Voyages Extraordinaires
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Les Voyages Extraordinaires ("The Extraordinary Voyages" in English) was a publishing title affixed to the novels, fictional and non-fictional, of French author and science fiction pioneer Jules Verne. According to Verne's publisher, Jules Hetzel, the Voyages Extraordinaires intent was "to outline all the geographical, geological, physical, and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science and to recount, in an entertaining and picturesque format...the history of the universe." [1]
Verne's meticulous attention to detail and scientific trivia, coupled with his sense of wonder and exploration, form the backbone of the Voyages Extraordinaires. Part of the reason for the broad appeal of his work was the sense that the reader could really learn something of geology, biology, astronomy, paleontology, oceanography and the exotic locations and cultures of world through the adventures of Verne's protagonists. This great wealth of information distinguished his works as "encyclopedic novels".
The first of Verne's novels to carry the title was The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, which was the third of Verne's novels. The novels in this series included both fiction and non-fiction, with overt Science Fiction (e.g.: Journey to the Center of the Earth) or Scientific romance (eg: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) elements and without (e.g.: Around the World in Eighty Days).
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[edit] Continued appeal
Jules Verne remains to this day the most translated author in the world, one of the most continually reprinted, and the most widely read French author. Though often scientifically outdated, his Voyages Extraordinaires still retain their sense of wonder that appealed to readers of his time, and still provoke an interest in the sciences among the young.
The Voyages are frequently adapted into film, from Georges Méliès' fanciful 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune (aka A Trip to the Moon), to Walt Disney's 1954 adaptation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, to the 2004 version of Around the World in 80 Days starring Jackie Chan. Their spirit has also continued to influence fiction to this day, including James Gurney's Dinotopia series and "softening" Steampunk's dystopianism with utopian wonder and curiosity.
[edit] Bibliography
Complete list of all novels in the Voyages Extraordinaires in order of publication in series (dates given are the dates of the first publication in the book form):
- Five Weeks in a Balloon (Cinq Semaines en ballon, 1863)
- The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras, 1866)
- Journey to the Center of the Earth (Voyage au centre de la Terre, 1864)
- From the Earth to the Moon (De la terre à la lune, 1865)
- In Search of the Castaways (Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, 1868)
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, 1870)
- Around the Moon (Autour de la lune, 1870)
- A Floating City (Une ville flottante, 1871)
- The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa (Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais, 1872)
- The Fur Country (Le Pays des fourrures, 1873)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (Le Tour du Monde en quatre-vingts jours, 1873)
- The Mysterious Island (L’île mysterieuse, 1875)
- The Survivors of the Chancellor (Le Chancellor, 1875)
- Michael Strogoff (Michel Strogoff, 1876)
- Off on a Comet (Hector Servadac, 1877)
- The Child of the Cavern (Les Indes noires, 1877)
- Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen (Un Capitaine de quinze ans, 1878)
- The Begum's Millions (Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum, 1879)
- Tribulations of a Chinaman in China (Les tribulations d'un chinois en Chine, 1879)
- The Steam House (La Maison à vapeur, 1880)
- Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon (La Jangada, 1881)
- Godfrey Morgan (l'Ecole des Robinsons, 1882)
- The Green Ray (Le Rayon vert, 1882)
- Kéraban the Inflexible (Kéraban-le-têtu, 1883)
- The Vanished Diamond (L’Étoile du sud, 1884)
- The Archipelago on Fire (L’Archipel en feu, 1884)
- Mathias Sandorf (1885)
- The Lottery Ticket (Un Billet de loterie, 1886)
- Robur the Conqueror (Robur-le-Conquérant, 1886)
- North Against South (Nord contre Sud, 1887)
- The Flight to France (Le Chemin de France, 1887)
- Two Years' Vacation (Deux Ans de vacances, 1888)
- Family Without a Name (Famille-sans-nom, 1889)
- The Purchase of the North Pole (Sans dessus dessous, 1889)
- César Cascabel (1890)
- Mistress Branican, (Mistress Branican, 1891)
- Carpathian Castle (Le Château des Carpathes, 1892)
- Claudius Bombarnac (1893)
- Foundling Mick (P’tit-Bonhomme, 1893)
- Captain Antifer (Mirifiques Aventures de Maître Antifer, 1894)
- Propeller Island (L’Île à hélice, 1895)
- Facing the Flag (Face au drapeau, 1896)
- Clovis Dardentor (1896)
- An Antarctic Mystery (Le Sphinx des glaces, 1897)
- The Mighty Orinoco (Le Superbe Orénoque, 1898)
- The Will of an Eccentric (Le Testament d’un excentrique, 1899)
- The Castaways of the Flag (Seconde patrie, 1900)
- The Village in the Treetops (Le Village aérien, 1901)
- The Sea Serpent (Les Histoires de Jean-Marie Cabidoulin, 1901)
- The Kip Brothers (Les Frères Kip, 1902)
- Traveling Scholarships (Bourses de voyage, 1903)
- A Drama in Livonia (Un Drame en Livonie, 1904)
- Master of the World (Maître du monde, sequel to Robur the Conqueror, 1904)
- Invasion of the Sea (L’Invasion de la mer, 1905)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- 'Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection'
- The maps from the Voyages Extraordinaires, scans of all the maps that were included in the original editions of Jules Verne’s novels.
