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Re: Glasgow obtiuaries

From: Andrew Nash <anash~at~julesverne.ca>
Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 00:06:28 -0400
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il> 



If anyone wishes to read other obituaries, I have some on my
site at:


http://www.julesverne.ca/jvobit.html


... Andrew


At 05:32 AM 26/04/2006, you wrote:


It is
interesting to discover national perceptions of Verne by looking at
obituaries  i.e. the summing up of a life's work rather reviews of
individual books. With this in mind I compared yesterday obituaries in
Glasgow's two main newspapers...the Glasgow Herald and the Evening Times.
The obituary in the Glasgow Herald 25th March 1905 was provided by a
Reuters Correspondent filed from Amiens. It is on the whole a sympathetic
and well-informed piece as the following extract shows;

"Although the dreamer entered largely into Verne's stories there was
nevertheless an immense amount of genuine information and everything he
wrote came to be regarded with a scientific as well as imaginative
interest.

In appearance he was fairly stout, with silvery hair and beard, and
restless brown eyes full of humour and kindness - an altogether
commanding personality".

We can compare this with an extract from the Evening Times of the same
date;

" M. Jules Verne, who died yesterday at the advanced age of 77 was
not a literary man. While his medium was fiction, he did not create any
great characters, or write any novel for which we can prophesy
permanence, or wield a style to secure for him the admiration of adult
readers of cultured taste.

During more than thirty years he made himself indispensable to that
section of the reading public which is perhaps the most difficult to
please. The Human Boy is the most exacting and the most honest of
literary critics"

Admittedly, the Evening Times was a paper for the masses as compared with
the more sophisticated Herald and would  possibly not have employed
the highest calibre of literary journalists. Even so, the obituary in the
Evening Times indicates common perceptions of Verne in Scotland.Firstly
that he was essentially a writer of science fiction and a children's
author, and more specifically a writer for boys (perhaps reflecting the
inclusion of pieces by Verne in the Boy's Own Paper). Secondly, the 
obituary did not include reference to any of Verne's books suggesting
that his specific work was generally not known, especially in
untranslated form.Thirdly, in both obituaries there is no trace of
Verne's relationship to Scotland...his visits and the books based on his
first hand experience. Admittedly Voyage à Reculons was not to appear in
English until 1992 and on his second voyage in 1879, although by then
world famous, he managed to travel relatively incognito.

This ignorance of Verne's travels and of his "Scottish" novels
still persists here and the most common perception is of a writer of
science fiction and/or a children's author. The most common, and
sometimes only volumes to be found in Glasgow's many public libraries are
Around the World in  Eighty Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth
and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea...all the subjects of popular
films.

Finally, the Evening Times author would not have won any prizes for
predicting the future...."not a literary man" "did not
create any great characters" "cannot prophesy permanence (for
his novels)" "(his style) cannot secure for him the admiration
of adults readers of cultured taste". One wonders if he actually
read any Verne!

Ian Thompson.


Received on Sat 29 Apr 2006 - 07:06:11 IDT











      

    

    

      

        
      

    

    

    

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