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A Glasgow bookcase

From: Ian Thompson <ian.thompson~at~ges.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:56:14 +0100
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

I have just read a delightful book entitled "I Remember" by J J Bell
published in 1932. The author recounts his life as a child in the West
End of Glasgow in 1880 (an area visited by Verne in both 1859 and 1879).
It includes a fascinating account of family summer holidays "Doon the
watter" (Down the Clyde in a paddle steamer) as followed by Verne in
1879 and exploited in The Green Ray. But more interesting is the
author's account of the content of the family bookcase;
"Uncle Tom's Cabin stood incongrously enough, beside A Floating City, an
early story by Jules Verne, its scene placed on board the monster
steamship "The Great Eastern". The Verne stories were then coming out in
shilling volumes,with stiff paper covers, and I was old enough to be
excited when, one evening, my father brought home a copy of
Twenty-five(sic) Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which was to give so
many people their first idea of a submarine".
It is interesting also to notice which books acccompanied Verne in the
bookcase...including Walter Scott,Charles Dickens, Fenimore Cooper
together with Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. Had he been
able to read English, Verne would have had plenty of books to interest
him had he visited this Victorian Scottish family.
Ian Thompson
Received on Thu 12 Aug 2010 - 19:56:16 IDT

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