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Re: Purchase of the North Pole+more

From: Norm Wolcott <nwolcott~at~kreative.net>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 21:29:09 -0500
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>
Cc: "Judith Boss" <jeboss~at~home.com>

I was afraid it wasn't going to be a marvellous translation when I couldn't
understand the English. Maybe the Parke is better? if it is iincluded .
There probably aren't a lot of translations of these later works.

As for Center of the Earth, I haven't done anything with it yet, there is a
Hardwigg version that has been on www.spies.com, or wherever it currently
is. It seems to be the same as the Scribners 1905 Hardwigg. It has "the
Englishwoman" in it.

I am going to devote my efforts to 5 weeks in a balloon, and then to the
Wordsworth Center of the Earth. My mail to Margot was bounced by the mail
server at his end--is anyone else having trouble? I will be getting some
pages from the othes to you shortly.

----------
> From: Arthur B. Evans <aevans2~at~mail.tds.net>
> To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>
> Subject: Re: Purchase of the North Pole
> Date: Monday, February 14, 2000 7:38 PM
>
> Norm,
>
> Unlike most, this Ace reprint is *not* from the Fitzroy Edition (trans.
I.O.
> Evans). It is from the 1890 Ogilvie version originally published with the
> title _Topsy Turvy_.
>
> I don't have a copy of this particular translation, so I can't tell you
how
> good or bad it is overall. But, reading through the opening chapter
which
> you have scanned, it certainly leaves a lot to be desired.
>
> For example:
>
> p. 1: "Well then, according to your opinion, no woman seeing an apple
fall
> could have discovered the law of universal gravitation, so that it would
> have made her the most illustrious scientific person of the seventeenth
> century?"
>
> Verne said: "Well then, according to you, Mr. Maston, no woman seeing an
> apple fall could have discovered the laws of universal gravitation as did
> that illustrious English scientist at the end of the seventeenth
century?"
>
> p. 1: "No, Mrs. Scorbitt, and in the meanwhile I would like to prove to
you
> that since there are inhabitants on earth, and consequently women, there
has
> not one feminine brain been found yet to which we owe any discoveries
like
> those of Aristotle, Euclid, Kepler, Laplace, etc."
> "Is this a reason? And does the past always prove the future?"
> "Well, a person who has done nothing in a thousand years, without a
> doubt, never will do anything."
>
> Verne said: "No, Mrs. Scorbitt. Nevertheless, I would point out to you
that,
> from the time that people have inhabited the Earth, and therefore women,
> there has never yet been a feminine brain to which we owe a single
discovery
> in the realm of science like those of Aristotle, of Euclid, of Kepler or
of
> Laplace."
> "Is that a reason? Is the future irrevocably tied to the past?"
> "Hum! what has not occurred in thousands of years will never occur,
> without a doubt!"
>
> p. 2: For several years, it is true, the Conference at Berlin had
formulated
> a special plan for the guidance of such of the great powers as might wish
to
> appropriate rights under the claim of colonization or the opening of
> commercial markets. This code was not acceptable to all, and the Polar
> region had remained without inhabitants.
>
> Verne said: Some years ago, it is true, the Berlin Conference had
formulated
> a special code to be used by the great Powers who might wish to
appropriate
> for themselves the rights of others under the pretext of colonization or
the
> opening of commercial markets. But this code did not seem applicable in
this
> circumstance since the polar region was not inhabited.
>
> See what I mean?
>
> All best,
> Art
>
>
>
Received on Thu 17 Feb 2000 - 06:06:07 IST

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