Works of Jules Verne/Introduction to Volume 7
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME SEVEN
F the four stories gathered in this volume in the order of their publication, "Round the World in Eighty Days" is the most celebrated. It was issued in 1872, not in the usual form in which Verne's books appeared, in Hetzel's series of "Voyages Extraordinaires," but in "feuilleton." This French method of publication in "feuilleton," not wholly unknown in our own country, consists of publishing a chapter or so each day in some daily paper.
The universal interest which these daily feuilletons of "Round the World in Eighty Days" excited, was absolutely unprecedented. Both English and American reporters telegraphed to their papers each day, the entire daily portion, which was promptly reproduced. So that for once three great nations were reading the same story at the same time, bit by bit.
Seldom has any piece of fiction excited such a furor. Liberal offers were made to the author by various transportation companies, if he would advertise their routes by having his hero travel by them. And when the final passage of the Atlantic from America to England was to be accomplished, the bids for notice by the various transatlantic lines are said to have reached fabulous sums. Verne, with a high sense of professional etiquette and honesty to his readers, refused all these offers.
As to the central idea on which the story is based, the unconscious gaining of a day by circumnavigation eastward, Verne tells us that the thought was suggested to him while reading in a café of the new possibility of making the circuit in eighty days. He saw the difficulty with the meridians, and the possibilities of the story flashed upon him.
"A Floating City," published in 1871, enjoyed in our own country a popularity almost equal to that of "Round the World in Eighty Days." The "Floating City" was the direct result of the trip which the author actually made to America in 1867. He gives us a faithful picture of the natural and usual incidents of an ocean voyage of those days, enlivening these by introducing a romance aboard ship. The pictures of the "Great Eastern," are of course exaggerated, not so much in words themselves as in the impressions they convey. But the pictures of New York and of Niagara are the genuine imprint made upon the great writer by his visit here.
In "The Blockade Runners" he again adopts a theme which is, at least nominally, American. In it he gives a very fair view of the British attitude toward our country during that tragic period of our suffering and trial.
"Dr. Ox's Experiment" was one of those prophetic scientific fantasies which leaped so frequently into the inspired mind of Verne. The remarkably vivifying and invigorating effects of pure oxygen, even upon the dying, have now become an established part of medical science. In 1874, when "Doctor Ox" was published, the knowledge of this gas was in its infancy. Verne tells us that the story was suggested by an actual experience of his own in Paris, in which he realized the effects "très interessante" of the potent gas. The story develops a spirit of mischievous exaggeration and burlesque very different from the author's usually serious and thoughtful attitude toward scientific marvels.