by Verne, Jules, 1828-1905
Available in 101 free installments
Owner:
Verne studied law, and became a barrister. Then, under the auspices of Captain Darpentlgny, 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 Theatre Lyrique, under the direction of the Sevestes and Rety. Among them were '' Les Failles Rompus," " L'Auberge des Ardennes," '' Le Colin Mail-lard," " Onze Jours de Siege," and some operettas, the titles of which escape me. He makes verses with extreme ease ; and if ever there was a person who could be called marvellously gifted, it is Jules Verne.
He was a broker in the firm of Eggley, in Avhich 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
INTRODUCTION.
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 }'et speak without emotion. Verne is overwhelmed with requests from dramatists to be permitted to dramatize his works. He is not disinclined to }'ield 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, Avith Cadol_, the " 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."
Adrien Marx.
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS.
CHAPTER I.
IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG AND PASSEPARTOUT ACCEPT EACH OTHER, THE ONE AS MASTER, THE OTHER AS
MAN.
Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world. People said that he resembled Byron,?at least that his head was Byronic ; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old. Certainly an Englishman it was more doubtful whether
B
AROUND Till': WORLD IX KIC;ilTV DAYS.
Philcas Foctg: was a Londoner. He was never seen on
(DO
'Change, nor at the Bank, nor in the counting-rooms of the *' City ;" no ships ever came into London docks of which he was the owner ; he had no public employment; he had never been entered at any of the Inns of Court, either at the Temple, or Lincoln's Lm, or Gray's Lm ; nor had his voice ever resounded in the Court of Chancery, or in the Exchequer, or the Queen's Bench, or the Ecclesiastical Courts. He certainly was not a manufacturer ; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known to take part in the sage deliberations of the Royal Institution or the London Institution, the Artisan's Association or the Institution of Arts and Sciences. He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital, from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, founded mainly for the purpose of abolishing pernicious insects.
Phileas Foo-o; was a member of the Reform, and that
OO '
was all.
The way in which he got admission to this exclusive club was simple enough.
He was recommended by the Barings, with whom he had an open credit. His checks were regularly paid at sight from his account current, which was always flush.
