A couple of weeks ago I needed some new books, so I picked up two Jules Verne books. I had heard good things about them, mostly around here, so I picked up 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. I read 20,000 first and really liked it. Right now I’m in the middle of Mysterious Island and am enjoying that.
I’ll probably be heading out to the books store soon so I want to pick up some more of his work. I just don’t know what else is really good, and what maybe I should stay away from.
I know what those words mean, but when put together, I can not see how they can have meaning. Odd.
Anyway, I recomend you simply pick up each and every one of his books, esp. his new one, Paris in the Twentieth Century. It only just got publishe in 1994.
The problem with Verne’s books is that they’re not so easy to comwe by these days, unless you go on-line, or go out of your way to order them at the bookstore. Back in the 1960s there were dozens of Verne titles in print.
Some suggestuions:
**A Journey to the Center of the Earth
Around the World in 80 days
From the Earth to the Moon** and Around the Moon. If you can, get the annotated edition.
Carpathian Castle – the original “they do it with scientific gadgets” horror story.
Michael Strogoff, Courier for the Czar – Russia edventure. And there’s a twist ending! for the Flag – Submarines, guided missles, and military intrigue The Lighthouse at the End of the World – lighthouse keeper vs. pirates on an isolated island. Captain Antifer — Highly unlikely but very weird treasure-hunt yarn. I can’t beliebve anyone with a treasure to hide would go to this much trouble. I guarantee you won’t anticipate each successive step. Also with a twist ending.
1.) I don’t think that site has “most” of Verne’s books – he published over 60 titles, some of which have only appeared in print in English in the past couple of years.
2.) Older translations are not to be trusted. Lewis Mercier/Mercier Lewis butchered Verne, niot merely mistranslating, but actually cutting out up to 1/3 of both 20,000 Leagues and From the Earth to the Moon. Nor was he the only ad translator – the first translation of From the Earth to the Moon I read was liberally rewritten by the ttranslator. The first complete translation of The Mysterious Island into English just appeared less than five years ago.
It’s worth noting that Verne didn’t just write science fiction. Le Rayon Vert is basically a love story. So if you want adventure and all that, give this one a miss.
Each translation gets a fresh copyright. Gutenberg makes available only works that are in the public domain. Publishers of new translations have a lot of incentive to discredit earlier translations. Not that I know such to be the case with Verne, but I do know that many older translations of other authors, as available at Gutenberg, are perfectly valid works. If you’re reading for entertainment, you certainly can’t go very wrong at Gutenberg. If you’re reading for exhaustive scholarly completeness, you’ll want to look further afield.
Naah, Mercier’s translation were just bad, as was that other guy’s – it’s not just a matter of darwinian selection in the publishing business. Although I have to admit that most other older Verne translations I’ve gotten even from 'way back seem pretty reasonable. And all translations sincve about 1960 seem respectable.
Again, as I said very explicitly, I was speaking generally, not about Verne’s translations, and certainly not about Mercier. So your “naah” doesn’t really negate my general comment. I know nothing specific about Mercier’s translations, so I presume your opinion is accurate on that specific issue.