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Re: Verne in Slovakia in 1892

From: Garmt de Vries <G.deVries~at~phys.uu.nl>
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 12:49:41 +0200 (CEST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004, [iso-8859-2] Jan Rychlík wrote:

> There is a persistent legend in Slovakia that Jules Verne visited this
> country (then a part of Austria-Hungary) in 1892. I even found recently
> a website identifying a well known Slovak priest as a student who
> allegedly served as Verne's companion. Therefore I submit this question
> to this forum in search for final argument against this assumption.

Quite simple: there is just no way that Verne could have made that journey
at that age, and with his health. Verne had difficulties walking, and
hardly ever left Amiens anymore. He did of course make the tour through
the Low Countries in 1887, but that was close to home.

I don't know what transport possibilities there were at that time (I
expect there was a train from Paris to Vienna and probably Bratislava, but
from there onwards?), but a trip to Slovakia would take at least two
weeks, I'd guess.

In a few months, the next volume of the Correspondance Verne-Hetzel will
appear, covering this period. If JV had really made the trip to Slovakia,
he must have mentioned it in his letters. If he hasn't, I think that's
conclusive proof that he didn't go to Slovakia.

Does this website you found give dates of the presumed trip? In that case
you could even check if JV wrote letters from Amiens at that time, proving
that he wasn't in Slovakia. Could you give us the URL of that site?

The "inspiration for Chateau des Carpathes" argument is nonsense, of
course.

Best regards,
Garmt de Vries.
Received on Tue 05 Oct 2004 - 12:49:55 IST

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