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Re: Fwd: Google Alert - "Jules Verne"

From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:45:48 -0400 (EDT)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119007144221930439.html?mod=2_1167_1

A Century After His Death,
A Jules Verne Revival
By JOHN J. MILLER
September 18, 2007; Page D8

Before his career took off like a rocket to the moon, Jules Verne was a
stockbroker -- and he is said to have made a boast to his pals at the
Paris exchange: "I've just written a new kind of novel, and if it succeeds
it will be an unexplored gold mine. In that case, I'll write more such
books while you're buying your stock. And I think I'll earn the most
money!"

Verne's friends may have laughed, but they would have been wise to invest
in the budding author. His first book, "Five Weeks in a Balloon," was
published in 1863, and it provided a taste of what would come. Within a
decade, Verne wrote several of the world's greatest tales of scientific
adventure: "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "20,000 Leagues Under the
Sea," and one of the best-selling novels of all time, "Around the World in
80 Days."

 
Jules Verne
These titles have never been out of print, and they remain popular among
readers who marvel at Verne's knack for storytelling. He invented iconic
characters such as Captain Nemo and Phileas Fogg. Fans also credit him
with an uncanny ability to anticipate future events and technologies --
everything from the Apollo space program to cellphones.

What Verne probably couldn't have predicted was his revival a century
after his death in 1905. Yet we're in the midst of a Verne renaissance
brought on by new manuscripts, improved translations, and scholarly
reassessments. Biographies by William Butcher and Herbert R. Lottman have
helped, too.

The trend's latest manifestation is tomorrow's publication of "Lighthouse
at the End of the World," by the University of Nebraska Press. More
precisely, it's the first English translation of this minor work from
Verne's original manuscript -- it had previously appeared only in a form
posthumously altered by Verne's son, Michel, who was guilty of perhaps
nothing more than trying to extend the commercial life of the family
Jules. Critics disagree about which version is better, but in truth
neither shows off Verne at the top of his game.

When long-gone authors enjoy new respect, however, their most obscure
books come back into view, which is precisely what's happening to the
prolific Verne. Last year, Nebraska released "The Meteor Hunt" and next
year it plans to put out "The Golden Volcano." Wesleyan University Press
is issuing its own set of rarities, including "The Kip Brothers," which
had never appeared in English before a few months ago.

Yet the main problem for translations of Verne hasn't been scarcity but
quality. Unesco ranks Verne as one of the planet's 10 most translated
authors, along with Agatha Christie and whoever wrote the
Bible. Oftentimes, however, readers have had to settle for hackwork
without even realizing it.

"Most of the standard English translations were bowdlerized," says Arthur
B. Evans, a DePauw University professor who has studied the texts. "They
suffered from errors, abridgment, and even censorship."

In "The Mysterious Island," a semi-sequel to "20,000 Leagues," Verne
observes that "the British yoke had weighed perhaps too heavily on the
Hindu population." A popular translation into English actually reverses
the meaning of this comment: The people of India are described as full of
"ignorance and gross superstition" and their colonial masters as having
"brought them out of a state of anarchy and constant warfare and misery."

Many translations weren't exercises in political correctness. Instead,
they were slapdash efforts to dumb down the prose. Verne always has had a
reputation as an author of books for boys -- and therefore as a writer
sophisticated readers were supposed to outgrow. It didn't help that Disney
World once featured an attraction based on "20,000 Leagues," complete with
an attack by a giant squid.

One of the reasons for Verne's initial popularity in France sprang from
the fact that parents saw his stories as educational tools. In this sense,
"Journey to the Center of the Earth" is a geology lesson embedded in a
potboiler. Verne isn't merely a figure from the early days of science
fiction, but a founding father of a subgenre known as "hard SF," because
it emphasizes technological accuracy and scientific detail.

Whereas many science-fiction writers set their stories in the distant
future, Verne typically placed his in the present. A significant exception
involves one of the first novels he ever wrote. His editor actually
rejected it and the manuscript lay hidden in a safe until 1989, when
Verne's great-grandson hired a locksmith to crack it.

The subsequent publication of "Paris in the Twentieth Century" showed that
Verne's editor was probably smart to snub the story. It isn't a gripping
page-turner, and its bleak view of scientific progress contrasts with the
optimism of Verne's best books. Despite its dystopian sensibility, it was
a literary time capsule -- and readers were fascinated by its vision of
cars powered by gas and computers linked by telegraph. "Paris in the
Twentieth Century" fueled Verne's reputation as a prophet.

And there apparently aren't any major gripes with the translation --
something that still can't be said for many of the Verne titles commonly
sold today. Mr. Evans of DePauw recommends the Oxford University Press
translations by Mr. Butcher, who is also the translator of Nebraska's
"Lighthouse at the End of the World."

In his introduction to the new book, Mr. Butcher speculates that Verne was
drawn to the image of a lighthouse at the forsaken tip of South America
because, late in life, he was going blind. Thanks to efforts such as
Mr. Butcher's, however, it's now possible for the rest of us to see Verne
more clearly than ever before.

Mr. Miller writes for National Review.

RELATED ARTICLES AND BLOGS

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007, Walter J Miller wrote:

> Forgive my ignorance, but how do I get directly to the Evans story? W J M
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd <g.devries~at~phys.uu.nl>
> Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:16 am
> Subject: Fwd: Google Alert - "Jules Verne"
> To: JVF <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
>
>
> > Today's Google News informs me that our friend Art has been
> > interviewed by
> > the Wall Street Journal.
> >
> > Garmt.
> >
> > ------- Forwarded message -------
> > From: "Google Alerts" <googlealerts-noreply~at~google.com>
> > To: g.devries~at~phys.uu.nl
> > Cc:
> > Subject: Google Alert - "Jules Verne"
> > Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:11:24 +0200
> >
> > Google News Alert for: "Jules Verne"
> >
> > Wall Street Journal Story on Resurgence of Jules Verne Quotes Prof ...
> > DePauw University - Greencastle,IN,USA
> > September 18, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. - When it comes to the work of
> > Jules
> > Verne,
> > "Most of the standard English translations were bowdlerized," Arthur
> > B. ...
> > See all stories on this topic
> >
> > This once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google.
Received on Wed 19 Sep 2007 - 14:45:53 IST

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