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Re: Verne in Slovakia in 1892 (appendix)

From: Jan Rychlík <jan.rychlik~at~seznam.cz>
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 00:57:38 +0200 (CEST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Cc:

I've just found the 1879 afterword to LE CHATEAU DES CARPATHES. According to this text the information comes from Verne's interview given to a Danish journalist. The author of this legend apparently chose a generally unknown language to disallow inquisitive people to check it...

And the Slovak biografy that also conveyed the legend did so despite a rather lenghty discussion of Verne's poor health at another place of the book. It seems that national pride went first.

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 - 00:57:44 IST

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