4 Jules Verne The Biography William Butcher Foreword by Arthur C. Clarke 7 Abbreviations ADF: Marguerite Allotte de la Fuÿe, Jules Verne JES: Verne, Journey to England and Scotland BSJV: Bulletin de la Société Jules Verne CNM: Charles-Noël Martin, La Vie et l’œuvre de Jules Verne (The Life and Works of Jules Verne) Int.: Entretiens avec Jules Verne (Interviews) JD: Joëlle Dusseau, Jules Verne JJV: Jean Jules-Verne, Jules Verne JVEST: Jean-Michel Margot (ed.), Jules Verne en son temps (Jules Verne in his Time) Lemire: Charles Lemire, Jules Verne MCY: “Memories of Childhood and Youth” OD: Olivier Dumas, Voyage à travers Jules Verne (Journey through Jules Verne) Poems: Poésies inédites (Unpublished Poems) PV: Philippe Valetoux, Jules Verne: En mer et contre tous (Jules Verne: All at sea and odds) RD: Raymond Ducrest de Villeneuve, untitled biography St M.: Verne’s list of journeys on the St Michel II and III TI: Théâtre inédit (Unpublished Plays) 291 Appendices A: Home Addresses Date Address 8 February 1828 Third floor, 4 Rue de Clisson, Nantes Late 1828 or early 1829 Second floor, 2 Quai Jean Bart October 1834 Mme Sambin’s pension, 5 Place du Bouffay About 1837 29 Rue des Réformés, Chantenay 3 October 1837 or St Stanislas School October 1836 About 1840 Second floor, 6 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau October 1840 St Donatien Junior Seminary 11 July 1848 (until 3 Probably near Henri Garcet’s, Fifth August) Arrondissement, Paris 12 November 1848 About fifth floor, 24 Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, Sixth March 1849 Third floor, 24 Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, Sixth Possibly late 1850 Possibly ground floor, Rue Louis le Grand, Second About February 1851 A furnished room in a hotel 9 April 1851 Seventh floor, 18 Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, Second 8 March 1855 Possibly at 47 Rue des Martyrs, Ninth, residence of Paul Lacroix 15 March 1855 Fifth floor, 18 Boulevard Poissonnière, Second End of April 1857 Rue Saint-Martin, Third 1858 54 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Ninth 1858 Upper floor, probably 18 Boulevard Montmartre, Second First half of 1861 153 Boulevard de Magenta, Ninth After August 1861 45 Boulevard de Magenta 1862 18 Passage Saulnier, Ninth 292 By 10 September 1863 39 Rue La Fontaine, 16th (Auteuil) Spring 1866 “La Solitude”, Rue Lefèvre (modern 9 Rue Jules Verne), Le Crotoy 1866 Place de la Croix Rouge, Sixth (presumably the same as Carrefour de la Croix Rouge, Sixth) February 1867 2 Rue de Sèvres, Sixth April 1869 Rue Jeanne-d’Arc, Le Crotoy November 1869 3 Boulevard Saint-Charles, Amiens February 1870 23 Boulevard Guyencourt 1873 or 1874 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules Verne) August 1877 1 Rue Suffren, Nantes September 1878 44 Boulevard Longueville October 1882 2 Rue Charles Dubois October 1900 44 Boulevard Longueville B: Travels outside France Verne made more than 35 journeys to 15 countries and half a dozen dependent territories, the majority of them to the British Isles. Date Places Companions Early November Presumably Belgium, None 1849 Switzerland, or Germany 28 July–6 Bordeaux, Liverpool, Hignard September 1859 Edinburgh, Highlands, London 2 July–8 August Belgium, Germany, Hignard, Lorois 1861 Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany Mid-1860s Sydenham 1865 and 1866 or Monaco, Tende, and Hetzel 1867 Bordighera, Italy 1866? Channel Islands 1867 Britain, United States, Paul Canada 293 Probably the Italian coast, but not as Hetzel second week of far as Genoa January 1868 June 1868 Dover 19 August 1868 Gravesend, London Probably with Paul Three or four Baden-Baden Hetzel days in October 1868 Mid-June 1869 South coast of England August 1869 London, possibly also Ostend About 8–15 June London, Woolwich Honorine, Paul 1872 1872, perhaps Channel Islands June and September About 14–24 Perhaps Jersey, Hetzel August 1873 Guernsey, Sark 2–3 March 1874 Monaco Honorine 22–about 26 Monaco Honorine February 1875 About 21–7 June Dover Suzanne’s husband 1876 18–23 July 1876 Southampton, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth 30 July 1877 Guernsey Michel, Louis Thuillier, and M. Brasseur 25 May–6 July Spain, Portugal, Paul, Raoul-Duval, 1878 Gibraltar, Morocco, Hetzel fils Algeria About 20 Channel Islands August 1878 1–29 July 1879 England, Edinburgh, Paul (as far as Hebrides Boulogne), Godefroy, Gaston, Michel, and Hetzel fils (Scottish section) 294 1 June–about 2 England, Belgium, Paul, Gaston, Godefroy July 1881 Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden 6–9 August 1881 Ramsgate Honorine and many friends 13 May–18 July Spain, Portugal, Paul, Maurice, Honorine 1884 Gibraltar, Morocco, (from Oran), Godefroy, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, and Michel (from Italy, the Vatican Algiers) 21 November–1 Belgium, Holland December 1887 ? Brighton Before 1878 Switzerland C: Journeys on St Michel II and III An untitled document in Verne’s hand (in Paumier 23) reads: 2nd St Michel 1877 23 July. [Le] Havre, Caen, Courseulles[-sur-mer], Cherbourg, Guernsey, Perros[-Guirec], Brest, [Le] Croisic, Nantes Pornic, lunch at [Jules-Arsène?] Arnaud’s 16 August 3rd St Michel 1878 Various journeys, and navigation to Algiers. Paul, Duval, Hetzel, me. 1879 1 July. Paul, Godefroy, Gaston, Michel. Boulogne, Scotland, [Le] Havre back 29 July, Michel with boat looked for pilot, picked up [Alfred Dubois de] Jancigny, went to Brest, lost cannon (1 Aug.), and Michel left for Nantes, alone. As for us, got there 3 August. 1879 16 Aug. Left from Nantes, Paul, Michel, and me—(Quiberon, under sail-power)—went to Lorois‘ in [Broil]. Lorient, launching of the Dévastation. 1879 26 Aug. Left from Nantes, the Dezaunays [Caroline and her grown- up children]. Collision in harbour of the St Michel [Saint- ]Nazaire and broke the boom. Back to Nantes. 1879 16 Sep. Michel and me. Left from Nantes, Brest, put in at Bertheaume cove, towed fishing boat—mist. 20 [Sep.] arrival in [Le] Tréport. Sea excursion on the 22nd. Ill[.] [Ernest] Obry, his daughter. Honorine—rented house and sent ship back to Nantes. 1880 no sailing. 1881 1 June. Navigation North Sea and Baltic, Paul, Gaston, Godefroy, and me, back 17 July. 295 6 August. Journey to Ramsgate and passenger, back 9 August. 1882 no sailing. 1883 no sailing. Rented boat to [Jules] Levesque. 1884 Left from Nantes Tuesday, 13 May. Paul, me, Maurice, in Oran, then Honorine—then in Algiers Godefroy and Michel. 3 July, boat left at Porto d’Anzio, and departed again for Nantes. in Rome, 3 July evening. D: The 1857 Salon Verne’s art-criticism essay is his last substantial prose work to remain untranslated. As can be seen, the style is alert and slightly self-deprecating: Two years ago already, the artists of every nation were invited to the Universal Exposition.1 After that competition with the rest of the world by French painters and sculptors, the government wanted to afford them two years’ rest; they well deserved it, having departed victorious from the arena where Landseer, Rauch, Cornelius, Mulready, Leys, Eastlake, and Tidemand had fought. This exposition of 1857 takes place, then, in particular circumstances, following such a great universal contest; it is more modest, more peaceful, more hopeful; its only fault is to come after its rowdy and militant elder; the forerunner splendidly called on known and unknown masterpieces by living artists; the successor, exceedingly French, will not offer this fervent interest, this provocative promiscuity of contending countries. ... At this 1857 Salon, are there numerous abstentions amongst the modern masters? This is to be feared, for many famous names are missing and with them, many paintings; this is an unfortunate event, and probably happens too often, due to a prejudice; it is indeed the duty of leaders of schools to appear at the head of their disciples; but perhaps artistic schools are tending to disappear, with everyone becoming their own leader and their own pupil, like Schaunard. There is a striking resurgence of artistic independence and personality, as can easily be observed in the activities of the Salon; critics may see it as a sign of either decadence or vitality, ideas we are not required to discuss here; but what will certainly not escape anyone’s notice is the influence of the political events of recent years on the imaginations of many of the artists. The Crimean War, for example, will certainly receive the honours of the Salon; its chief events are rehearsed in all possible guises and 296 styles; every episode is represented here to the point of surfeit; Sebastopol is stormed again and again; Malakoff and the Central Bastion are at every moment devastated anew by the bombs and shells of the allied armies; Zouaves and Highlanders fraternise in bivouacs no less often than they did in the actual fray. Is this perhaps not an abuse, and should we not regret that many artists of merit confine themselves to such an overbearing specialisation; this subject is independent of talent, I know; but why not abandon to the masters of this official kind of painting the responsibility for preserving the memory of our military glories? Following the Crimean war, the Loire and Rhone floods provided their contingents of dramatic situations; but these paintings, which cover a very large number of scenes, are really too complex to allow due force and clarity to be applied to the sense of an episode, the attraction of a single event to the charm of a pleasant detail. I repeat, the subject is here the focus, not the level of talent of its treatment; moreover, these canvases are eminently patriotic and will find many admirers. But perchance too, the connoisseur, the artist, the poet, lost in the midst of these military clashes, will find it difficult to encounter a great work symbolising a great idea; he will perhaps seek in vain a Roman Orgy by a Couture, a Last Day of the Condemned by a Muller.