HÉROÏNES DE LA MODERNITÉ EXHIBITION BOOKLET Voyages extraordinaires de femmes pas si ordinaires THE WOMEN IN VERNE’S LIFE HEROINES OF “You are becoming e é regulars in the salons of g â , s le the Prefecture. I am certain Ju MODERNITY e d ère that this amuses Papa as e, m Women in the works Sophie Vern of Jules Verne much as his daughters, and that Mother would almost Jules Verne is alleged to have had several be prepared to dance there romances in his youth, but he dedicated Jules Verne claimed in 1890 to “have lack the emotional dimension which some thirty poems to the beauty Rose no talent for female characters” yet he humanises the mechanical element if someone were needed to Herminie Arnault-Grossetière. He was created a surprising and diverse gallery and spirit of geographical and scientific not considered to be a good catch and of feminine portraits. conquest of male-centric journeys. make up a quadrille.” was sidelined using the stratagems at Letter from Jules Verne to his mother, which middle-class families excelled. Romantic young women in love, Women are invited to take pride of 21 June 1855. This thwarted love affair cause him patriotic heroines, resourceful place at the Musée Jules Verne for this to leave Nantes. Jules was resentful adventuresses, dominant wives, exhibition. The women who played of these intrigues and exploited them devoted mothers, cunning and ruthless a major role in the writer’s life – his Jules Verne was born on 8 February 1828 in his boulevard theatre plays, later spies, fantasy ghost-women – his mother Sophie, his sisters, and his wife in Nantes. His mother, Sophie Allotte de la returning to the theme in several heroines often succeed in escaping Honorine – and the many women who Fuÿe, was 27 years old. His father, Pierre- Extraordinary Journeys. the confines of the rigid, hierarchical inject modernity and great diversity Gabriel Verne, had a solicitor’s practice. and hypocritical society described in into the Extraordinary Journeys all The couple set up home in the Île Feydeau Marriage, which is given a humorous nineteenth century novels. reveal another largely overlooked district and Jules would watch the boats treatment, becomes a recurring topic for facet of Jules Verne through their sail past from their country house in discussion in his correspondence with Bold, determined, and possessed adventures and the engravings Chantenay. Pierre and Sophie had five his mother. In 1850, Jules Verne and a of a surprising thirst for knowledge, which illustrate them. children: Jules had a younger brother Paul few friends set up a bachelor club in Paris several dozen intelligent, intuitive and and three younger sisters Anne, Mathilde dubbed “Eleven-men without women”. selfless women challenge the prevailing and Marie. Marie, nicknamed le chou, was They would gather to laugh, drink and middle-class mentality. They embark Jules’s goddaughter. sing, but the bachelors got married one by on adventures and play an active role, one. His friend Auguste Lelarge invited him displaying physical, romantic, social, Their family life, in the company of many to Amiens to be a witness at his wedding. ethical and political commitment, and relatives and friends, was happy. There, Jules met a young 26-year old countering reason and duty with the widow with two small daughters called power of feelings. Without their rich Honorine Deviane. He married her on and subtly differentiated personalities, 10 January 1857 in Paris. the Extraordinary Journeys would THE SEA GHOST WOMEN AND TRAVEL FROM FANTASY TO MADNESS “Yes! The Ocean is the “The young girl was t s n e infinite, the infinite we a fifteen or sixteen years ir r o G n e s in e cannot see, but which we ta old at most. Her distant, nd pi I ca es u – L ts d ell can feel […] infinite like Les Enfan surprised expression, thin N space which is reflected face drawn by suffering, in its waters!” pallid complexion untinged Other heroines undertake perilous Ellen Hodges, a mysterious and The Green Ray journeys on terra firma. The motto by sunlight, and her fragile, fascinating “Black Lady” who walks of explorer Paulina Barnett, who the deck of the Great Eastern by night accompanies an expedition to the slender figure all gave her and sings in a spellbinding voice, lost In the collective imagination, Jules Verne frozen north of Canada, is “you have her mind after entering into a forced is a writer seeking new horizons. His to see everything or at least try to the appearance of a singular marriage (A Floating City). Laurence dreams of sailing became a reality when see everything.” (The Fur Country). yet attractive being, […] Munro wanders across northern India he bought a series of three boats named Marfa Strogoff and Nadia Fedor for ten years, having gone mad after “Saint-Michel” in which he travelled to face the freezing climate of Siberia like a slightly supernatural- witnessing the Indian Mutiny in 1857 England, Scotland and Scandinavia. In with stoic indifference to suffering (The Steam House). Nell, a wild-eyed 1867, he also boarded the liner SS Great (Michel Strogoff). Jeanne de Kermor looking elf.” creature, “who only appears to be half- human”, protects the other characters at Eastern to cross the Atlantic. embarks on a journey to Venezuela and The Child of the Cavern endures trials and tribulations in her the pit like a benevolent spirit (The Child The Extraordinary Journeys feature a single-minded quest to find her father of the Cavern). number of intrepid women sailors. Marie (The Mighty Orinoco). Five inaccessible dreamlike ghost- Using a hologram and voice recordings, sets off to find her fiancé who is lost women, who have a seductive at sea (A Winter Amid the Ice), Helena Baron de Gortz can resurrect the famous Hoffmanesque peculiarity, haunt the opera singer La Stilla, who died onstage Glenarvan is delighted to take over the Extraordinary Voyages. They inspire helm of the Duncan, and Mary Grant, after deciding to put an end her career overwhelming love and deep despair in order to escape him (The Carpathian who works alongside her, has bona in men, and remind us that although fide navigation skills (In Search of the Castle). Myra Roderich, by contrast, is Jules Verne was keen to provide an made invisible by her spurned admirer, Castaways). Miss Herbey experiences encyclopaedic vision of the world, a fire on board, a shipwreck and Wilhelm Storitz, but will remain “the he also embraced passion, poetry and soul of the house – invisible like a soul”, countless days at sea on a makeshift imagination. raft (The Survivors of the Chancellor). eternally beautiful and young in the Dolly Branican, for her part, sets out idealised portrait painted by her husband to sea in search of her husband and (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz). embodies a quality which fascinates Jules Verne: intuition (Mistress Branican). MARRIAGE AND LOVE FROM A DIVORCE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE “A few problems, “I pity you […] Mr Fogg, e r d awkwardness and worries o for solitude is a sad state u S té é u m d le are not untoward before a au of affairs. What! Have you i e to ss l’É ha s - a C kin marriage! When unions L not one heart into which Alice Wat are forged too easily, there to pour your troubles? is a risk they will unravel (The Fur Country), while Yaquita Garral They say that with two The first such woman, Sarah, runs away in exactly the same way!” supports her husband through trials and people, misery itself is with the young Indian man she loves, but tribulations after he is unjustly arrested dies in the waterfalls on a river and this The Chase of the Golden Meteor. (Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon). bearable! […] Do you wish tragic end highlights the impossibility of a perfect love which crosses the In Kéraban the Inflexible, Jules Verne for both a relative and a boundaries of culture and social status Marriage is a recurring theme in the work explores the difficulties of married life in (Martin Paz). Subsequent Verne heroines of Jules Verne. His own marriage was a humorous vein. Van Mitten bemoans friend? Will you have me are more fortunate. not always happy and he was appalled by the fact that “life had become unbearable as your wife?” marriages in which love was not present between Madame Van Mitten and me. Modern, free-spirited Aouda proposes and reciprocal. He believed that arranged Endless discussions about everything, Around the World in to Phileas when he believes that he marriages were doomed to failure, as is on what time to get up, what time to go Eighty Days is ruined (Around the World in Eighty demonstrated in his youthful plays such to bed, when to eat, what to eat…”. By Days). Romantic Helena Campbell sets as Mr Chimp. contrast, The Chase of the Meteor offers off in search of the “Green Ray” in order a portrait of a model wife in the shape of In 1866, Jules Verne wrote to his to escape a marriage arranged by her Verne’s married women are often Flora Hudelson. publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel that he felt uncles (The Green Ray). Alice Watkins, modern and dynamic. Mrs Melvil assists “very clumsy about expressing feelings who is fascinated by science and culture, her husband in his business dealings (The Jules Verne also depicts whirlwind of love”. However, his work is dotted fights to marry Cyprien against the Humbug), Mrs Joliffe runs the household marriages such as that of Cornélia with women in love who have no qualms will of her diamond-obsessed father and helps her spouse in every respect Vadarasse, who gets married during the about articulating their feelings and (The Vanished Diamond).