The Steam House

The Steam House
Author Jules Verne
Original title La Maison à vapeur
Illustrator Léon Benett
Country France
Language French
Series The Extraordinary Voyages #20
Genre Adventure novel
Publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Publication date
1880
Published in English
1880
Media type Print (Hardback)
ISBN N/A
OCLC 2653988
Preceded by Tribulations of a Chinaman in China
Followed by Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

The Steam House (French: La maison à vapeur) is a Jules Verne novel recounting the travels of a group of British colonists in the Raj in a wheeled house pulled by a steam-powered mechanical elephant. Verne uses the mechanical house as a plot device to have the reader travel in nineteenth century India. The descriptions are interspersed with historical information and social commentary.

The book takes place in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against British rule, with the passions and traumas aroused still very much alive among Indians and British alike. An alternate title by which the book was known - "The End of Nana Sahib" - refers to the appearance in the book of a real historical figure: Rebel leader Nana Sahib, who disappeared after the crushing of the rebellion, his ultimate fate unknown; Verne offers a fictional explanation to his disappearance.

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Steam House.

History of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen