Jules Verne Forum

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Les Naufrages du Jonathan vs. En Magellanie

From: thomas mccormick <tom_amity~at~hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 01:53:02 +0000
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il

Reading the comments on Le Beau Danube Jaune, some thoughts occur to me. I
cannot speak to this work, but I think the similar problem of comparing Les
Naufrage's du Jonathan and En Magellanie will occupy Verne scholars for many
years to come. Indeed, the problem of how to view Michel within the Verne
legacy will be occupying a lot of scholars, judging from the scholarly
response to Mr. Dumas' introduction to Magellanie. I would like to address
this problem briefly.

It is necessary to remember that En Magellanie is not a completed work.
Verne surely planned to make changes. The question, of course, is to what
extent Michel's version reflects the trajectory of his father's thoughts.
However, I doubt that I am alone in my feeling that Michel's version
constitutes a thoughtful meditation on many of the themes which his father
explored in many of his novels. Perhaps we can say that Michel developed
these themes to make a slightly different work, in the same manner in which
alterations are sometimes made in a novel when it is adapted for the screen
or the stage. Sometimes such changes are made for commercial or other base
reasons, and in that case they are illegitimate. Sometimes they are made
because certain effects cannot be carried across from one medium to another
except by being expressed differently (which is not the same thing as the
preceeding). And sometimes the new version simply contains the adapter's
meditations on the theme of the original work.

This last option, rather than the others, seems to me the correct analogy
with the changes made by Michel Verne in the Kaw-djer story. These changes
seem to me to be of an entirely different sort than most of the changes in
Verne's stories which we know Jules Hetzel to have made.

It seems to me that a careful and thorough study of Michel Verne, as a
creative writer in his own right, is called for.

Tom McCormick

>From: "Gilles Carpentier" <gilles.carpentier~at~laposte.net>
>Reply-To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
>To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
>Subject: Re: LE BEAU DANUBE JAUNE
>Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 10:29:57 +0200
>
>Hello Garmt !
>
>"Garmt de Vries" wrote :
>>I discussed another pair of original and Michel versions recently: En
>>Magellanie and Les naufrages du Jonathan. In that case, I'm not sure which
>>of the two I prefer. With Storitz, I clearly prefer Jules' version over
>>Michel's.
>
>I agree with this. I like very much the original version of Wilhem Storitz.
>"En Magellanie" is also a very beautiful novell.
>
>>But at any rate, it's worthwhile to read both versions of each of the
>>posthumous novels, and to compare them.
>
>Yes...
>
>Best regards,
>Gilles
>
>

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Received on Sun 09 Oct 2005 - 03:53:10 IST

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