Jules Verne Forum

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Female Society members

From: Ian Thompson <ithompson~at~geog.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 16:33:30 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

 In Le pays des fourrures, set in 1859, Verne refers to Mrs Paulina Barnett as being a Member of The Royal Society (Britains most ancient and distinguished scientific society) In fact, women were not admitted to The Royal Society until 1945 (with the notable exception of Queen Victoria!), when two female members were elected. So in this, rather pedantic detail, Verne was inaccurate. In I O Evans edited collection of Verne's novels, published by Arco Publications, Mrs Barnett's status is given as "Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society"...apart from being an error of translation this also is not possible as females were not admitted as Fellows until 1913 (afrer a 20 year debate!!).However, I O Evans was himself an FRGS.
In similar vein, in Cinq semaines en ballon, set in 1862, The President of the Royal Geographical Society is named as "Sir Francis M..." In fact the President at that date was Sir Roderick Murchison, so at least one of the initials was correct.
Trivial details perhaps, but it is interesting to see that Verne prefers to use fictional names when this is part of the story, but often introduces real names in specific contexts (eg explorers, inventors etc).
Ian Thompson
Received on Wed 27 Jul 2005 - 18:18:30 IDT

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