Around the World in Eighty Days (Towle)/Introduction
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Jules Verne.
The autographic sketch on the opposite page represents the "St. Michael," a little decked bark belonging to the author of "Around the World in Eighty Days."
The sketch, which Verne executed in the twinkling of an eye, on our own desk, without suspecting that it would receive the honours of publicity, is accompanied by the inscription, "Bourset Malais," which two words indicate the type of craft of which the "St. Michael" is an example. It is on this frail skiff that Jules Verne goes upon long voyages, and has already explored the English coast and ascended as far as Scotland.
Verne recently took a trip in her to Jersey, in the English Channel, accompanied by his factotum, Antonie Delon, a veritable sea-wolf, who loves danger because he has always overcome it.
These daring peregrinations gave the author of "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" the ideas and subjects of his remarkable works, which have been translated into many languages, and have found readers in two worlds.
Verne passes half of his existence on board the "St. Michael;" dividing the remainder of his time between Amiens, where his family resides, and Paris, where he attends the sessions of the Geographical Society, of which he is the most honoured member, and where he collects, in its museums and library, the numerous materials necessary to the scientific perfection of his works.
Verne receives letters, in which his correspondents give him their impressions and ideas, and sometimes foolish observations, from all parts of the world. Those who have read "Around the World in Eighty Days" recall, no doubt, that Phileas Fogg, its hero, undertook his journey after reading an article in the Daily Telegraph at the Reform Club. The other day Verne received a letter from a member of that famous club, in which he said, somewhat bluntly, that the political tone of the Daily Telegraph excluded that sheet from the Reform.
"It is as if you should say that M. de Belcastel subscribed for the République Française!" added this pert correspondent.
Verne laughed heartily at the illustration, and, as he is amiability itself, apprised the member of the club that in the next edition of the book he would substitute for the obnoxious sheet one admitted into the club to which the famous Phileas Fogg belonged; and, as the editions are rapidly succeeding each other, the discontented gentleman will doubtless ere long be fully satisfied.
The author of our little sketch leads the laborious, regular, and sober life of a student. Wherever he may be, he works from five in the morning till one in the afternoon, passes the day visiting shops and factories, where he carefully studies the machinery, and goes to bed at seven o'clock. Extended on this bed, he devours all the scientific publications till midnight, and when they fail him he looks over books of travel and tourist adventures. He has no need, however, of borrowing ideas of travel or geography from others, for he has himself travelled much, and is quite familiar with Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
He had an adventure in Sweden, with which I must enliven this brief biography.
Verne was stopping at a hotel in Stockholm. As he was on the point of ascending the coast of the northern part of that picturesque country, he wished to pay his bill, and began searching in his pocket-book for the draft at sight, which he had procured of the Rothschilds before leaving Paris. But he searched for it in vain. There was no doubt about it—he had been robbed!
He found himself, as the Bohemians say, flat on his back. The landlord stared at him, and he thought he heard him mutter, "Adventurer!" Verne took his "Swedish Guide," which he was learning by heart, under his arm, and wandered about the city, calling on all the bankers to apprise them of his misfortune, and warn them lest the robber should forge his name.
After three days of going backwards and forwards, our unhappy author climbed up to the last banker's, with his guide-book, as usual, under his arm. He placed the book on the desk, and began to tell the clerk of his misfortune. The latter, indifferent to the tale, took up Verne's book and began carelessly turning over its leaves. As he was doing this, a slip of paper, which served as a mark in the middle of a chapter, fell out on the floor.
The clerk took it up, and unfolding it, cried: "Why here's your draft, after all!"
I leave you to imagine Verne's triumphant entrance into his hotel.
Verne studied law, and became a barrister. Then, under the auspices of Captain Darpentigny, a well-known chiromancer, he became intimate with the Dumases, father and son, wrote pieces in conjunction with them, and afterwards worked alone, producing several libretti which had some success at the Théâtre Lyrique, under the direction of the Sevestes and Rety. Among them were "Les Pailles Rompus," "L'Auberge des Ardennes," "Le Collin Maillard," "Onze Jours de Siège," and some operettas, the titles of which escape me. He makes verse with extreme ease; and if ever there was a person who could be called marvelously gifted, it is Jules Verne.
He was a broker in the firm of Eggley, in which he had, and still has, a pecuniary interest, when the success of "Five Weeks in a Balloon" induced him to turn his whole attention to scientific romance.
He brings to his so justly popular works an ardour and faith which greatly contribute to their success. He shrinks from no pains to procure information, and he is careful to fully establish beforehand the facts which he asserts.
He went to America, and returned with the plan of the "Floating City." He accomplished his voyage in ninety-six days, on the "Great Eastern." On reaching New York, he did not saunter about Broadway, looking in shop-windows, but took the railway and went six hundred leagues to see Niagara Falls, of which he cannot yet speak without emotion.
Verne is overwhelmed with requests from dramatists to be permitted to dramatize his works. He is not disinclined to yield to their wishes, and has shown me some very original ideas in regard to scenery, which seem likely to enrich the managers, who may choose to put some hundreds of thousands of francs at the service of his labours, by millions. He has nearly finished, with Cadol, and "Around the World," and proposes to substitute for the ordinary drop-curtain a planisphere, on which a luminous trail shall mark between each act the road gone over by the heroes in their tour across the four quarters of the globe. He is also preparing "The Marvels of Science," a great piece of mechanism, which will borrow its effect, not only from painting, velvet, and the ballet, but from the dynamic agents of physics, chemistry, and mechanics. But I must stop. I might write a volume about this eloquent, witty, affable, and sympathetic man, whose biography may, however, be included in these words: "A Breton, a Catholic, and a sailor."