Journey Through the Impossible
Page 14
13. The French expression is "wagon projectile," which means literally "carriage projectile" or "coach missile."
14. A bitter yellow compound obtained by nitrating phenol. It is used as a dye and in the manufacture of explosives.
15. One of the bridges of Paris that span the river Seine, connecting the Place de la Concorde with the Assemblee Nationale (French Congress).
16. Valdemar jokes about the French National Assembly, which is called "Chambre des Deputes." The expression means the building and the Assembly of elected representatives of France.
17. Verne's political ideas were mainly studied by the leftist university professor Jean Chesneaux, whose book was translated into English in 1972 (The Political and Social Ideas ofJules Verne. Translated by Thomas Wikeley [London: Thames and Hudson]). An important part of Chesneaux's view was based on Verne's The Castaways of theJonathan (published by Hetzel in 1910), which is an apology for anarchism. Vernian scholars have since discovered that the novel was rewritten and transformed by Michel Verne, Jules's son, before the 1910 publication. The original text, written only by Jules Verne between October 17, 1897, and April 11, 1898, is available in English (Mag- ellania [New York: Welcome Rain Publishers, 2002]) and shows much more moderate political views than Michel's rewriting. Jean Chesneaux also modified his book (only in French, Jules Verne, un regard sur le monde [Paris: Bayard, 2001]) to adapt his opinions to what Jules Verne wrote himself, without any external text manipulation. It's interesting to note that Valdemar promotes a society without government sixteen years before the novelist wrote his novel.
18. Verne was always in favor of what is today called the environment. Without being a "green environmentalist" (the concept didn't exist at his time), he envisioned that the mining of energy sources would impoverish the earth. In A Floating City (chap. 39), he writes: "Here we had a last view of the magnificent Niagara cataract. Our companion observed it with a thoughtful air.
" `Isn't it grand, sir? Isn't it magnificent?' I said to him.
" `Yes,' he replied; `but what a waste of mechanical force, and what a mill might be turned with a fall as that!'
"Never did I feel more inclined to pitch an engineer into the water!"
19. The dialogue between Volsius and Ox confirms Verne's doubts about science and religion in the middle of his life (he was fifty-four in 1882). Volsius, spokesman of Verne, makes the first step toward Ox and asks him to use his science in a positive way. Ox and Volsius, the doctor and the priest, save George Hatteras from insanity and bring the play to a happy end.
APPENDIX
NOTES TO THE ARNOLD 7VORTIER REVIEW
1. A theater built in Paris, on the boulevard St-Martin, in 1781. Still in use today.
2. Adolphe Philippe (1811-1899), French playwright who used the pseudonyms of Dennery and d'Ennery. He wrote melodramas and opera libretti. His best-known work is The Two Orphans (Les deux orphelines). His wife's collection of oriental art belongs to the French nation and can still be seen today in the Musee d'Ennery in Paris.
3. Pseudonym of Paul Collin (1840-1906), director of the Theatre de la Porte St-Martin 1879-1883.
4. Paul-Felix Taillade (182 6-1898), French actor, who also performed in The Children of Captain Grant (Les Enfants du capitaine Grant).
5. Theatre de l'Ambigu, one of the best-known theaters in Paris in the nineteenth century.
6. Joseph-Francois Dailly (1839-1897), French actor who created the role of Passepartout in Around the World in Eighty Days and plays Valdemar in journey Through the Impossible.
7. A park in Paris. In December 1769 the Duke of Chartres bought a parcel of land a little more than one hectare (2.5 acres), which was the starting point of the future Monceau Park. He then increased the area by twelve hectares, to create a place for festivals and recreation. The park changed owners during the Revolution and the Restoration, and in 1860 became the property of the city of Paris, preserving half of its area as of that time. Its current configuration was inaugurated in August 1861 by Napoleon III.
8. Born in Bordeaux in 1853, Oscar-Louis-Antoine-Ferdinand de Lagoanere was a prolific and successful composer and conductor. In the 1880s he became director of the Theatre des Menus-Plaisirs and later of the Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens. His last known work was published in 1907. Nothing is known about him after that date.
9. Auguste Rube (1815-1899).
10. Philippe-Marie Chaperon (1823-1907).
11. A play on the French word "joailleur" (jeweller) and the city of Goa in India.
12. Francois Rene de Chateaubriand was a French writer born in SaintMalo in 1786. He died in Paris in 1848.
13. French port on the Atlantic coast of Brittany. Its 50,000 inhabitants are known as "Malouins." During the fifteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries Saint-Malo was the home town of many seamen and corsairs. Chateaubriand's best-known portrait depicts him sitting on a rock in SaintMalo, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Arnold Mortier uses this well-known icon to convey his impression of Taillade, as Doctor Ox, standing on the Nautilus, which looks to him like a rock.
14. Pseudonym of Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (April 5, 1820-March 21, 1910), a French writer, caricaturist, and photographer who is remembered primarily for his photographic portraits, which are considered to be among the best from the nineteenth century. He was one ofJules Verne's best friends.
15. A cathedral in Paris. A gothic masterpiece, Notre-Dame de Paris was conceived by Maurice de Sully and built between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries (1163-1345). Road distances in France are calculated on the basis of the "0 km" marked on the square in front of the cathedral.
NOTES TO THE NOW YORK TI1'IES REVIe i
1. Written Eva in the play. The role was played by the French actress Marie Daubrun (1828-1901), who appeared on stage for the last time in 1889. Marie Daubrun was Baudelaire's mistress and inspired several of his poems.
2. An opera by Charles Gounod (1818-1893), performed in the Opera of Paris, April 1, 1881.
3. A French actor born in 1814, Augustin-Guillemet Alexandre also played in Around the World in Eighty Days and Tartelet in journey Through the Impossible.
4. The unknown reviewer is confusing Sweden and Denmark. In the play, Valdemar is a Dane.
5. An opera by Georges Bizet (1838-1875), performed in the OperaComique in Paris, March 3, 1875.
6. Pauline Party, a French actress whose true name was Jeanne Cecile Pauline Pesty, began her career in 1873. She died in 1910.