the ship was like in its relatively short life.

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(9) Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais (The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa, aka Measuring a Meridian, 1872) (1 volume) 69K words


The ninth novel of the Extraordinary Voyages takes us back to Africa, where we hadn't been since the first novel in the series (Five Weeks in a Balloon). The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa is the least-known novel so far in the series, replacing The Floating City.


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


What is it about?: Three Russian and three English scientists depart to South Africa to measure the 24th meridian, going northwards from the Orange River to the Zambezi River. As their mission is proceeding, the Crimean War breaks out, and the members of the expedition find themselves citizens of enemy countries.


So, we get to the second African adventure by Verne. I found it an engaging read, although I can understand why it's not among the most popular ones. It's just kind of unremarkable among Verne's work. It doesn't have a science-fiction hook (despite being about science); it doesn't feature a high-tech vehicle, it's mostly an old-fashioned African exploration tale. The kind of adventures the scientific expedition gets into won't surprise readers of the previous books in the series: hunting, problems with wild animals, natural obstacles, hostile native people...

The novel starts slowly, like some Verne novels do. The scientist who was already working in the Cape Town observatory organizes the expedition. Meanwhile, the rest of the team, coming from Europe, gets there sailing along the Orange River on a steam boat, which is quite interesting because it can be disassembled and carried piece by piece when necessary, to save unsailable sections.

Once the expedition finally starts, we get a couple of chapters explaining what they intend to do and how. I found this quite interesting, although the feeling is not universal, judging by some reviews in Goodreads. But this is actually the main element that distinguishes this novel from other Verne stories. The objective of this expedition is not exploration, but accurately measuring a meridian along this part of the world.

As we know, the Earth is not a perfect sphere. We usually take for granted that we know the precise measurements, but it's only through very careful measurements like the one this expedition intends to do that we know them.

I didn't know the way these measurements were done in the 19th century, but here we learn how: first they locate a plain where they very accurately measure the distance between two points, maybe 10 or 20 kilometers apart. This is a very lengthy and delicate procesure, involving metal rulers, where you have to take into account even the temperature, to calculate the dilatation of the metal. Then you choose a third reference point and measure the angles between the extremes of the segment you have measured and that new point. That allows you to establish a triangle, and with the length of one side and the two angles you can calculate every side and angle of that triangle. Then you choose another reference point in the direction you want to go, and form a new triangle with one of the sides of the triangle you have already calculated and the new reference point. That way you continue forming and measuring triangles, but you don't have to do the difficult measuring of the length of the sides, because you always have one side you already know the length of, and you only have to measure the new angles to calculate the new triangle. That way you can cover a lot of territory, and eventually end up calculating the length of the meridian sector you are interested in.

Anyway, this time, a joint expedition with three English and three Russian scientists has to do this in a mostly unexplored region of Africa. The chiefs of the expedition are Colonel Everest on the English side and Mathieu Strux on the Russian side. Both are distinguished and highly respected scientists, but unfortunately there's tension and rivalry between them. From England we also have Sir John Murray, an amateur scientist and a keen hunter. From Russia we have Nicolas Palander, who is a prodigy with numbers but easily distracted and not very sociable. Finally, the youngest scientists are William Emery from England and Michel Zorn from Russia, who become good friends and try to keep the conflict between their bosses from growing.

Another important member of the group is Mokoum, the chief of their native guides and escorts, who accompanied Dr. Livingstone on several expeditions. Mokoum is extremely capable and reliable, reminding me of Thalcave from the South American part of In Search of the Castaways. Giving an important and dignified role to a native character compensates in part for the supercilious 19th century attitudes towards uncivilized tribes.

Another thing that can bother modern urban readers is the emphasis on hunting. The reservations we may have now about killing wild animals were simply not there in the 19th century, where hunting was not only a way to procure food but also a very respectable sport. This is not the first Verne novel where hunting plays an important role, but I think it's a good way to understand the mentality of the time, because modern novels set in this period tend to have characters with a modern outlook.

Apart from the geographical obstacles, the wild animals and some hostile natives, part of the plot is based on the rivalry between the English and the Russian sides of the expedition. This rivalry worsens when they learn, on a visit to a missionary outpost, that England and Russia are at war with each other (the Crimean War), to the dismay of the two youngest scientists who are good friends. Verne certainly describes this rivalry but, for better or for worse, his style never loses sight of the adventure, so don't expect the novel to become a psychological study of the characters.


Enjoyment factor: I found it enjoyable and a quick read. The start is a bit slow but afterwards the pace becomes good. Perhaps one problem is that the adventures are of a kind we have already seen in other Verne works, with the main novelties being the internal conflict within the expedition and the nature of the scientific goal. I have used the adjective geeky about other Verne novels, and I got some geeky enjoyment out of learning how these Earth measures were made. Because of that, the scientific disgressions were enjoyable for me. I imagine that for some readers they may be boring.


Next up: The Fur Country

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(10) Le Pays des fourrures (The Fur Country, aka Seventy Degrees North Latitude, 1873) (2 volumes) 139K words

The tenth novel in Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires takes us to the northern shores of America, in what is now Canada, just above the Arctic Circle. It's the second one taking place in the Arctic Circle, after The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. I was amused to see that the fictional Captain Hatteras was cited in this novel as one of the polar explorers, a rare reference to another novel in the series.


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


What is it about?: Lt. Jasper Hobson leads an expedition to the northern shore of the American continent, organized by the Hudson's Bay Trading Company. The employees of the company are hunters and pioneers, and their objective is building a trading post on the northern shore. This northernmost fort will be used as a base for hunting and fur trading, taking advantage of the recently discovered Northwest Passage that would allow ships to get there instead of having to carry the furs by land. The party also includes some guests of the company, the famous traveler Mrs. Paulina Barnett, and the astronomer Thomas Black, who wishes to witness a solar eclipse.


In my review of the previous book in the series (The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa) I commented that the adventures were rather conventional, the kind of incidents that we have seen in other Verne books. This one, although it's also an adventure tale, is quite original, although we won't get to that part until the end of the first volume.

The first volume covers the trip north, the building of the fort and the first winter. It has some elements in common with Captain Hatteras, where they also had to survive polar winters. It's certainly not boring, with a lot of adventures as expected of a Verne story. I think he is quite good at describing the harshness of these winters.

There's a lot of hunting, which is something that bothers some modern readers. Readers should expect that in many (not all) Verne novels. There was the mentality of the time that nature was there for humanity to exploit, although here there's acknowledgement that human exploitation can change nature, for example driving some species to extinction. But still there's no conscience that natural resources can simply be exhausted and there's need to be some concerted effort to protect them. To be fair, it was not really a problem in the 19th century. We are much more to blame nowadays.

We also have the novelty of the first Verne character that could correspond to the modern definition of "strong female character". In "In Search of the Castaways" we also had female characters that went along for the adventure, but here Paulina Barnett is different, since she is very capable and doesn't need to be protected.

The first volume ends with a bang, after the shocking outcome of the eclipse observation, in one of those iconic Verne moments. I won't get into it to avoid spoilers, but the situation of the fort changes radically and the second part of the novel becomes a frantic struggle for survival.

The Fur Country has good pacing, and Verne keeps his scientific info-dumping to a minimum. It's an adventure story rather than speculative, but it has some events that may be described as far-fetched (on the other hand, that allows it to be more original).


Enjoyment factor: I liked it a lot, finding it a better adventure than the previous novel in the series. The second volume was a welcome return to Verne's more imaginative side, even if it's a bit far-fetched. The pacing and the ending were good. At the end of the adventure I wouldn't have minded spending some more time with the characters, to see what's next for them, but Verne keeps the aftermath short. I kind of like his characters, but he's definitely focused on the adventure and not on character development.


Next up: Around the World in Eighty Days