![Voyage à travers l'impossible L'Illustration cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Voyage_%C3%A0_travers_l%27impossible_L%27Illustration_cropped.jpg)
''Journey Through the Impossible'' (french: Voyage à travers l'impossible) is an 1882 fantasy play written by
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, with the collaboration of
Adolphe d'Ennery
Adolphe Philippe d'Ennery or Dennery (17 June 181125 January 1899) was a French playwright and novelist.
Life
Born in Paris, his real surname was Philippe. He obtained his first success in collaboration with Charles Desnoyer in ''Émile, ou le ...
. A stage spectacular in the ''
féerie
''Féerie'', sometimes translated as "fairy play", was a French theatrical genre known for fantasy plots and spectacular visuals, including lavish scenery and mechanically worked stage effects. ''Féeries'' blended music, dancing, pantomime, and ...
'' tradition, the play follows the adventures of a young man who, with the help of a magic potion and a varied assortment of friends and advisers, makes impossible voyages to the center of the Earth, the bottom of the sea, and a distant planet. The play is deeply influenced by Verne's own ''
Voyages Extraordinaires
The ''Voyages extraordinaires'' (; ) is a collection or sequence of novels and short stories by the French writer Jules Verne.
Fifty-four of these novels were originally published between 1863 and 1905, during the author's lifetime, and eig ...
'' series and includes characters and themes from some of his most famous novels, including ''
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Ju ...
'', ''
Journey to the Center of the Earth
''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (french: Voyage au centre de la Terre), also translated with the variant titles ''A Journey to the Centre of the Earth'' and ''A Journey into the Interior of the Earth'', is a classic science fiction novel ...
'', and ''
From the Earth to the Moon
''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...
''.
The play opened in Paris at the
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
History
It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to house t ...
on 25 November 1882, and achieved a financially successful run of 97 performances. Contemporary critics gave the play mixed reviews; in general, the spectacular staging and the use of ideas from Verne's books were highly praised, while the symbolism and moral themes in the script were criticized and attributed to the collaboration of d'Ennery. The play was not published during Verne's lifetime and was presumed
lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
until 1978, when a single handwritten copy of the script was discovered; the text has since been published in both French and English. Recent scholars have discussed the play's exploration of the fantasy genre and of initiation myths, its use of characters and concepts from Verne's novels, and of the ambiguous treatment of scientific ambition in the play, marking a transition from optimism to pessimism in Verne's treatment of scientific themes.
Plot
About twenty years before the play begins, the Arctic explorer Captain John Hatteras became the first man to reach the North Pole, but went mad in the attempt (as described in Verne's novel ''
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
''The Adventures of Captain Hatteras'' (french: Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne in two parts: ''The English at the North Pole'' (french: Les Anglais au pôle nord) and ''The Desert of Ice'' (french ...
''). Upon his return to England, where he spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital, his young son Georges was confided to the care of the aristocrat Madame de Traventhal, of Castle Andernak in Denmark.
At the start of the play, Georges is living with Madame de Traventhal and her granddaughter Eva, to whom he is engaged. He has never learned the identity of his father, but he dreams obsessively of travel and adventure, and wishes to follow in the footsteps of great explorers: Otto Lidenbrock (from ''
Journey to the Center of the Earth
''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (french: Voyage au centre de la Terre), also translated with the variant titles ''A Journey to the Centre of the Earth'' and ''A Journey into the Interior of the Earth'', is a classic science fiction novel ...
''),
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ( ...
(from ''
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Ju ...
''), Michel Ardan (from ''
From the Earth to the Moon
''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...
'' and ''
Around the Moon
''Around the Moon'' (french: Autour de la Lune, 1869), also translated as ''Circling the Moon'' and ''All Around the Moon'', is the sequel to Jules Verne's 1865 novel, ''From the Earth to the Moon''. It is a science fiction tale which continues th ...
''), and especially Captain Hatteras. Madame de Traventhal, in the hope of curing him of his obsession, sends for a physician newly arrived in the country, a certain Doctor Ox (from the short story "
Dr. Ox's Experiment"). Ox enters and is welcomed into the castle, although he does not seem to get along well with Master Volsius, a local church organist and friend of the de Traventhals.
Doctor Ox, catching him alone, reveals Georges's true parentage, and persuades him to drink a magic potion that allows him to go beyond the limits of the probable and journey through the impossible. Eva, realizing what has happened, takes the potion and drinks some as well, so as not to desert Georges. A family friend, the dancing master Tartelet (from ''
The School for Robinsons''), is seduced by the opportunity to travel and drinks his own share of the potion before anyone can stop him. Ox sets off with all three travelers, while Volsius makes secret plans to come along and protect Georges from Ox's influence. Along the way, another Dane, Axel Valdemar, also gets mixed up into the journey and becomes a friend of Tartelet.
During the voyages, Volsius reappears in the guise of Georges's heroes: Otto Lidenbrock at the center of the Earth, Captain Nemo on a journey on the ''
Nautilus
The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina.
It comprises six living species in t ...
'' to
Atlantis
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...
, and Michel Ardan on a cannon-propelled trip to a distant planet, Altor. Ox and Volsius are in constant conflict throughout, with the former urging Georges toward
hubris
Hubris (; ), or less frequently hybris (), describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance. The term ''arrogance'' comes from the Latin ', mean ...
and the latter seeking to protect Georges from the influence. Ox appears to have won at the climax of the play, when Georges—attempting to work for the benefit of Altor, where
overconsumption
Overconsumption describes a situation where a consumer overuses their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish or reuse them. In microeconomics, this may be described as the point where the marginal cost of a ...
has deprived the planet of soil and other natural resources—leads a massive technological project to save the planet from burning by redirecting its water channels. The project backfires, and the planet explodes.
Through the magical intervention of Ox and Volsius, the travelers are brought back to Castle Andernak, where Georges is on the brink of death. Volsius persuades Ox to work together with him, resolving the tension between them by revealing that the world needs both symbolic figures—scientific knowledge and spiritual compassion—to work in harmony. Together, they bring Georges back to life and health. He renounces his obsessions and promises to live happily ever after with Eva.
Themes
![Hetzel front cover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Hetzel_front_cover.jpg)
The play's most prominent thematic inspiration is Verne's ''Voyages Extraordinaires'' series, which it freely invokes and refers to; in addition to plot elements taken from ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'', ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', ''From the Earth to the Moon'', and ''Around the Moon'', the character of Doctor Ox reappears from the short story "Dr. Ox's Experiment," Mr. Tartelet is derived from a character in ''The School for Robinsons'', and the hero Georges is described as the son of Captain Hatteras from ''The Adventures of Captain Hatteras''.
[ At the same time, the plot of the play sets it distinctly apart from the rest of Verne's work. While his novels are based on meticulously researched facts and plausible conjectures, and often end with an ultimate goal remaining unattainable, the play explores the potential of letting a character go beyond all plausible limits and carry out adventures in a domain of pure ]fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
.
Like many of Verne's novels, the play is deeply imbued with themes of initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation ...
, echoing the traditional mythic pattern of a young hero coming of age and reaching maturity through a dangerous and transformative journey. In ''Journey Through the Impossible'', the young Georges, initially trapped by obsessions similar to those that drove his father mad, resolves his inner torments during a harrowing series of experiences in which Ox and Volsius compete as substitute father-figures. Both father-figures are highly symbolic: Ox is a sinister tempter
Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...
representing knowledge and science, balancing the Guardian Angel
A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played a major role in A ...
Volsius.
The play also features an ambiguous and multifaceted portrayal of scientific knowledge, celebrating it for its humanistic achievements and discoveries, but also warning that it can do immense harm when in the hands of the unethical or overambitious. Given these themes, the play is likely Verne's most purely science-fictional work. Structurally, the play evokes the three-part design of Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' ...
's opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died ...
'', in which the hero must choose between love and art.[ In ''Journey Through the Impossible'', however, the choice is between positive ideals—love, goodness, happiness—and the unbounded scientific ambitions of the sinister Doctor Ox.][
The use of scientific themes mark the play's position at a major turning-point in Verne's ideology.][ In Verne's earlier works, knowledgeable heroes aim to use their skills to change the world for the better; in his later novels, by contrast, scientists and engineers often apply their knowledge toward morally reprehensible projects. The play, by exploring science in both positive and negative lights, shows Verne in transition between the two points of view.][
]
Production
Since 1863, Verne had been under contract with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Pierre-Jules Hetzel (15 January 1814 – 17 March 1886) was a French editor and publisher. He is best known for his extraordinarily lavishly illustrated editions of Jules Verne's novels, highly prized by collectors today.
Biography
Born in Ch ...
, who published each of his novels, beginning with ''Five Weeks in a Balloon
''Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, A Journey of Discovery by Three Englishmen in Africa'' (french: Cinq semaines en ballon) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1863. It is the first novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his ...
'' (1863) and ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (1864) and continuing through the rest of his books to form the novel sequence
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...
Hetzel called the ''Voyages Extraordinaires
The ''Voyages extraordinaires'' (; ) is a collection or sequence of novels and short stories by the French writer Jules Verne.
Fifty-four of these novels were originally published between 1863 and 1905, during the author's lifetime, and eig ...
''. The arrangement gave Verne prominence as a novelist and a certain amount of financial stability, but under the terms of the contract Verne's profits barely earned him a living wage. Verne's fortunes changed markedly in 1874, when the stage adaptation of his novel ''Around the World in Eighty Days
''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (french: link=no, Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employe ...
'' was a smash hit, running for 415 performances in its original production and quickly making Verne wealthy as well as famous as a playwright. Adapted with the collaboration of the showman d'Ennery, the play invented and codified the ''pièce de grand spectacle'', an extravagant theatrical genre that became intensely popular in Paris throughout the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Verne and d'Ennery went on to adapt two other Verne novels, '' The Children of Captain Grant'' and ''Michael Strogoff
''Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar'' (french: Michel Strogoff) is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1876. Critic Leonard S. Davidow, considers it one of Verne's best books. Davidow wrote, "Jules Verne has written no better book than thi ...
'', as similarly spectacular plays.[
Verne began playing with the idea of bringing a mixed selection of ''Voyages Extraordinaires'' characters together on a new adventure in early 1875, when he considered writing a novel in which Samuel Fergusson from ''Five Weeks in a Balloon'', Pierre Aronnax from ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', ]Phileas Fogg
Phileas Fogg () is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel ''Around the World in Eighty Days''. Inspirations for the character were the American entrepreneur George Francis Train and American writer and adventurer William Perry Fogg.
...
from ''Around the World in Eighty Days'', Dr. Clawbonny from ''The Adventures of Captain Hatteras'', and other characters would go around the world together in a heavier-than-air flying machine. Another novel featuring a similar trip around the world in a flying machine, Alphonse Brown's ''La Conquête de l'air'', was published later that year, causing Verne to put the idea on hold. The idea, in highly modified form, finally reemerged five years later as ''Journey Through the Impossible''.
Verne went to d'Ennery with the idea in February 1880, and they collaborated in Antibes
Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice.
The town of ...
for several weeks on two projects simultaneously: the dramatization of ''Michael Strogoff'' and the new play.[ ''Journey Through the Impossible'' was the only one of their collaborations not based directly on a pre-existing Verne novel.] Modern scholarship has not been successful in determining how much of the play each of the collaborators wrote, but the Verne scholar Robert Pourvoyeur has suggested that the play is clearly founded on Verne's ideas and therefore can be treated as being mostly the work of Verne.
According to contemporary rumors, Verne and d'Ennery came to difficulties over the treatment of science in the play, with d'Ennery wanting to condemn scientific research and Verne advocating a more science-friendly and hopeful approach. Verne reportedly cut some especially negative lines out of the script, and protested when d'Ennery had them reinserted for the production.[ ''Journey Through the Impossible'' would be their last collaboration.][ The play is also Verne's only contribution to the '']féerie
''Féerie'', sometimes translated as "fairy play", was a French theatrical genre known for fantasy plots and spectacular visuals, including lavish scenery and mechanically worked stage effects. ''Féeries'' blended music, dancing, pantomime, and ...
'' genre.
Joseph-François Dailly, the first actor to play the role of Passepartout in ''Around the World in Eighty Days'', was cast as Valdemar; another cast member of ''Around the World'', Augustin-Guillemet Alexandre, played opposite him as Tartelet. Paul-Félix Taillade, who had appeared in ''The Children of Captain Grant'', was cast as Doctor Ox, and Marie Daubrun, a well-known ''féerie'' actress who was also the mistress and muse of Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
, played Eva. The production was directed by Paul Clèves (born Paul Collin), the director of the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin from 1879 to 1883. Oscar de Lagoanère, a prolific composer and music director, wrote the music for the play.[
]
Reception
The play, advertised as ''une pièce fantastique en trois actes'', premiered in Paris at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
History
It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to house t ...
on 25 November 1882. As with the previous Verne–d'Ennery collaborations, ''Journey Through the Impossible'' had a gala opening night.[
The play was a pronounced box-office success;] however, critical reception was mixed.[ In the 1882 edition of '']Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique
''Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique'' ("The Annals of Theatre and Music") was an annual French periodical which covered French dramatic and lyric theatre for 42 years, from 1875 to 1916. The volumes also covered concert series and ne ...
'', Édouard Noël and Edmond Stoullig criticized the play for including "Catholico-reactionary mysticism which seeks to elicit tears of holy water from the audience;" Noël and Stoullig suspected that d'Ennery was to blame for the mystical overtones.[ In '']Le Temps
''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...
'', Francisque Sarcey
Francisque Sarcey (8 October 1827 – 16 May 1899) was a French journalist and dramatic critic.
Career
He was born in Dourdan, Essonne. After some years as schoolmaster, a job for which his temperament was ill-fitted, he entered journalism ...
panned the play with a brief notice, claiming that all the other plays running that week were "far more interesting and entertaining." He noted the innovative Verne-d'Ennery idea of using the human characters of Volsius and Ox to represent good and evil in the fantasy, rather than resorting to the typical "Good Fairy" and "Bad Fairy" characters in such plays, but added that he "didn't quite see what we've gained by the substitution."[
The Parisian critic ]Arnold Mortier
Arnold Mortier (1843 – 2 January 1885) was a 19th-century French journalist, playwright, and librettist.
Arnold Mortier was responsible for the drama column at ''Le Figaro'', gathered in a collection entitled ''Les soirées parisiennes de 18NN p ...
, in a long review of the play, described it as "beautiful" and "elegant", and highly praised Dailly's performance as Valdemar, but believed the staging lacked originality: "a great deal of money went into this production, but very few ideas." Like Sarcey, he commented with some asperity on the metaphorical use of Volsius and Ox as symbols of Good and Evil, rather than attractive young women playing Good and Bad Fairies: "Is it not time, perhaps, to return to that practice?" An anonymous reviewer for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said of the play: "I have never seen anything more idiotically incoherent, or of which the dialogue is more pretentious," but predicted that it would be a success because of its spectacular production values. Henri de Bornier gave the play a brief but highly positive notice in ''La Nouvelle revue'', highlighting the elegance of the decor and commenting Verne and d'Ennery had done humankind a "true service" by exploring impossible domains on the stage.
Charles Monselet
Charles Monselet (30 April 1825, Nantes - 19 May 1888, Paris) was a French journalist, novelist, poet and playwright, nicknamed "the king of the gastronomes" by his contemporaries. He specialised in comedic and romantic novels and his total ou ...
, in ''Le Monde Illustré
''Le Monde illustré'' (title translation: ''The Illustrated World'') was a leading illustrated news magazine in France which was published from 1857–1940 and again from 1945 to 1956. It was in many ways similar to its contemporary English ...
'', praised Taillade and the "curious" nature of the voyages, but found the play as a whole tiresome. On the other hand, two other major illustrated journals, ''L'Illustration
''L'Illustration'' was a weekly French language, French newspaper published in Paris from 1843 to 1944. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in France then, a ...
'' and '' L'Univers Illustré'', greeted the play with wholly positive reviews, particularly lauding the spectacular staging. Auguste Vitu gave the play a largely positive review, praising the actors, the decor, and the use of Verne's ideas, but expressed doubts about the wisdom of combining so many disparate styles—dramatic realism, scientific fiction, and pure fantasy—in one production. Anonymous reviewers in the ''Revue politique et littéraire
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre, theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketch comedy, sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural pr ...
'' and the ''Revue Britannique'', as well as Victor Fournel in '' Le Correspondant'' and Arthur Heulhard in the ''Chronique de l'Art'', all wrote similarly mixed reviews, speaking highly of the actors and of Verne's characters and concepts but saying that d'Ennery's dramatizations and revisions were clumsy. In his 1910 history of the ''féerie'', Paul Ginisty
Paul Ginisty (4 April 1855 – 5 March 1932) was a French writer, columnist and journalist.
A regular columnist at ''Gil Blas'', he met Guy de Maupassant who would dedicate him his short story '. From 1896 to 1906, he was theatre manager for th ...
hailed ''Journey Through the Impossible'' for introducing a "scientific element" to the genre and for bringing characters from Verne's books to the stage, but sharply criticized d'Ennery for putting "furiously outdated" sentiments in the mouth of the character Volsius.
''Journey Through the Impossible'' ran for 97 performances, and contributed to the ongoing fame of both Verne and d'Ennery.[ In 1904, the pioneering director ]Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
freely adapted the play into a film, ''The Impossible Voyage
''The Impossible Voyage'' (french: Le Voyage à travers l'impossible), also known as ''An Impossible Voyage'' and ''Whirling the Worlds'', is a 1904 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by Jules Verne's play '' Journey Thr ...
''.[
]
Rediscovery
The play was not published in Verne's lifetime and was presumed lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
until 1978, when a handwritten copy was discovered in the Archives of the Censorship Office of the Third Republic. The text was published in France by Jean-Jacques Pauvert
Jean-Jacques Pauvert (8 April 1926 – 27 September 2014) was a French publisher, notable for publishing the work of the Marquis de Sade in the early 1950s and as the first publisher of the '' Story of O'' (1954) and the first edition of Kenneth A ...
in 1981.[ An English translation by Edward Baxter was commissioned by the North American Jules Verne Society and published in 2003 by Prometheus Books.] The first production of the play after its rediscovery occurred in 2005, in a small-scale performance at the Histrio Theatre in Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
.
Since its rediscovery, the play has been studied and analyzed by scholars interested in its place in Verne's oeuvre, though it remains relatively little-known among his works.[ The American Verne scholar Arthur B. Evans has called it "delightful," saying it "shows erneat his most whimsically science-fictional."] The Swiss-American Verne scholar Jean-Michel Margot has described it as "one of the most intriguing, surprising, and important later works by Jules Verne."[
]
Notes
References
Citations
*
*
External links
Music inspired by the play
from the North American Jules Verne Society
A scenic model from the original production
at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
{{Verne's Moon Novels
Works by Jules Verne
1882 plays
Féeries
Science fiction theatre
Atlantis in fiction
Works based on Journey to the Center of the Earth
Works based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Works based on From the Earth to the Moon
French plays adapted into films
Plays based on novels
Works published posthumously
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Collaborative plays