Description
Desiring a more romantic crossing of the Atlantic, Englishman J. R. Kazallon decides to forgo a steamship and instead sets sail on the Chancellor, a large three-mast sailing ship. What follows is a classic nautical adventure, told in the form of a series of diary entries and filled with tragedy, suffering, and even horror. Despite the grim subject matter, Jules Verne still finds space to include ample descriptions of geology, biology, and meteorology.
Description
In another science-based entry in his Voyages Extraordinaires series, Verne takes us on the journey of Simon Hart, an engineer who poses as an aide to the scientist Dr. Roche. Roche’s whose invention of a world conquering weapon has driven him insane, and as the paranoid doctor rests in a sanatorium, the vicious pirate Karraje kidnaps both him and Hart. Karraje takes them to a secret hideaway in a burned-out island caldera in the Bermudas—but Hart hatches an ingenious escape plan.
Description
An Antarctic Mystery follows Mr. Jeorling, a wealthy American naturalist whose research has led him to the remote Kerguelen Islands, located in the southern Indian Ocean. Jeorling begins his adventure on the Halbrane after being admitted aboard by the reluctant captain Len Guy, who believes the events in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym to be true. In that novel, Pym persuades Len Guy’s brother, William Guy, to lead a voyage to the Antarctic. But the expedition ends in failure when William Guy, his crew, and his ship, the Jane, disappear under mysterious circumstances. Captain Len Guy convinces Jeorling to aid in the search for his brother, and the two embark on an expedition south to the Antarctic in search of the previous voyage’s survivors.
Despite the fact that Jules Verne’s work was published over fifty years after Pym, the events in the novel take place only one year after the disappearance of the Jane.
Description
Five Weeks in a Balloon tells the tale of three Englishmen who attempt to cross Africa, from east to west, in a balloon. Dr. Ferguson is the rational scientist leading the trio, accompanied by loyal sidekick Joe and the doctor’s sporting friend Kennedy.
The three embark on many adventures: They encounter natives and dangerous animals, experience problems with their ballooning technology, and struggle with the winds and the weather. Throughout the novel, the author liberally sprinkles descriptions of flora, fauna, and geography, as seen through nineteenth century eyes.
Though this is Verne’s first published book, he already demonstrates much of the formula that drive his later works: the well-defined characters led by a rational scientist, the focus on science and technology, and of course the adventure-filled plot.
The novel, first published in 1863, was topical for its time, as European interest in African exploration was strong. At the time the book was published, David Livingstone was midst-exploration in south-east Africa, and Burton and Speke had recently returned from exploring the Great Lakes region. The novel itself contains many references to actual expeditions that would have been current or recent for the original readers of the novel.
Description
This sequel to From the Earth to the Moon narrates the eventful journey to the Moon of three passengers—Impey Barbicane, president of the Gun Club, Captain Nicholl, Barbicane’s rival and then collaborator, and Michel Ardan, a French scientist—aboard a hollow cannonball. They orbit the Moon and perform geographical observations, but the projectile fails to land, propelling them instead toward the Earth. They’re rescued at sea and widely celebrated as the first humans to leave Earth.
Description
A classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne, this work is one of the most well-known subterranean fictions to this day. It inspired many similar works and adaptations. First published in 1864 in French as Voyage au centre de la Terre, it was quickly translated to English by several different publishers in the 1870s. The current edition was based on the translation by Frederick Amadeus Malleson that was published by Ward Lock & Co Ltd. in 1877.
Our protagonist is Axel, whose overcautious and unadventurous spirit contrasts with that of his uncle Professor Otto Lidenbrock, an eccentric professor of geology. When Professor Lidenbrock obtains a mysterious runic-coded note in the manuscript of an Icelandic saga, he is determined to decipher it. Axel inadvertently solves the code and, much to his chagrin, discovers that it is a set of directions left by a sixteenth-century Icelandic alchemist to reach the center of the earth via the volcano Snæfelljökull. Reluctantly, Axel joins his uncle on a trip to Iceland, and with the aid of a local guide, Hans, begins an adventure towards the center of the earth, where they will encounter giant mushrooms and insects, an island with an enormous geyser, and battle pre-historic reptiles. One of Verne’s most well-known works, this novel is a testament to Verne’s love of geology, science, and cryptography.
Description
In search of an occupation after the end of the Civil War, the Baltimore Gun Club undertakes the design and construction of a cannon capable of launching a projectile to the Moon. The three main protagonists—Impey Barbicane, president of the Gun Club, Captain Nicholl, Barbicane’s rival and then collaborator, and Michel Ardan, a French scientist—board the hollow cannonball en route to the Moon. The story concludes in Autour de la Lune, the sequel published four years later.
De la Terre à la Lune, number 4 in the Voyages Extraordinaires collection, is one of Jules Verne’s best-known novels. It inspired numerous adaptations, from movies to theme parks to video games.
Description
Hulda, the daughter of an innkeeper in the Norwegian countryside, is engaged to Ole, a fisherman. When Ole fails to return, Hulda fears him dead, until she receives a message that he has scribbled on the back of a lottery ticket. Newspapers broadcast the story, fueling excitement and speculation ahead of the lottery drawing.
The novel, based in part on the Verne’s travel through Scandinavia in 1861, belongs to the collection Voyages Extraordinaires which contains some of his best-known works, like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and Around the World in Eighty Days. Un Billet de Loterie appeared first in installments in the magazine Magasin d’Éducation et de Récréation, followed immediately by a book edition published by Hetzel.
Description
The Child of the Cavern follows engineer James Starr as he receives a letter from an old friend and co-worker, Simon Ford, requesting that he revisit a depleted coal mine in Scotland that he used to manage. Upon arriving, Starr finds the entire Ford family living in the mine, and Ford explains that a new coal vein has been located. Soon after Starr’s return, however, strange events start to occur, which seem to be supernatural. After a startling discovery, the characters continue to investigate these occurrences over the course of several years.
Description
Two decades after Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, the Baltimore Gun Club returns with its sights on the North Pole’s rich coal deposits. Access to the area would be facilitated under a more temperate climate, which, the team believes, can be achieved by slightly altering the Earth’s axis of rotation. This climate change would affect every region of the globe to various degrees, thus creating anxiety and opposition worldwide.
Sans Dessus Dessous, number 34 in the Voyages Extraordinaires collection, appeared in French in 1889 and was published in English the following year by J. G. Ogilvie as Topsy-Turvy.