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Les Voyages
Extraordinaires
(The Extraordinary Voyages)
Les Voyages Extraordinaires 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
Journeys and 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).
Complete list of all novels in the
Voyages Extraordinaires in order of publication:
-
Five Weeks in a Balloon (Cinq Semaines en ballon, 1863)
-
Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras (Voyages et
aventures du capitaine Hatteras, 1864)
-
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 or Captain Grant's Children (Les
Enfants du capitaine Grant, 1867-1868)
-
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt mille lieues
sous les mers, 1870)
-
Around The Moon (Autour de la lune, a sequel to From
the Earth to the Moon, 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, also known as Black Diamonds or
The Black Indies (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, 1879)
-
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon (La Jangada, 1881)
-
The School of Robinsons (l'Ecole des Robinsons, 1882)
-
The Green Ray (Le Rayon vert, 1882)
-
The Headstrong Turk (Kéraban-le-têtu, 1883)
-
The Vanished Diamond (L’Étoile du sud, 1884)
-
The Archipelago on Fire (L’Archipel en feu, 1884)
-
Mathias Sandorf (1885)
-
Ticket No. "9672" (Un Billet de loterie, 1886)
-
Robur the Conqueror or The Clipper of the Clouds (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, 1888)
-
The Purchase of the North Pole (Sans dessus dessous, the
second sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, 1889)
-
César Cascabel (1890)
-
Mrs. Branican, (Mistress Branican, 1891)
-
The Castle of the Carpathians (Le Château des Carpathes,
1892)
-
Claudius Bombarnac (1892)
-
Foundling Mick (P’tit-Bonhomme, 1893)
-
The Wonderful Adventures of 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)
-
The Sphinx of the Ice Fields or
An Antarctic Mystery (Le Sphinx des glaces, a sequel to
Edgar Allan Poe's
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 1897)
-
The Mighty Orinoco (Le Superbe Orénoque, 1898)
-
The Will of an Eccentric (Le Testament d’un excentrique,
1899)
-
Second Fatherland (Seconde patrie, 1900)
-
The Village in the Treetops (Le Village aérien, 1901)
-
The Stories of Jean-Marie Cabidoulin or The Sea Serpent (Les
Histoires de Jean-Marie Cabidoulin, 1901)
-
The Brothers Kip (Les Frères Kip, 1902)
-
Traveling Scholarships (Bourses de voyage, 1903)
-
A Drama in Livonia (Un Drame en Livonie, 1904)
-
The Master of the World (Maître du monde, sequel to
Robur the Conqueror, 1904)
-
Invasion of the Sea (L’Invasion de la mer, 1905)
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 1901 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.
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