Showing posts with label classic literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classic literature. Show all posts

10/20/2011

Works of Jules Verne (Volume 13); The Robinson Crusoe School. the Star of the South. Purchase of the North Pole Review

Works of Jules Verne (Volume 13); The Robinson Crusoe School. the Star of the South. Purchase of the North Pole
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This omnibus from Avenel collects five of Jules Verne's most popular novels, and three stories from one of his first collections. These are all the earliest translations into English of his works, often appearing just months after the original French editions, containing many of the original illustrations. Oddly enough, the cover painting, although of Captain Nemo (a main character in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) is actually taken from an edition of The Mysterious Island which is not included in the omnibus.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a translation of Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers by Mercier Lewis (1873), illustrated by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou. It is 6th in the Voyages Extraordinaires series, preceded by In Search of the Castaways, and followed by Around the Moon.
A Journey to the Center of the Earth is an anonymous translation, first published in 1871 by Griffith and Farran, of Voyage au centre de la Terre, illustrated by Édouard Riou. It is 3rd in the Voyages Extraordinaires series, preceded by The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras, and followed by From the Earth to the Moon.
Around the World in 80 Days is a translation of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, by George Makepeace Towle (1872), illustrated by Alphonse-Marie de Neuville and Leon Benett. It is 11th in the Voyages Extraordinaires series, preceded by The Fur Country, and followed by The Mysterious Island.
From the Earth to the Moon is a translation of De la Terre à la Lune by Louis Mercier & Eleanor E. King (1873), illustrated by Henri de Montaut. It is 4th in the Voyages Extraordinaires series, preceded by A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and followed by The Children of Captain Grant (In Search of the Castaways).
Round the Moon is a translation of Autour de la Lune, by Louis Mercier & Eleanor E. King (1873), illustrated by Émile-Antoine Bayard and Alphonse-Marie de Neuville. It is a sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, and is 7th in the Voyages Extraordinaires series, preceded by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and followed by The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa (Measuring a Meridian).
Three short stories are included from the collection, Dr. Ox's Experiment, and Other Stories, translated by George Makepeace Towle (1874), with various illustrators: Doctor Ox's Experiment (translation of Une fantaisie du docteur Ox); Master Zacharius (translation of MaƮtre Zacharius); and A Drama in the Air (translation of Un drame dans les airs).
Although the illustrators are identified in the introduction to the omnibus, the translators are not, and I was able to identify the translations with the aid of the Internet and various web sites.

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The book may have numerous typos or missing text. It is not illustrated or indexed. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website. You can also preview the book there.Purchasers are also entitled to a trial membership in the publisher's book club where they can select from more than a million books for free.Volume: 13 Original Publisher: f.Tyler Daniels co., inc. Publication date: 1911Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Science Fiction / General

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10/17/2011

The Adventures of Captain Hatteras Review

The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
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For those of us of a certain age, not that we lived in the 19th Century, the name Jules Verne always conjures unforgettable images of people, places and things that remain indelibly etched in the mind long, long after we've turned the last page. Jules Verne is an endless adventure; we end one, then start another and another, until we realize that we've virtually traveled to almost every place on this planet and the heavenly bodies that surround it. The fifth of his magnificent Extraordinary Voyages, The Adventures of Captain Hatteras is a breathtaking novel set in the frigid regions of the Arctic Circle and the North Pole itself, though we know now that finding an active volcano there strains credulity. It was widely believed at the time that there was an opening at the top of the world which led to the very depths of the earth. A concept that inspired Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. And Captain Hatteras is Jules Verne at his prime, at his most imaginative stage, at his thrilling best. Its plot is simple yet intriguing: In Liverpool, a seaman named Richard Shandon, First Mate, receives an anonymous letter asking him to construct a reinforced ship and assemble a reliable crew for a rough voyage to the Northern regions of North America, and everyone, Hatteras promises, will be richly rewarded. Once up in the Arctic labyrinth one of the crewman reveals himself as Captain John Hatteras, and his mission is to be the first man to reach the North Pole. So off they go into one of the most horrendous adventures imaginable, even by today's standards.
These are just a few of the images alluded to above: sailing and trekking through sub-zero temperatures amid gigantic icebergs; cutting wind; mutiny; near starvation; bold huskies; sudden storms; castaways wintering in an ice house; a floating iceberg packed with ravenous polar bears about to leap down onto the ship and devour the bold explorers, and a breathless ending to satisfy the fastidious reader. This Oxford University Press edition is a new translation with an introduction and notes by the Jules Verne scholar William Butcher, giving this particular Verne work all the attention and justice it merits.


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The novel, set in 1861, describes adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. One of Jules Verne's lesser known stories. As with many of Verne's imaginative creations, his description of Arctic geography was based on scientific knowledge at the time the novel was written (1866) but foreshadowed future discoveries.

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