The Mysterious Island. Jules Verne
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rel="nofollow" href="#litres_trial_promo">17, 18 and 19, 20 and 21, Part II chs 4 and 5, 9 and 10, 17 and 18, 19 and 20, and Part III chs 3 and 4. More generally, the list of contributors to the MER in 1874–75 is a regular Vernian roll-call, including P.-J. Stahl, of course, but also Ernest Legouvé, Margollé and Zurcher, Eugène Muller, E. Reclus, and H. Sainte-Claire Deville. It also contains a story by a M. Maréchal called “Le Secret d’Elie,” so close to the title of Verne’s Part III, “Le Secret de l’île” (“The Secret of the Island”) as to have to be its origin.
The word “rrhyomes” in the first grand-octavo edition of MI (II, 7, p. 270) is a misprint for “rhizomes.” The words “… was found to be 10°. Consequently, the total angular distance between the pole and the horizon …” (“était de dix degrés. Dès lors la distance angulaire totale entre le pôle et l’horizon”—I, 14) were absent from the serial and first editions, but appear in subsequent editions.
NOTES
1. The crewman Bob Gordon (a Scottish name) in “UR” was initially Bob Lander (Richard Lander (1804–34) was a famous explorer of Africa) or Bob Lanver: the name Bob is possibly drawn from Cooper’s Bob (see above) and may give rise to Bob in P.-J. Stahl (Hetzel), Histoire de la famille Chester et de deux petits orphelins (1873—Gallica) and Bob Harvey, the pirate in MI.
2. Jean Guermonprez, “Une Œuvre inconnue de Jules Verne,” Livres de France, 6.5 (1955): 9–10 (9); Christian Robin, ed., Un Editeur et son siècle (1988), 132–35, 331–60 (333); Jules-Verne, 201.
3. Australia. [JV]
4. Archipelagoes situated in the northwest of the Pacific. [JV]
5. Microscopic unicellular animals. [JV]
6. The manuscript contains similar information, but in different form (Charles-Noël Martin, “L’Oncle Robinson et L’Ile mystérieuse d’après leurs manuscrits,” BSJV 60: 145–51 (148)):
A little frequented portion of the Pacific Ocean is that which extends over the northern hemisphere between on the one hand America and Asia, and on the other Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands. Here there exists a vast stretch of sea frequented by few merchant vessels; no point for putting in is known; in addition it is not the route of the ocean-going ships that carry produce from New Holland to west America [sic], and commerce is rather infrequent between Japan and California.
7. Robin (“Postface,” 232) considers that there may be an influence from Rousseau’s Rêveries or Confessions, with references to natural philosophy (195), “fine views” of nature (71), “secret consolations” of “suffering souls” (71), active pedagogy, the open air developing body and brain, and the need to take from nature only what is needed (159), together with lessons in geography, mineralogy, zoology, and botany, with a huge variety of plants and trees. The children learn to recognize the plants used to make common household items, again like Rousseau. However Rousseau was highly influenced by Robinson Crusoe, so Verne may simply be echoing Defoe directly.
8. Christian Robin, “Extraits,” in Christian Robin, ed., Un Editeur et son siècle, 343–59 (343). Complementary information appears in Hetzel’s letter of 21 July 1870.
9. Claudine Sainlot, Christian Robin, and Jacques Davy, “Notes,” in L’Oncle Robinson, 235–45 (238). Hetzel’s following reference to “Chester” is presumably encouraging Verne to imitate his own Histoire de la famille Chester et de deux petits orphelins (1873)—an irony when we consider the posterity of the two authors.
10. By an interesting parallel indicating the source of the name, “Smith” without further identification in Twenty Thousand Leagues (II, 7) means Rear Admiral William Henry Smyth, author of The Mediterranean (1854).
11. “1 [une] histoire de la domination anglaise aux Indes”: while this may be a title, the book can not be identified, unless it is simply Valbezen’s.
12. In the following list, each locality has four forms: the initial French name, the English name used by Verne in MS2, the final French name, and the name used in this translation:
• creek Yowa [sic], Red creek, Creek-Rouge, Red Creek
• Lac Ontario, Heart lake, lac Grant, Lake Grant
• Bois Caroline du Nord, Bois d’Arkansas, bois du Jacamar, Jacamar Woods
• Forêts du far West, — , Forêts du Far-West, Forests of the Far West
• Baie de l’union, Union Bay, Baie de l’Union, Union Bay
• Baie Washington, Washington Bay, Baie Washington, Washington Bay
• Mount Franklin, Franklin-Mount, Mont Franklin, Mount Franklin
• — , Serpentine Peninsula, presqu’île Serpentine, Serpentine Peninsula
• Promontoire Massachusetts, — , promontoire du Reptile (Reptile-end), Reptile End
• cap New Jersey (previously Halifax), — , cap Mandibule (Mandible-cape), Mandible Cape
• Cap Vineyard, — , Cap de la Griffe (Claw-cape)/le cap Griffe, Cape Claw
• Rivière Delaware, Mercy River, la Mercy, the Mercy
• Ilot Grant, — , îlot du Salut (Safety-island), Safety Island
• — , East Land, Plateau de grande-vue, Grand View Plateau
• Marais Kentucky, Ducks Fenn, Marais des tadornes, Tadorn Marsh
• Rock House, Rock-funnel, Les cheminées, the Chimneys.
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and “Vineyard” are presumably included in the initial list as the homes of Smith, Harbert, and Pencroff. The following manuscript names are absent from the book: canal du Maine, dunes d’Albany, Cap Gédéon, and baie Vermont.
13. From the manuscripts and correspondence of Twenty Thousand Leagues, we know that Nemo’s hatred was originally that of a Polish count against the Russians who had destroyed his country and raped his daughters, but Hetzel censored this for political reasons.
PREFACES TO THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, TWO YEARS VACATION, AND SECOND HOMELAND
A. A Few Words to the Readers of The Mysterious Island1
Who has not read and reread Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson with passion at the different ages of his life? … No one better than M. J. Verne had more right to say to himself that between these two works … there still had to be room for a truly original and new work on the subject of “the individual separated from his fellows” …
Would a contemporary Robinson, a Robinson in touch with the progress of science today need to demand from his author’s imagination ways to overcome the difficulties of his position? Thanks to modern progress, would he not find in himself, would he not bring to him the resources that at every instant Defoe and Wyss are obliged to demand on his behalf from all those strokes of miraculous fortune, which will not completely fool even the kindliest of readers? …
“Well,”