by Jules Verne
MS2 adds ‘from Aeschylus to Dumas fils’. Aeschylus (525–456 bc) wrote accounts of an eruption of Etna and The Persians (472 bc), about Athens’ naval victory over Persia. Concerning Alexandre Dumas (1824–95), the novelist and playwright of La Dame aux camélias (1848, 1852), Verne told Sherard in 1893: ‘the friend to whom I owe the deepest debt of gratitude and affection is Alexandre Dumas the younger . . . We became chums almost at once . . . he was my first protector . . . we wrote together a play called Pailles rompues [1849] . . . and a comedy . . . entitled Onze jours de siège [1850].’ MS1 has ‘. . . of greatest beauty, from the Holy Scriptures’.
Humboldt . . . Agassiz: scientists. Humboldt: Alexander (Baron von) (1769–1859), naturalist, statesman, and explorer; he wrote about Atlantis in Kosmos and Examen critique de l’histoire et de la géographie du nouveau continent (1836) (I, p. 167). Foucault: Léon (1819–68), physicist, invented the gyroscope and studied refraction in water. Henri Sainte-Claire Deville: (1818–81), chemist and educator, studied the thermal disassociation of compounds and aluminium. Chasles: Michel (1793–1880), specialist in geometry and geodesy. Milne-Edwards: Henri (1800–85), French zoologist who worked on molluscs and crustaceans, and was amongst the first scientists to dive (in 1844 off Sicily, with Quatrefages). Tyndall: John (1820–93), physicist, studied the scattering of light by suspended particles. Berthelot: Marcellin (1827–1907), public official, organic chemist and naturalist, author of a note to Frédol about the giant squid the Alecton encountered. Abbé Secchi: Angelo (1818–78), astronomer; pioneered classifying stars using their spectra. Commander Maury: Matthew Fontaine (1806–73), US and Confederate naval officer and hydrographer; author of The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855; 1866), discovered the Gulf Stream and the system of ocean circulation, was the first to sound the Atlantic, and invented an electric torpedo. Verne’s ‘The sea has rivers like dry land’ is derived from him. Agassiz: Louis (1807–73), Swiss-American zoologist and geologist, pre-Darwinian author of Research on Fossil Fish (1833–44) and Contributions to the Natural History of the United States (1857–62). MS1 has a much shorter list, omitting nearly all the French names, but preceded by ‘On a table could be seen, half-leafed through, works by Milne Eddvard [sic] . . .’
64 Amongst the books of Joseph Bertrand, Les Fondateurs de l’astronomie: Joseph Bertrand (1822–1900) taught applied mathematics at the École Normale Supérieure and wrote Les Fondateurs de l’astronomie moderne (Hetzel, 1865), described in From the Earth to the Moon as a ‘fine book by M. J. Bertrand of the Institute’; he advised Verne for that and probably other works; Verne’s first cousin, Henri Garcet, was Bertrand’s assistant.
the fitting out of the Nautilus did not date from after that: the opposite would be more logical.
66 a Madonna by Raphael . . . Vernet: in Paris in the Twentieth Century, Verne shows a great interest in paintings. If he visited the galleries in Britain in 1859 and in Scandinavia in 1861, he also entered ‘every picture-gallery of any importance in Europe’ (interview with Sherard in 1893). These works, mostly Italian, part of the western European canon, generally follow chronological order: a Madonna by Raphael: or Raffaello Sanzio (1483–1520), architect and painter, whose works include a number of Madonnas; Verne’s Salon de 1857 (S57) devotes a dozen lines to the painting, Raphaël apercevant la Fornarina pour la première fois (1856), by François Léon Benouville (1821–59); a Virgin by Leonardo da Vinci: (1452–1519), Renaissance engineer, scientist, universal spirit, and painter of The Virgin of the Rocks (1483–6) and the Mona Lisa (1503–6 and 1510–15); a nymph by Correggio: real name Antonio Allegri (1489?–1534), a sensual artist of religious paintings, including many Virgins. S57 quotes his Antiope (n. d.), similar to Nemo’s canvas; a woman by Titian: (MS2: ‘a courtesan by Titian’), originally Tiziano Vecellio (1488?–1576), portraitist, artist of The Assumption of the Virgin (1516–18), and whose La Maîtresse (n. d.), comparable to Nemo’s painting, is described in S57; an Adoration by Veronese: Paolo, originally Paolo Caliari (1528–88), painter of The Adoration of the Magi (1573) and whose Dalmatic is quoted in S57; an Assumption by Murillo: Bartolomé Esteban (1617–82), genre scenes, portraits, and religious subjects; a portrait by Holbein: Hans the Elder (1465?–1524), or Hans the Younger (1497?–1543), gothic painters of religious works; a monk by Velázquez: Diego Rodríguez de Silva y (1599–1660), portraits, still lifes, and genre and historical scenes; a martyr by Ribera: (Verne: ‘Ribeira’) José or Jusepe de (1588–1652), baroque religious artist. Starting from Rubens, the artists are Flemish or Dutch, except three Frenchmen: a country fair by Rubens: Peter Paul (1577–1640), baroque painter of portraits and allegorical, historical, and religious scenes; La Kermesse (c.1630) is in the Louvre. S57 presents ‘a magnificent Atelier de Rubens’, by Peter Rudolf Karl Herbsthoffer (1821–76); two Flemish landscapes by Teniers: David, the Younger (1610–90), landscapes and religious and genre scenes; Gerrit Dou: (1613–75), miniatures in the style of Rembrandt; Metsu: Gabriel (1629–67), painter of eclectic style and subject; Paul Potter: (1625–54), artist of landscape and animal scenes; Géricault: Théodore (1791–1824), painted The Raft of the ‘Méduse’ (1819), an important source for Verne’s The Chancellor; Prud’hon: Pierre-Paul (1758–1823), painter of animals and landscapes; Backhuysen: (Verne: ‘Backuysen’), Ludolphe (1631–1709), painter of ships; Vernet: Joseph (1714–89), painter of shipwrecks, sunsets, and conflagrations, including Jonas (1753) and La Visite du cratère de Vésuve (c.1740). It is surely no coincidence that the last name in the list should be a J. Vernet with a strong interest in the sea, ships, monsters, the interiors of volcanoes, and eruptions.
MS2 is again revealing. The religious paintings—Veronese, Murillo, Velázquez, and Ribera—are absent. The Christian pictures indeed seem out of character for a Nemo whose library no longer contains the Holy Scriptures—and may be a sign of Hetzel’s imposition of ‘moral’ values.
Delacroix . . . Daubigny: the moderns are all French, as are the three most recent old masters. All are relatively traditional—no Manet, Monet, or Turner. Delacroix: Eugène (1798–1863), Romantic painter of Liberty Leading the People (1831) and La Barque du Dante, for which S57 calls him a ‘great painter’; Ingres: Jean-Auguste-Dominique (1780–1867), artist of classical and mythological works qualified in S57 as ‘master[s] of modern art’; Decamps: Alexandre (1803–60), introduced oriental themes and painted animal subjects; Troyon: Constant (1813–65), landscapes and animals; Meissonier: Jean-Louis-Ernest (1815–91), genre and military scenes, who drew his friend Hetzel; S57 praises eight of his paintings to the skies, ‘a painter without rival in the genre he has in a way created’; Daubigny: Charles-François (1817–78), painter of landscapes which influenced the Impressionists, of Le Printemps, to which S57 devotes seven lines, and of Vallée d’Optevoz, perhaps ‘the most beautiful landscape of the Salon’ (S57).MS2 is again quite different. The following are present: Scheffer (Ary, 1795–1858, Franco-Dutch portraitist, including one of Arago); Delaroche (Paul, 1797–1856, historical painter); Courbet (Gustave, 1819–77, portrait and landscape painter); Rosa Bonheur (1822–99, farm and rustic scenes); Fromentin (Eugène, 1820–76, oriental scenes); and Millet ( Jean-François, 1814–75, landscapes). MS1 has ‘Daubigny’ back in; but only Courbet and Fromentin from the above list.
66 Weber . . . Gounod: Verne showed a great passion for music. A good pianist, he occasionally composed music; he says that he could have turned professional had he wanted to do so (interview with Sherard in 1894). Verne’s interest in opera dates from his libretto, La Mille et deuxième nuit (1850). The composers cited seem ill-adapted to Nemo’s melancholic instrument (they are probably cited for their arias for the piano): six historical Germanic musicians and three French composers of opera, including two contemporaries; Wagner is the only non-French contemporary. Weber: Carl Maria von (1786–1826); Rossini: Gioacchino Antonio (1792–1868); Mozart: Wolfgang Amadeus (1756–91), Austrian; Beethoven: Ludwig van (1770–1827); Haydn: (Franz) Joseph (1732–1809), Aust
rian; Meyerbeer: Giacomo (1791–1864), German who lived in France after 1824; Verne describes his opera Les Huguenots—which his father hummed to one of his sisters while she suckled—a ‘masterpiece’ (‘Doctor Ox’); Hérold: Louis-Joseph-Ferdinand (1791–1833), comic opera; Wagner: Richard (1813–83), wrote operas including Tannhäuser (1845) and Tristan and Isolde (1865); Auber: Daniel-François-Esprit (1782–1871), operatic works; Gounod: Charles-François (1818–93), the opera Roméo et Juliette (1867).
‘Massé’ also appeared in the 1869 edition. Victor Massé (1822–84) composed comic operas, and was a member with Verne of the musical dining club the Onze sans Femmes (Eleven Without Women), founded in 1868.
piano-organ: an instrument of modest width, often equipped with more than one keyboard.
Orpheus: mythological musician and one of the Argonauts; visited the underworld. MS1 has: ‘a Delacroix, an Ingres are merely for me contemporaries of Apelles or Zeuxis, and it seems to me that this world has not long survived them’. Apelles was a fourth-century bc Greek painter; Zeuxis, an innovative fifth-century bc Greek painter. No canvas of either artist has survived, foreshadowing the probable destiny of Nemo’s own work.
Captain Nemo fell silent and seemed lost in a deep reverie: immediately before this sentence, MS1 has: ‘ “Contemporaries of Orpheus, whose success they never equalled in the Stone Age.” | “But you love their works.” | “Yes, but there is a music I prefer to that of all the ancient and modern artists.” | “Which one, captain?” | “My own, sir.” | This reply explained to me the indistinct sounds I had heard during the first night spent on the hull of the Nautilus.’ Such a dialogue perhaps also explains why Aronnax, who identifies paintings at a glance, is unable to place the music Nemo is playing; and why Nemo’s denial that he is an ‘artist’ seems slightly equivocal. Verne’s reference to ‘the Stone Age’—a controversial term—fits in with dramatically shortened time-scales, since he has not totally given up the date of Genesis as 4004 bc; it was only in the 1860s that French opinion accepted humanity’s existence in prehistoric times.
67 François I: (1494–1547), reformist king (1515–47) who founded the Collège de France and laid the foundations of the modern state.
68 Tavernier: Jean-Baptiste (1605–89), trader and author of Six voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes (1676–7).
must have spent millions acquiring the different items: one of Aronnax’s many erroneous speculations.
69 Only the barest of necessities: the introduction to the Nautilus shows parallels with Verne’s seminal visit in 1859 to a mansion house in Oakley in Fife. Verne’s autobiographical Journey to England and Scotland describes a difficult sea-journey, climbing a ladder, a surprising welcome in French, a change into dry clothes, and an attendant speaking a mysterious language. The guests enter the dwelling ‘without even being able to study its external form’, and find ‘assembled all the discoveries of modern luxury’: ‘a magnificent salon’ with angled seats, display cabinets, and windows ‘allowing extensive views in all directions’. The walls are covered with ‘magnificent canvases from the Italian school . . . and a few masterpieces from the Flemish school’; and the salon leads into an ‘austere and peaceful library and a natural history room’. There is even illumination of the exterior, a ‘plaintive melody’, and a ‘platform’ on the top with a ‘powerful telescope’. The guests are in sum ‘flabbergasted to find such luxury in the middle of the half-wild countryside’, including perfect Gothic plumbing.
70 on the surface: MS1 adds a double entendre, ‘You can see that I am amply equipped’.
That agent is electricity: MS1 adds: ‘it steers me, it charges my rifles’.
71 I could have . . . obtained electricity from the difference in temperature between them: Nemo does not generate electricity from the water. However, in Master of the World (1904) Verne mistakenly says that electricity ‘was drawn from the surrounding water by the celebrated Captain Nemo’.
Bunsen: Robert Wilhelm (1811–99), chemist who contributed to the invention of the zinc-carbon battery (1841) and the spectroscope, and improved the Bunsen burner.
Dr Aronnax, you will see me doing so: although we do hear more about the captain’s underwater mines, we never in fact see him working there.
72 wind, water, and steam: MS1 adds, ‘and will on its own meet all humanity’s needs’.
The total length was about 35 metres: from centre to end, as confirmed by Nemo’s ‘70 metres’ later in the chapter. In the opening pages, Aronnax had rejected 200 feet as the length, although ‘reliable’ sources had given 350 feet.
73 crew room . . . But its door remained closed: Verne’s ‘poste de l’équipage’ is often translated as ‘control room’; in other works he uses the term in the sense of ‘living quarters’, although the second manuscript describes work going on here: ‘. . . a score of men . . . were needed to operate the Nautilus. I thought therefore that the crew of this strange ship were limited to that number. | About ten seamen were busy working, and did not seem to notice my presence in their room.’ In any case, the space is small compared to Nemo’s salons.
74 Ruhmkorff: Heinrich Daniel (1803–77), physicist, inventor of an induction coil (1850–1).
up to 120 revolutions per second: Nemo means per minute!
‘A speed of 50 knots’: figure that would require many thousand horsepower; MS2: ‘35 knots’, MS1: ‘30 knots’.
75 It is a long cylinder with conical ends: MS1: ‘It is long so as to go fast.’ In addition to the scientific point, Verne is probably being scurrilous.
These two measurements allow you to calculate the surface area and volume of the ‘Nautilus’: on the contrary: even assuming a cylinder and two uniform cones, one needs to know their respective lengths.
its volume 1,507.2 cubic metres: (Verne: ‘1,500.2’, amended here; the first manuscript has ‘1,507.2’); the ‘1,356.48 cubic metres’ of the following paragraph should probably be about ‘1,350 cubic metres’; also Nemo seems to forget that this is salt water, 2.5 per cent heavier; and two paragraphs below, finally, Verne’s ‘1,356.58 tons’ has been amended. It is possible in addition that there is a more serious mistake somewhere. A cylinder only 30 metres long and of radius 4 metres has a cross-section of about 50 square metres and a volume of about 1,500 cubic metres on its own—unless the central part is not cylindrical, but ‘spindle-shaped’ (term used three times, but to describe the overall shape of the Nautilus).
77 100 atmospheres: in fact variations in temperature and salinity have a much greater effect on water density than the pressure.
79 I love it like the flesh of my flesh: Genesis 2: 23–4: ‘And Adam said . . . “[The] flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man”.’ Nemo’s relationship to his submarine is both paternal and carnal.
the Dutchman Jansen: Belgian-born Marin Henry (1817–93), Dutch rear-admiral, translator into Dutch of Maury, and author of works on measuring sea temperatures and on the East Indies.
80 Le Creusot . . . Hart Brothers of New York: manufacturing companies. Le Creusot: the Schneider iron and steel mills and munition factories (founded 1837) at Le Creusot, Saône-et-Loire. Penn and Co. of London: (Verne: ‘Pen’) John Penn & Sons, of Greenwich; constructed the first treadmill (1817) and patented an important improvement to the screw propeller (1854). Laird’s of Liverpool: (Verne: ‘Leard’) Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead, known for its early iron vessels (1829). Scott & Co. of Glasgow: shipbuilders, in fact Scotts of Greenock. Cail and Co. of Paris: steel works in Denain, near Lille, which constructed locomotives, etc., founded by Jean-François Cail (1804–71). Krupp in Prussia: family of steel manufacturers, including Alfred (1812–87) and Friedrich Alfred (1854–1902). Motala in Sweden: a small town producing naval and electrical equipment. Hart Brothers of New York: no trace has been found.
1,687,500 francs: Verne: ‘1,687,000’.
the ten billion francs of France’s debts: 1869 and MÉR: ‘twelve billion’, implying that the il
lustrated edition of 1871 was, surprisingly, prepared before the 1869 ones.
383,255,800 square kilometres, or more than 38 million hectares: modern estimates give 361 million square kilometres; and given that 100 hectares are a square kilometre, the second figure should apparently read ‘thirty-eight billion’. Also, the ‘2,250 million cubic miles’ may mean cubic kilometres, for modern estimates give 322 million cubic miles. Finally, ‘a sphere sixty leagues in diameter’ would only give about 40 million cubic miles.
81 its metal plates overlapped slightly: earlier, ‘The blackish surface . . . had no overlapping sections’.
82 This reply taught me nothing: in fact Nemo spontaneously uses the Paris meridian. In the following sentence Verne writes ‘37° 15´’, a slip corrected here.
83 Galileo . . . Maury, whose career was ruined by a political revolution: Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), astronomer and physicist who developed the telescope, observed sunspots, and discovered that all bodies fell at the same speed. In 1633 the Inquisition made him renounce his support of Copernican heliocentric theory. Maury, an American oceanographer, author of The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), an important source for Verne, resigned from the Navy at the beginning of the Civil War, went into exile in Mexico, but returned in 1868 following an amnesty, to become a lecturer. A brief selection of information shared with Maury would include: the references to Wilkes, Ehrenberg, Humboldt, Faraday, Captains King and Fitzroy, Franklin, Parker, Denham, Dumont d’Urville, and Ross; ‘ooze’, the expansion undergone by freezing water, undercurrents, the Northwest Passage as demonstrated by whales on the other side having stamped harpoons in them, right whales unable to cross the warm waters of the equator, the use of British miles, burials at sea, messages-in-bottles, sounding techniques, the transatlantic cable over the ‘telegraphic plateau’ and the bringing up of specimens from it; life under pressure on the seabed, the calm in the deeps, jellyfish as nettles, the sea of milk, luminescence, the salinity of the sea, and the nautilus shell; driftwood coming down the Mississippi (not tree-trunks down the Missouri, as Verne claims), the difference in the level between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the Sargasso Sea, the Gulf Stream, the ‘Kuro-Siwo’ (sic) or Black Stream, the large Antarctic landmass needed to produce icebergs, and many of the localities.
