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RE: Verne's itineraries

From: wbutcher <wbutcher~at~netvigator.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 20:03:12 +0800
To: "'Jules Verne Forum'" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Ian,

All very good points.

There has never even been a satisfying list of Verne's visits to the British
isles, so I'd like to stick my neck out a little, as follows:

1859: Bordeaux, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Scotland, London, etc
1867: Liverpool, N America, Liverpool (via where?)
1868: Gravesend, London (letter of [19 Aug])
1872: London, Woolwich (letter of 8 June)
1871/2/3: Jersey (Marx's introduction)
1873: maybe Jersey, Guernsey, and Sark (invitation by Hetzel, 28 July)
1876: coastal England (letter of [27 June])
1879: coastal Britain, including Yarmouth (letter of 9 [July]), Edinburgh
(about 13/14 July), Edinburgh again (27 July), and Dover (28 July); the
Hebrides, etc., presumably between 14 and 27 July?
1880: Ireland (Marx's introduction); Ireland, Scotland and Norway (at least
according to AdFuye)
1881: Deal and Yarmouth (at least according to J Jules-Verne), the Low
Countries, etc.

The 1868 or 1872 trip included the coast of England and Scotland, presumably
the east coast (Marx's introduction)

The 1868, 1872 or 1876 trip included Southampton, then London, then Brighton
(interview with Jones)

Verne himself says " In Les Indes Noires is the relation of my tour in
England and my visit to the Scotch lakes" (1st interview with Sherard).

As you say, to get from the west to the east coast of Scotland, and back
again, Verne must have used the Caledonian Canal. I think if we had to
choose between the evidence of the correspondence and AdFuye, then we would
deduce that he didn't sail to Scandinavia after Scotland.

Dumbarton, Greenock and Arran, etc, are described in Grant; and that general
area in Les Forceurs du blocus as well.

Best,

Bill

1/F, 46A lung Mei Village, Taipo, Hong Kong wbutcher~at~netvigator.com
http://home.netvigator.com/~wbutcher/


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il [mailto:owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il] On Behalf Of
Ian Thompson
Sent: 24 July 2003 06:05
To: Jules Verne Forum
Subject: Re: Verne's itineraries

As a geographer, I think that Garmt has made a good suggestion. I would add
just a few points to the debate.
The published maps in the Voyages novels are not always a good source. As
Francois Derivery has pointed out (Pulsions et Inscriptions dans deux romans
de Jules Verne, EC Editions, Paris 1994) Hetzel used his own illustrators
who would provide material which in a sense was independent of the text as
far as cartographic accuracy was concerned. If I take the case of the Rayon
Vert, the map in the first edition showing the itinerary, omits certain
sections described in the text and includes others that from a navigational
point of view would have been impossible. There are also unfortunate
mis-spellings of place names...Ben Nevis becomes Ben Levis for example!
Leading on from this, it is important to differentiate between itineraries
in the novels which are undoubtedly based on first hand travel and other
parts of the narrative which are either imaginative or based on guide book
accounts. In the case of the three "Scottish" novels, it seems certain that
the Scottish itinerary in Voyage a Reculons accurately depicts Verne and
Hignard's journey, down to incredibly localised detail and the inclusion of
real people. 18 years later, in Les Indes Noires, the same itinerary is
"recycled" but the autobiographical element has gone and therefore Verne
feels free to take geographical liberties to suit his narrative (the
inclusion of a non-existant coal field, travel on a railway line that didn't
exist until after the book was published etc). In the case of Le Rayon Vert,
it seems likely to me that the novel is partly based on Verne's voyage to
the Hebrides (Corryvrekan,Oban,Mull, Iona and most definitely Staffa) but
that the first section from the Clyde to Crinan was probably based on travel
guides, which were abundant for this very popular tourist route. Moreover,
the story ends at a great pace...in a few pages the personnae are
transported by rail back to Glasgow. In other words, if based on Verne's own
travel up the west coast, the novel tells us nothing of what happened after
Staffa. Did the St Michel III travel on to Norway via Cape Wrath? through
the Caledonian Canal ?,which was navigationally possible.
In summary, the novels give us many clues, but for the itineraries of
Verne's own travels we need factual evidence ( ships logs, diary notes,
letters etc).
If Garmt has an electronic format in mind, then I think zoom insets would be
necessary for areas where we have accurate local detail. I will be happy to
post the maps that I have drawn for Scotland and have been prepared for
publication.
More reactions to Garmt's suggestion would be welcome.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Thu 24 Jul 2003 - 15:05:48 IDT

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