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Re: Verne in Slovakia in 1892

From: Jan Rychlík <jan.rychlik~at~seznam.cz>
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 00:41:54 +0200 (CEST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Cc:

Many thanks to Garmt and Volker for final disproving of the Slovak legend (and for information on the forthcoming volume of Verne-Hetzel correspondence). I hope some Slovak fans of Verne will have a chance to read your arguments in the Forum to correct their legend, which found way even to a Slovak biography of Verne and an edition of LE CHÂTEAU DES CARPATHES (as an afterword).

As for the exact date of "the visit" I am quite sure that every source gives the year 1892 only. I have lost my notes from some other websites as a result of a collaps of my computer few months ago, so I can't give you the URLs except for the one I discovered lately. It is www.janmaliarik.cz/zivot.html, but it is in Czech and Slovak and so were the other sites. I'll try to contact the webmaster of that site to reveal his sources.

Sincerely

Jan Rychlik
================= Původní zpráva =================
Od (From): "Garmt de Vries" <G.deVries~at~phys.uu.nl>
Komu (To): "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Kopie (Cc):
Předmět (Subject): Re: Verne in Slovakia in 1892
Datum (Date): 5. 10. 2004 12:49
==================================================

> 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 Wed 06 Oct 2004 - 00:42:07 IST

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