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magellania

From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 19:53:08 -0400 (EDT)
To: jvforum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>

The following review appears in the new issue of Extrapolation, together
with a longer review of *The Invasion of the Sea*.

_________________________________

Jules Verne. Magellania. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers,
2002. xiii+187 pages. $26.95.

        Jules Verne, the ardent supporter of capitalism? That is the
greatest surprise in Magellania, the newly translated original text of the
book previously known as The Survivors of the Jonathan. The latter was
enlarged by roughly 60% from the text bequeathed to Verne's son and
literary executor, Michel, prior to its 1909 publication (with the
English-language appearance not occurring until 1962). In guiding to
posthumous publication six of his father's completed novels, Michel
altered all of them, but none so substantially as Magellania. The extent
of Michel's intervention was unknown until the manuscripts in the elder
Verne's hand were unearthed in France in the 1980s. (For more details,
see http://jv.gilead.org.il/taves/Meteor.html and
http://jv.gilead.org.il/taves/michel.jfp.html)
        Magellania and The Survivors of the Jonathan relate the building
of a new society on an island, but only three themes are treated in the
same way by Michel and Jules Verne: the kindly attitude toward the
Fuegians (including intermarriage with an Anglo Canadian woman), the
valuation of national independence, and the horror of gold
fever. Nonetheless, the introduction to Magellania by Olivier Dumas,
president of the French Jules Verne Society, makes the case against The
Survivors of the Jonathan with excessive vehemence. Although Michel's The
Survivors of the Jonathan is a reflection of his own views, not those of
his father, it is also a vivid, literary novel which comprehensively
develops its many ideological crosscurrents.
        The elder Verne's Magellania, by contrast, reads like an outline
rather than a polished book. Half of Magellania, one hundred pages, pass
with little happening, before the shipwreck that triggers the main
plot. Too often the narrative is told, rather than shown through
characters and events--and Michel's determination (along with that of his
publisher, Louis-Jules Hetzel) to "flesh out" these limitations of the
novel is understandable. Some of this same problem plagues other
manuscripts that Verne completed but which neither he nor Michel saw into
print, such as Journey to England and Scotland (translated as Backwards to
Britain) and Paris in the Twentieth Century. Verne himself commented, "I
consider that my real labor begins with my first set of proofs, for I not
only correct something in every sentence, but I rewrite whole chapters. I
do not seem to have a grip of my subject till I see my work in print," and
Michel thought he had to interpret what his father would have changed in
this phase.
        For all the faults of Magellania, this is an important publication
in English, elucidating the actual political thought of Jules Verne. A
shipwreck of immigrants turn the unpopulated shore of Hoste Island into a
prosperous colony. They overcome strife caused by radicals, the
depredations of a gold rush, and most importantly, initially fail in
self-government, turning to a benevolent dictator. Michel saw the
inevitable outcome as bloodshed and discord in The Survivors of the
Jonathan.
        In Magellania, Jules Verne portrays his hero, the Kaw-djer (a
local Indian term for benefactor), as leading the successful creation of a
small, free nation along the lines of Verne's earlier Robinsonade novels
The Mysterious Island, Two Year Holiday, and his Swiss Family Robinson
sequel, Second Homeland. No less important is the Kaw-djer's commitment
to free trade as a means of attracting business, while the taxes and
restrictions imposed upon a neighboring island by Argentina hamper
development. Hoste Island becomes a literal new beacon of hope and
freedom in the New World, economically and politically. The novel ends on
the beams flashing out from the Cape Horn lighthouse, built according to
the Kaw-djer's vision to save ships from future wrecks in the
region. Verne also lauds the nationalism of Hoste Island and its
commitment to self-determination; Michel had portrayed these as failed
goals in The Survivors of the Jonathan. Both versions of the story decry
Argentina and Chile's imperialist assertions over the islands of Cape
Horn.
        Many scholars, most particularly Jean Chesneaux, suggested that
The Survivors of the Jonathan indicated Verne had a sympathy for
anarchism. This seemed plausible, given the inclinations of such classic
scientific Verne heroes as Nemo and Robur, who share a similar fate with
the Kaw-djer in Michel's version, in which he returns to his original
convictions and an isolated life. However, Magellania proves that Jules
Verne thought the opposite. Although the Kaw-djer began as an atheist and
anarchist, whose beliefs made him a refugee from Europe, the demands of
governing force him to renounce such impractical theories. Fleeing the
territorial claims of Chile and Argentina, he had been on the verge of
suicide at the time of the shipwreck. However, in guiding its outcome,
creating orderly government and discovering a dawning faith in God, the
Kaw-djer discovers fulfillment. Verne, who also served on the council of
his home town of Amiens, may have felt much the same.
        Ironically, with the debate over the merits of anarchism having
lost cachet since the composition of Magellania in the 1890s, concerns
over nationalism and free trade remain, and it is these aspects that give
the novel its greatest relevance to modern readers. The translation, by
Benjamin Ivry, seems to be faithful to the text, although I will defer to
the more exacting judgement sure to come from the growing community of
Verne translators. Fortunately, a number of parenthetical notes, some
from the French edition, have been included. The Dumas introduction was
poorly edited, confusing the titles of books and retaining outdated
information only relevant to the original French edition; it should have
been modified and updated to add the necessary information for
English-language readers. Most of all, Magellania requires what the
French edition included: a map of the region, with Hoste Island
itself. The dust jacket offers a faux map-style cover, when an actual map
page (such as given in Wesleyan University Press's new editions of The
Mysterious Island and The Invasion of the Sea) would have been more
useful. Nonetheless, Welcome Rain publishers must be lauded for
undertaking the very first translation of the posthumously published Verne
novels rewritten by Michel, and hopefully other such projects will follow.


Brian Taves
110 D Street, S.E. #515
Washington, D.C. 20003-1815
202-675-4525 (h)
202-707-9930 (w)
202-707-2371 (work fax)
email: <btav~at~loc.gov>


Disclaimer--All opinions expressed are my own.
Received on Fri 27 Sep 2002 - 02:54:22 IDT

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