Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

Re: Verne, Esperanto and Venezuela

From: Victor F Sirvent E <vsirvent~at~ldc.usb.ve>
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 23:37:47 -0400
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Dear Garmt,

>
>> I conjecture in my article that the name of the character "Le P`ere
>> Esperante" in "Le Superbe Or'enoque" refers to the language
>> Esperanto. Since Verne has shown previously interest in the
>> artificial (constructed) languages.
>
> You are right that Verne had an interest in these languages, and it
> could well be that he already knew about Esperanto when he wrote
> "Orenoque". One wonders though, as you say in your article, why he
> would give such an implicit reference to Esperanto when there is no
> further mention of it in the rest of the novel. Another point is that
> Colonel de Kermor probably didn't know about Esperanto: he left
> Nantes in 1875, and was in San Fernando in 1879. The Unua Libro was
> published in 1887. But this is another level, and anachronisms are of
> course possible.
>

Very interesting remark. However in Verne's novels there are many
chronological inconsistencies.

As it is known Verne liked to give implicit references to different
topics in his books.

> So, I like your conjecture, I hadn't thought of a possible Esperanto
> connection before, but I'm not entirely convinced it was Verne's
> intent.
>


>> Later he started to write the novel "Esplorvojagxo" (Voyage
>> d'exploration), where the language Esperanto plays an important role
>> in its plot. However he never finished this novel. He only wrote
>> four chapters and started the fifth.
>
> And his son Michel eliminated all Esperanto references from
> "L'Etonnante aventure de la Mission Barsac", his heavily modified
> version of the novel.

In 1981 the city of Nantes got the manuscript. A Esperanto translation
of the manuscript was published in 1994.


Victor Sirvent
Received on Thu 17 Aug 2006 - 06:37:56 IDT

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$