Journey Through the Impossible [Hardcover]

Jules Verne (Author), Edward Baxter (Translator), Jean-Michel Margot (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

"Jules Verne", the most translated novelist in the world and best known for books such as "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" and "Around the World in Eighty Days", was also a prolific playwright. "Journey Through the Impossible", a play of fantasy and science fiction, ran for 97 performances in Paris in 1882 and 1883. In the three acts, the characters go first to the centre of the Earth, then under the sea, and finally to the planet Altor. Characters from: "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea"; "From the Earth to the Moon"; "Doctor Ox"; and "Journey to the Center of the Earth" appear again in "Journey through the Impossible", including Captain Nemo, President Barbican, Michel Ardan, Doctor Ox, and Professor Lidenbrock. This is the first complete edition and the first English translation of a surprising work by a popular French novelist whose works continue to delight readers and audiences to this day.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this excellent little book...shows [Verne] at his most whimsically sciene-fictional...Highly recommended." -- Science Fiction Studies, 2004

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; First Edition edition (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591020794
• ISBN-13: 978-1591020790
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,651,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jules Verne's Stage Play of Intergalactic Travel, June 20, 2003

By 

Brian Taves (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journey Through the Impossible (Hardcover)

Most science fiction fans think of Jules Verne as the "father" of the genre, but with a rather remote paternity, the genre's modern directions owing more to H.G. Wells. Verne would hardly be suspected of telling a story of cosmic travel to another planet in a distant galaxy. And yet that is among the destinations in this incredible play, staged to acclaim in France in 1882, then lost for over a century until the manuscript's rediscovery in a French archive. This is not only the first English translation, it is also the only version in any language that offers the complete text of the play. With it, and other recent Verne books discovered or translated for the first time, readers of today can gauge Verne's imagination far more accurately than those of the 19th or 20th century.
Verne's editor constantly rejected or toned down his true science fiction, compelling his most inventive author to remain largely earthbound. For instance, 1994 saw the first appearance of Paris in the 20th Century, a book rejected outright by Verne's publisher, who refused to sanction a dystopia set a century in the future. Similarly, Verne's publisher compelled his author to transform his voyage around the solar system on a comet in Hector Servadac into simply a "dream." Journey Through the Impossible goes even further, because Verne found an escape from his publisher's censorship by turning to the theater.
In Journey Through the Impossible Verne takes us to the center of the earth and under the sea, destinations from some of his most popular novels. In the underground realms dwell Troglodytes anticipating the Morlocks of Wells's The Time Machine. On board the submarine Nautilus, a visit is made to the city of Atlantis. The play includes appearances by many of the most famous characters from Verne's novels, including the diabolical scientist Doctor Ox and the Baltimore Gun Club that launched the first projectile to the moon. This time the Gun Club's giant cannon sends a capsule full of explorers to Altor, a newly-discovered distant planet with two sons.
Journey Through the Impossible is published in association with the North American Jules Verne Society, and includes a preface and footnotes by its president, Jean-Michel Margot, one of the leading authorities on Verne today. The background explains the play's many allusions and allows the reader to readily imagine how its presentation might have appeared. Further visual embellishment is provided by lavish illustrations, including several originals by Roger Leyonmark that evoke the style of the engravings that were a trademark of the early French editions of Verne's books. Edward Baxter, translator of the play, has already earned approbation for his previous translations of Verne into English, including several novels.
This is an incredible book, one that is full of both Verne's imagination and Vernian scholarship. It will forever change the way readers think of Verne, and will re-establish his foundation as the originator of modern science fiction.

4.0 out of 5 stars Technical Review of Kindle Edition, July 29, 2011

By 

Tek2000 (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Journey Through the Impossible (Kindle Edition)

This is a great little book for Verne completists, and I was pleased with my hardcopy which I bought several years ago. The Kindle Edition does have an active Table of Contents and I haven't found any typographical or spelling errors, but it does have three major problems:
1. The nice full-page illustrations by Roger Leyonmark at the beginning of each act in the hard copy are ruined in the Kindle Edition by a big box with FPO in it. I guess I should be glad to have anything, if FPO means licensed For Print Only.
2. The cover art from the hard copy book is missing from the Kindle edition completely.
3. The extensive notes have been included but not hyperlinked. If you want to refer to the notes as you read, you will have to bookmark that section or jot down the displacement location.

Sadly, even with these problems, it still is one of the better electronic editions of Verne. So many are simply horrible quick conversions to Kindle from Project Gutenburg.