Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author and a pioneer of the science fiction genre. Verne was noted for writing about space, air, and underwater travel long before they were possible, let alone commonplace.

Reputation in English-speaking countries

In France he is renowned for writing good French that boys will be interested in reading. In those countries for which his works were accurately translated as well, his scientific and political abilities are also noted. Not so in the English-speaking countries.

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The British Empire was often criticised by him, and it just so happened that his first translator was the Reverend Lewis Page Mercier, writing under a pseudonym, who cut out such passages, for example, as the political action of Captain Nemo. Mercier and subsequent British translators especially had trouble with the metric system that Verne used - sometimes they converted the units to Imperial, sometimes they dropped significant figures, sometimes they just kept the metric number and changed the unit to an Imperial one. This made Verne's calculations, exact for his age, into gibberish. Artistic passages and whole chapters were cut in the need to fit the work in the space for publication, regardless of what it meant to the plot.

Related Topics:
British Empire - Lewis Page Mercier - Captain Nemo - Metric system

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Hence Verne's work acquired a reputation in English-speaking countries of not being an adult work in any regard. Because he was not considered a littérateur, it was not seen fit to have his works re-translated. So the translations of Mercier and others were reprinted decade after decade. Finally, in 1965, the first translations into English since the nineteenth century were published. But still Verne is not fully rehabilitated in the English-speaking countries.

Related Topics:
1965 - Nineteenth century

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