Journey Through the Impossible

by Jules Verne

  Verne wrote two trilogies; the first includes The Children of Captain Grant, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, and Mysterious Island; the second comprises From the Earth to the Moon, Around the Moon, and Topsy-Turvy (also known as The Purchase of the North Pole). Journey Through the Impossible is the only piece where so many characters from other works-including both trilogies-appear together. The first half of Jules Verne's life and work culminates with journey Through the Impossible, a mantle atop the two trilogies.

  In 1882 all plays were checked by a governmental office before a work was produced; the manuscripts were manually copied by anonymous civil servants and archived. In 1978 Francis Lacassin searched the archives of the Censorship Office of the French Third Republic and discovered a copy of Journey Through the Impossible, ending nearly a century of speculation. The text was published in 1981 by the great Vernian specialists Francois Raymond and Robert Pourvoyeur.55 Until the archived copy came to light, Vernian scholars had only the reviews of the play to know what it was about and to imagine the text. To give an idea of what the play was like when staged in 1882, we have added two contemporary reviews. One, anonymous, was printed in the New York Times a few days after the play opened in Paris. The other is by French reviewer and playwright Arnold Mortier. Year after year, Mortier published a book where he reviewed the plays of the previous season. The two reviews we have included give a good idea of the set, the music, the ballets, and the public reception of the work.

  Even in 1969, a former president of the Societe Jules Verne published an article about the Journey Through the Impossible, based only on the reviews.56 And in 1978, Robert Pourvoyeur, just before Lacassin's discovery, published a long article also based on the reviews,57 where he pointed out the importance of the music in Journey Through the Impossible. Ballets characterize these pieces a grand spectacle, making them predecessors of modern music theater. Oscar de Lagoanere51 wrote the music for The Impossible; the first ballet concludes Act I (the center of the Earth) and features a profusion of red costumes and fireworks. The second ballet takes place in Atlantis, where the indefinable sets mix many styles: Egyptian, Indian, Syrian, Roman, Greek, and Arab. The last ballet shows Altorians dancing and singing in brief costumes. According to the reviews, the third ballet was the best of the three.

  The play can be read in two ways. The first and easiest-wellreceived by Parisian spectators-focuses on the music, the colors, the journey through diamond caves, the Nautilus, and the colossal cannon (for travel from Earth to Altor). The more difficult reading gets at the philosophy and the message of the work: glorifying the triumphant inventions of science, but showing that science, badly used, can bring death and devastation.

  This publication is the first translation (in any language as far as we know) of Journey Through the Impossible, and is certainly the first to restore Act II, Scene 7 ("The Platform of the Nautilus"). Thus the complete script is now available to readers ... and later perhaps to spectators.

  erne has selected the most striking incidents of his romantico- scientific productions, such as "Doctor Ox," Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

  In a little town in Denmark lives the Widow Traventhal, whose daughter Eva is betrothed to young George Hatteras. George is a son of that famous Captain Hatteras whose voyage in search of the North pole terminated fatally. His friends have always concealed the parentage: they feared lest the example of the father might tempt the child. But it is all in vain; no man can escape his destiny. The blood of the bold navigator courses through his veins; he thirsts after the unknown. Hatteras lives in the midst of maps and charts and globes, and in his delirium dreams of exploration such as none other has ever imagined. He would attempt the impossible.

  "Quite mad!" say his fellow-citizens. "Certainly very sick!" reply Madame and Mademoiselle Traventhal, who immediately send for Dr. Ox and ask him to prescribe. Now, Dr. Ox is an excellent scientist by reputation but, instead of administering chloral or bromide of potassium, he works up the diseased brain of his patient, first, by revealing to Hatteras his connection with the deceased Arctic explorer; second, by the assurance that he can help Hatteras to realize his desire.

  The doctor is a species of Mephistopheles; and he, too, is in love with Eva. The savant's scheme is truly diabolical. He administers an elixir that emancipates the youth from subjection to physical laws that hamper ordinary human beings, but his real object is to get rid of his rival by killing him or rendering him incurably mad. In vain does the organist Volsius try to snatch George from this sinister influence. He tries music, he tries argument, but he might as well have left both untried. George persists, and then, with a noble spirit of self-sacrifice, he assures the disconsolate maiden that he, too, will share the perils of her lover's peregrinations.

  Volsius will protect Hatteras, he swears, in spite of himself, and this he does in a series of avatars wherein he appears as Professor Lidenbrock (Act I), Captain Nemo (Act II), Michel Ardan, and a citizen of the Planet Altor (Act III).

  The struggle between the doctor and the musician is intended to illustrate the conflict between good and evil. But Eva is not altogether satisfied; she fears entrusting Hatteras to Volsius alone, and so she, too, with her a friend of the family, one Tartelet, the dancing master, takes a dose of the magic mixture, and in the twinkling of an eye Dr. Ox, Hatteras, Volsius, Eva, and the dancing master are transported to the foot of Mount Vesuvius, and there begins the first ballet.

  The tourists, whose party is reinforced by a traveler from Denmark, whom they meet at Naples, Monsieur Valdemar by name, begin their excursions by a visit to the "entrails of the earth" in search of the "central fire." Three "entrails" are visited in this journey, of which a fissure in the volcano is the starting point. The first entrail is a rocky cavern, while the second appears to be made of granite. The third is represented by a most fantastic subterranean vegetation, with the atmosphere rendered peculiarly luminous, resulting from an underground rivulet of extraordinary light and color. These regions are inhabited by the Troglodytes, a degenerate class of beings, ugly, but picturesque, with long hair, mud-tinted faces, and silver hands.

  Next step: The harbor of Goa, with Indian pavilions, and in the background the city and the sea. Here, Monsieur Valdemar, the funny man, does a monologue expressive of his satisfaction with the "diamond picked up 5,000 feet below the surface of the earth." Then the Nautilus, a cigar-shaped craft, steams in: the travelers go on board, and in the eleventh setting are seen seated around the hospitable table of Captain Nemo-the third incarnation of Volsius. The Nautilus plunges, and her passengers walk out of their cabins into the magic city of the Atlantides. The citizens of this realm are rising up in a revolution, and they want a king. Having chosen one of their own, they are about to crown him when the prophetess of Atlantis plots with Dr. Ox and Hatteras to make a coup d'etat, which results in the selection of George and his immediate coronation, all serving as a pretext for more dancing, more marble staircases, porphyry columns, minarets, and stage props in general.

  For the next part of the journey, the Gun Club, offers nothing specially interesting or original. The members amuse themselves by shooting pistols while the big gun is being made ready. A servant enters, and the Columbiad is prepared. "Gentlemen," he announces, "will the intending travelers kindly take seats in the shell!" With the exception of Dr. Ox, the party gets into the projectile and, the scene changing, the huge mortar. Just as the match is being applied, Monsieur Volsius rushes on the stage and insists on an excursion ticket, which is kindly granted by the Gun Club's committee. He gets in at the vent: an explosion is heard, and again the scene shifts to the planet Altor. The vehicle has reached its destination in safety; and the occupants are met by Maitre Volsius as an Altorian in a long robe, to whom Valdemar and Tartelet make a political speech in explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of parliamentarianism, while their companions admire the architectural beauties of a planet where a
cottage has a golden roof and walls encrusted with precious stones. Another discovery much impresses the party: the Altorians are favored with two suns-one for the day, the other for the night.

  It is in the marketplace of Altor that the third ballet of the play takes place. Suddenly, in the midst of mirth and joy, comes a terrible crash. A "meteoric comet" has struck the festive planet: everything crumbles away, the clouds gather, the thunder rolls, the lightning flashes, and Altor becomes a thing of the past. The excursionists escape the cataclysm. They return to Earth, where, in Andernak Castle, Hatteras, at first quite insane, recovers his reason, thanks to his betrothed, whose love triumphs over the jealous hate of the fatal doctor, after which comes the obligatory apotheosis in three transformations and the curtain falls.

  MAIN CHARACTERS

  Mme de Traventhal, a wealthy aristocrat living in Andernak Castle. Her money pays all expenses during the journey.

  Eva, daughter of Mme de Traventhal and fiancee of George Hatteras

  George, son of Captain Hatteras, the explorer who discovered the North Pole in journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras, by Jules Verne. George wants to do more than his father: not an "Extraordinary journey," but an "Impossible Journey."

  Doctor Ox, scientist and chemist, evil character, from Verne's short story "Doctor Ox." He mentors George and pushes him to do the impossible.

  Volsius, a good character who becomes Lidenbrock (from Journey to the Center of the Earth) in Act I, Nemo (from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea) in Act II, and Michel Ardan (from From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon) in Act III. Volsius protects George and Eva, and fights against Dr. Ox.

  Tartelet, friend of Mme de Traventhal and Eva, a comic character in the play.

  Valdemar, Danish citizen and the other comic character. He becomes a friend of Tartelet.

  SECONDARY CHARACTERS

  In Andernak:

  Niels, servant of Mme de Traventhal

  In Naples:

  Italian Innkeeper

  In Goa:

  Jeweller in Goa

  First Hindu

  Englishman (Captain Anderson)

  A naval officer

  In Atlantis:

  A herald

  Ammon (citizen of Atlantis)

  Ascalis (citizen of Atlantis)

  Electra (a prophetess)

  At the Gun Club and at the Columbiad, in Florida:

  First group of members of the Gun Club

  Second group of members of the Gun Club

  Barbicane, president of the Gun Club in Baltimore (from From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon)

  An Usher

  J.T. Maston, secretary of the Gun Club in Baltimore (from From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon)

  Members of the Gun Club

  The employee of the telephone company

  On the Planet Altor:

  First Altorian

  Second Altorian

  by

  Joles Berne

  TRANSLATED BY Edward Baxter

  The great hall of a Danish castle' in Saxon architectural style. Doors at the back and at the left. On the right, an organ stands against the wall. It is night. Mme de Traventhal3 is sitting at the left, working at a tapestry. Eva is sitting at a table, leafing through maps and books.

  Eva: Here they are, the travel books and maps that poor George is always looking through. The pages are covered with notes that show only too clearly how disturbed his mind is. Look, grandma! There are pencil marks everywhere, scrawled in a shaky handwriting. These travelers discovered the remotest regions of our globe and risked their lives to explore them from one pole to the other. But that would not have satisfied George's ambition. Look at these words written in the margin: "Onward! Farther! Still farther!" Ah! George will never find peace of mind again.

  Mme de Traventhal: Eva, my dear girl, you mustn't give up hope. George loves you and he knows you love him. He's never known any family but ours since the misfortune that befell his father, who went insane in the course of his ambitious undertakings. But it's nearly twenty years now that George has been living with us in Andernak Castle. Under our care, he'll eventually control his overactive imagination. He'll understand that happiness is to be found here, in family life, and God will do the rest.

  Eva: Let's hope so, grandma, let's hope so.

  Mme de Traventhal: But it's important to me that he should never know who his parents were.

  Eva: The son of Captain Hatteras,4 the bold explorer who reached the North Pole, and came back only to end his days in a mental hospital. Oh, you're right! George must never know! His mind is already overwrought, and that knowledge might prove fatal to him.

  Mme de Traventhal: Where is he now, the poor boy? What kind of a night did he have?

  Eva: Still very restless. Our old friend Niels told me he paced up and down in his room for a long time, muttering incoherently. Everything in his mind is expressed in the words: "Onward! Farther still!" What can be done? Couldn't we consult a doctor?

  Mme de Traventhal: I've thought of that. But just to make sure George won't know we're worried about him, the doctor will come to see me.

  Eva: To see you?

  Mme de Traventhal: Yes, I'm expecting him this morning. I asked that nice Mr. Tartelets to call him.

  Eva: Mr. Tartelet?

  Mme de Traventhal: He seemed so happy to be able to do a favor for us.

  Eva: Yes, he's a fine man. When he came here from Paris he had no letters of recommendation and no money. He said he was a dancing teacher.

  Mme de Traventhal: A teacher of dancing and deportment, he said.

  Eva: You made him welcome. In fact, you gave him a home, and since no one here has any interest in dancing....

  Mme de Traventhal: He stayed with us as a friend.

  Eva: But a very worried friend, grandma, very tormented.

  Mme de Traventhal: Why so?

  Eva: It upsets his sensitive nature to be paid a salary when no one comes to his classes.

  Mme de Traventhal: Good! But he's almost one of the family now, isn't he?

  (Enter Tartelet by a side door; carrying his violin under his arm)

  Tartelet: Here I am, ladies.

  Mme de Traventhal: Ah! Mr. Tartelet. Well?

  Tartelet: The famous doctor will be here in a moment.

  Mme de Traventhal: Many thanks, Mr. Tartelet.

  Tartelet: Will there be anything else, ma'am?

  Mme de Traventhal (surprised): Anything else? What do you mean?

  Tartelet: Is there any other little thing you might want me to do?

  Eva: Want you to do, Mr. Tartelet?

  Tartelet: Yes, miss, yes. You mustn't think that all I can do is dance entrechats and scrape the violin. An old bachelor like me, forced to fend for himself, has to know how to do many little odd jobs. I can repair damaged furniture, mend valuable porcelain, sew on buttons. If need be, I can even do a little laundry.

  Eva (laughing): You do laundry, Mr. Tartelet?

  Tartelet: Yes, miss, but unfortunately, I know nothing about ironing.

  Mm de Traventhal: Set your mind at rest, my dear Mr. Tartelet. We feel your affection for us ... and ... (holding out her hand) and that's enough for us.

  Tartelet: That's enough for you.... It's enough for you, ma'am, but not enough for me. Every morning I arrive on time for my lesson, but-I never teach my lesson. And you still pay me.

  Eva: Well, what if I don't feel like having a lesson?

  Tartelet: In that case, miss, I ought not to feel like accepting a fee for it. For six months now I've been living in this castle. At the rate of one lesson a day, that makes one hundred and eighty lessons that I haven't taught. At two crowns a lesson, it adds up to a total of three hundred and sixty crowns that I've received, and which I now have the honor, ma'am, of returning to you. (He takes his purse out of his pocket.)

  Eva: Please put that away, you naughty man.

  Mme de Traventhal: Mr. Tartelet, I thought you considered
yourself our friend.

  Tartelet: I, your friend? That is a great honor, ma'am. I would be very glad, but-I wouldn't want to be paid two crowns a day for being your friend.

  Mme de Traventhal: It's an advance on what we'll have to pay you later.

  Tartelet: Later? I don't understand.

  Mme de Traventhal: Well, for your future pupils.

  Tartelet: My future pupils? I still don't understand.

  Mme de Traventhal: But it's very simple. You know that George and Eva are engaged, and will be married some day-very soon perhaps-and later on (lowering her voice)-don't you see? A whole class of pretty little pupils.

  Tartelet: Ali! Yes, yes, I see. I understand. Take young children in infancy, teach them to position their pretty little feet correctly as soon as they come into the world. Develop their charm in childhood to make sure they will also be charming as adolescentswhat a joy that would be, what a dream, what happiness!