Jules Verne Forum

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Re: Jules Verne audio narrated by Michael Pritchard

From: Craig Weatherhill <craig~at~agantavas.org>
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:02:52 +0000
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

When planning my newly published novel, I went to the effort of
getting hold of copies of the original French text by Verne of both
20K and the final chapters of 'The Mysterious Island' to recover the
omitted sections - this was before Walter and Miller produced their
1993 edition.

What I found was - to my mind - wonderful and I used these fully in
the novel. I also attempted to explain the peculiar date anomalies
found the originals of 20K, TMI and 'The Children of Captain Grant'.
I hope that works.

With regard to the 'Nautilus' herself, I remained pretty faithful to
the illustrations of the original book and to Gagneaux's wonderful
model in the Musee de Jules Verne. I have reduced her depth
capability by two-thirds to be more believable. The main change I did
make was to fit her with a deck housing that has a ram-shaped bow,
much as late C19 warships had. The triangular damage to the 'Scotia',
when the 'Nautilus' was cruising just a fathom below the surface could
never have been caused by her own bow (no spear, no serrated edges -
just a bow tapered to a point as the aforementioned model beautifully
depicts), which would have been too deep even at that depth, so
something must have done it. This solution gives an answer, and also
provides means by which a helmsman in a retracted wheelhouse could
have been provided with forward vision. This is shown in my
illustration of the 'Nautilus' which appears on P.156.

Her new crew, in my novel, have also fitted her with rudimentray comms
and sensory equipment.

Otherwise, she's Verne's 'Nautilus' to the last rivet, while I hope
that Nemo himself is depicted as Verne intended (yes - he's long dead,
but you'll have to read the new book for an explanation of that).

I hope the book finds general approval. If so, I have ideas for a
follow-up, which will also respect Verne as I hope this book has.

Craig



On 16 Kev 2009, at 10:02, wbutcher wrote:

> It's a highly abridged and distorted version of Twenty Thousand
> Leagues
> under the Seas, apparently derived from the one "translated" by Lewis
> Mercier -- to be avoided like the plague!
>
> Cordially,
>
> Bill
> http://www.ibiblio.org/julesverne/
> 1A, Kai Kuk Shue Ha, Luk Keng, North District, NT, HONG KONG
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il [mailto:owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il] On
> Behalf Of
> Donna Knight
> Sent: 16 December 2009 04:42
> To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il
> Subject: Re: Jules Verne audio narrated by Michael Pritchard
>
> I am an librarian who was posed with a question about 20000 Leagues
> Under
> the Sea:
> What translation of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea is used in the
> Unabridged
> Tantor Audio version read by Michael Prichard?
> I would be grateful if you could answer this question for me.
> Sincerely
> Donna Knight
> Dacula Branch
> Gwinnett County Public Library
>
>
> "Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love
> like
> you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
> - Mark Twain
>

--
Craig Weatherhill

Received on Thu 17 Dec 2009 - 10:24:30 IST

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