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Re: Fwd: Google Alert - "Jules Verne"

From: Walter J Miller <wjm2~at~nyu.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:00:13 -0500
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Thanks, Brian. Cheers! Walter

----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 7:46 am
Subject: Re: Fwd: Google Alert - "Jules Verne"
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 - 15:00:19 IST

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