If on February 8 we move 190 years ago to the French city of Nantes, we will witness the birth of the first-born in the family of the lawyer Verne, who will soon be christened under the name Jules-Gabriel. We know him as the father of science fiction and the author of many truthful predictions that at first seemed unrealizable.
The boy dreamed of long journeys, and they were going to chained him to a writing desk in order to sort out the litigations of Parisian lawsuits. I had to follow in the footsteps of Pierre's father. After receiving a bachelor's degree, 18-year-old Jules began studying law in Nantes, but in April 1847 he went to Paris to take exams for the first year of study.
The young man left his father's house without regrets, but he left his heart here. His cousin Caroline Thronson, on whom he honed his writing skills, dedicating numerous sonnets to her and even a small tragedy in verse for the puppet theater, rejected Jules' claims to her hand and heart.
After passing the exams, Jules-Gabrielle returns to his native land again and writes two plays for the theater - "Alexander VI" and "The Gunpowder Plot". They will not be seen on stage, they will be read among friends. If Paris was worth the mass, then the theater was worth returning to Paris. With fantastic efforts, Jules Verne persuaded his father and in November 1848 returned to the French capital. The following year he received his Licentiate in Law with the right to work as a lawyer. However, he was in no hurry to become Koni or Padva. And if the lawyer Vladimir Ulyanov became a journalist in order to become a professional revolutionary as a result, then the lawyer Jules Verne, before becoming a world famous science fiction writer, became the author of plays.
“My first work was a short comedy in verse, written with the participation of Alexandre Dumas, son, who was and remained one of my best friends until his death. It was called "Broken Straws" and was staged on the stage of the Historical Theater, owned by Dumas the father. The play had some success, and on the advice of the elder Dumas, I sent it to print. “Don't worry,” he encouraged me. - I give you a full guarantee that there will be at least one buyer. This buyer will be me! - Jules Verne later recalled. - Soon it became clear to me that dramatic works will not give me either fame or livelihood. In those years I was huddled in the attic and was very poor."
It was impossible to live on the modest salary of his father: in addition to Jules, a brother and three daughters grew up in the family. The young man gets a job in a notary office, serves as a bank clerk and in his free time is engaged in tutoring future law students; then he works as a secretary in the theater and moonlights as articles in a magazine. Gradually, the priorities in Verne's work are being built - these are travel and adventure, history, exact sciences and fiction.
Once Jules Verne was invited to a wedding, where he met the bride's sister. To marry a 26-year-old widow with two daughters in her arms, it was necessary to be engaged in "real" business, and not to write articles and stupid plays. The brother of the bride Honorine Morel, née de Vian, offers to become Jules to become a stockbroker, but for this you need to contribute 50 thousand francs. Father agreed to help and in January 1857 Jules and Honorine tied the knot with Hymen.
In 1860, Verne met one of the most interesting people of his time. 40-year-old Nadar - as Gaspard-Félix Tournachon called himself - was an aeronaut, photographer, artist and writer. For his part, Verne had a long interest in aeronautics and, perhaps, this influenced the choice of the theme of his first fantasy-adventure novel, which was completed by the end of 1862.
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The release of "Five weeks in a balloon" (Cinq semaines en ballon) was promoted by Alexandre Dumas and his acquaintances in publishing circles. Let the readers not think that it is only in our country that the principle “how not to please a dear little man” is in effect. The success of the work turned out to be mathematically calculated. The European public at that moment was keenly interested in the adventures of John Speke and other travelers who were looking for the origins of the Nile in the unexplored jungles of Africa. In addition, hot air ballooning itself was of great interest.
The right person was in the right place at the right time. This is where it is worth pointing out the difference between the Russian world-eating publisher who concluded an enslaving pact with Dostoevsky, and the noble relationship between Jules Verne and his Parisian publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. Even before the novel was published, Etzel signed a 20-year contract, according to which the writer pledged to hand over the manuscripts of three books to Etzel annually, receiving 1,900 francs for each volume. After the publication of the first five novels by Jules Verne, his fee was increased to 3 thousand francs per book.
Despite the fact that, under the terms of the contract, the publisher could freely dispose of the illustrated editions of Verne's books, Etzel paid the author compensation in the amount of 5,500 francs for the five books published by that time. In September 1871, a new agreement was signed, according to which Verne undertook to transfer to the publisher not three, but only two books annually. The writer's fee was now 6 thousand francs per volume.
At the end of his life, Jules Verne became disillusioned with technological progress and the possibilities of science to make unhappy humanity happy. Soviet publishers loved the French writer for this enthusiastic worship of the human mind. The circulation of Jules Verne's novels was many times greater than the circulation of science fiction pessimists, even if they had to be added together.
For this reason, readers in the USSR were practically not familiar with the big story "Eternal Adam" (L'Éternel Adam), published after the writer's death. In its spirit, this work is much closer to us today than the unjustified enthusiasm of the early Jules Verne.
The archaeologist discovers traces of an extinct highly developed civilization, destroyed by a catastrophe thousands of years ago. During excavations, he finds traces of an even more ancient culture, apparently created by the Atlanteans.
Jules Verne turned out to be a prophet, predicting the appearance of scuba gear, television, fax, airplane, helicopter, etc. Is it possible that his brilliant foresight was reflected in the story "Eternal Adam"? After all, they find in coal seams dating back many millennia, embedded in them details that match modern man.
However, we will sin against the truth if we deny the discernment of the young Jules Verne. Back in 1863, he wrote the novel Paris au XXe siècle, which was first published only in 1994. This book is more than half a century ahead of the series of dystopias of Zamyatin, Platonov, Huxley and Orwell. She turned out to be so visionary that she is much more impressive than the predictions of technical innovations. However, publisher Etzel did not like this thing so much that after numerous controversies, the author put it on the table.
Michel Nostradamus was made a great prophet and predictor. His great compatriot Jules Verne did not like such a comparison, although on the paternal side there were Celts living in Gaul in his family - it is possible that the druid priests …
IGOR BOKKER