Amazon.com: Invasion of the Sea (Early Classics of Science Fiction): Jules Verne: Books

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Leading off Wesleyan's Early Classics of Science Fiction series, Verne's 1905 techno-thriller debuts in English, rendered by Baxter with supple decorum and reinforced by editor Arthur B. Evans's thorough scholarly notes, bibliography and Verne mini-biography. Inspired by the rage for canal-building obsessing the world's imperial powers around 1904, this novel draws on an aborted 1874 French proposal for an inland "Sahara Sea," which would have involved digging a 200-kilometer Suez-type canal through Tunisia into eastern Algeria. Verne's self-confessed passion for travel writings and geographical detail illuminate the then-current events that Verne shaped into his fiction, but his deluge of scientific facts engulfs the story's slim teen-oriented literary content. Verne also radically shifts point of view, from the Tuareg tribespeople, who vow holy war against the foreigners because they will lose their lands to the inundation, to a European engineering expedition and its French military escort. Verne sympathetically focuses on the soldiers' heroic canine companion, Ace-of-Hearts, before plunging into an unlikely deus ex machina, producing a disjointed yet predictable narrative with negligible development of character and motivation except for the delightful dog. Students of early SF will appreciate Evans's and Baxter's efforts in bringing Verne's late work to light, but general audiences may find themselves swamped by Verne's quicksand of geographic minutiae. (Jan.)Forecast: Evans speculates that this last Verne novel wasn't translated earlier for political reasons as well as on account of tough competition from H.G. Wells's more sensational "scientific romances." While the appeal here is primarily scholarly, this reader-friendly edition, which reproduces the original illustrations, may well have enough curiosity value to garner some trade sales.

From Library Journal
Wesleyan launches its "Early Classics of Science Fiction" line in style with this first English translation of Verne's 1904 novel Invasion of the Sea. The series will feature scholarly editions of popular sf works, with illustrations, bibliographies, textual notes, etc. Though long available in English, The Mysterious Island here receives a new and much more spry and exciting translation to replace the drab version that has been boring readers for years. This also features illustrations and an introduction by Caleb Carr.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
"How much do you know?" Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
issue devoted

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Captain Hardigan, Lieutenant Villette, Sahara Sea, Corporal Pistache, Captain Roudaire, Chott Melrir, Sergeant Nicol, France-Overseas Company, Chott Rharsa, Carl Steinx, Suez Canal

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