WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.540 So if we were to draw up a list of the most influential 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:06.660 authors of the last two centuries, Jules Verne 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:08.500 would have to be right near the top. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:08.779 --> 00:00:11.099 You can almost picture him there, probably carrying 00:00:11.099 --> 00:00:13.740 a giant file of meticulously researched notes, 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:16.059 maybe standing next to a model of the Nautilus. 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.239 That's the image, isn't it? And we all know the 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:21.320 titles. 20 ,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Journeying 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:23.280 to the Center of the Earth, Around the World 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:26.339 in 80 Days. I mean, he basically defined adventure 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:29.559 and the future for generations. And that reach 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:32.560 is, I mean, it's statistically undeniable. The 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.659 sheer global scale of his influence is just staggering. 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:38.259 How staggering are we talking? Well, since 1979, 00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:41.119 Jules Verne has been the second most translated 00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:43.539 author in the entire world. Second. Who's first? 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:46.899 Agatha Christie. So he's ranking just below her, 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.659 but pulling ahead of William Shakespeare. Wow. 00:00:50.189 --> 00:00:52.530 Ahead of Shakespeare. And just in the 2010s, 00:00:52.530 --> 00:00:54.810 he was the most translated French author, period. 00:00:55.090 --> 00:00:58.210 That's a legacy that's just truly universal. 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:02.170 A universal legacy. But one that's, and this 00:01:02.170 --> 00:01:04.870 is the fascinating part, built on a surprisingly 00:01:04.870 --> 00:01:08.709 fragile foundation. And often based on a pretty 00:01:08.709 --> 00:01:10.870 profound misunderstanding. Yes. And that's really 00:01:10.870 --> 00:01:13.560 the core conflict we're here to... unpack. Because 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:15.439 despite all that incredible success and influence, 00:01:15.659 --> 00:01:18.879 you find the man himself late in life stating 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:20.900 that the great regret of his life was that he'd 00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:23.200 never taken any place in French literature. That 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.760 one statement just fundamentally shifts the lens, 00:01:25.959 --> 00:01:28.260 doesn't it? It forces you to reevaluate everything. 00:01:28.780 --> 00:01:31.480 So our mission today is really to move beyond 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:33.780 that simplistic label he always gets, you know, 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:36.299 the father of science fiction. We need to see 00:01:36.299 --> 00:01:38.739 Verne as a much more complex literary artist. 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:41.340 And a passionate man, too. Yeah. Marked by these 00:01:41.340 --> 00:01:44.519 really intense personal conflicts early on. Absolutely. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:47.019 And above all, a writer whose career was indelibly 00:01:47.019 --> 00:01:49.280 shaped, and you can argue in many ways artistically 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.340 compromised, by the commercial demands of his... 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.459 very powerful publisher, Pierre Jules Hetzel. 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:57.599 So for this, we've used an extensive biographical 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:01.260 and critical review. It really digs into his 00:02:01.260 --> 00:02:04.420 maritime origins, the surprising depth of his 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:08.319 research process, and critically, this tale of 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:10.460 two reputations. The one he earned in France. 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.020 And the damaged sort of watered down version 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:15.120 that was distributed across the entire English 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:17.770 speaking world. So how could an author whose 00:02:17.770 --> 00:02:20.889 work defined exploration and technology be so 00:02:20.889 --> 00:02:24.849 consistently edited, simplified, and even dismissed 00:02:24.849 --> 00:02:27.449 in one half of the world? While at the same time, 00:02:27.469 --> 00:02:30.250 in his home country, he's being fought over as 00:02:30.250 --> 00:02:32.750 a literary giant worthy of university study. 00:02:32.949 --> 00:02:34.750 That's the question. So we're going to dive deep 00:02:34.750 --> 00:02:37.189 into those sources and try to find the real man, 00:02:37.370 --> 00:02:39.849 the complex artist, behind the marvelous machine. 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:42.449 Okay, let's unpack this. Where do we begin? We 00:02:42.449 --> 00:02:45.050 have to start... like all good adventure stories 00:02:45.050 --> 00:02:48.509 should, right at the water's edge. Nantes, Brittany, 00:02:48.710 --> 00:02:51.770 and 1828. You just can't understand why Verne 00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:53.409 wrote so much about the sea until you understand 00:02:53.409 --> 00:02:55.530 where he was born. It's everything. He literally 00:02:55.530 --> 00:02:58.050 came into the world on Il Fado, which at the 00:02:58.050 --> 00:03:00.069 time was an artificial island sitting right in 00:03:00.069 --> 00:03:02.210 the middle of the Loire River. Right, so that 00:03:02.210 --> 00:03:04.990 geography is absolutely critical. The Loire was 00:03:04.990 --> 00:03:08.270 this huge artery of commerce flowing directly 00:03:08.270 --> 00:03:10.810 out into the Atlantic. So his childhood view 00:03:10.810 --> 00:03:13.930 wasn't of... you know, Parisian salons or quiet 00:03:13.930 --> 00:03:17.689 fields. No, it was mass rigging and these huge 00:03:17.689 --> 00:03:20.330 merchant vessels arriving from all these faraway 00:03:20.330 --> 00:03:23.289 ports. His family life just reinforced this. 00:03:23.569 --> 00:03:26.789 In what way? Well, his father, Pierre Verne, 00:03:26.870 --> 00:03:41.099 was a respected... So that family tension was 00:03:41.099 --> 00:03:42.919 baked in right from the very start. It really 00:03:42.919 --> 00:03:45.439 was. You've got law and respectable society on 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:48.039 one side, and then the unpredictable but fascinating 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:50.280 life of the sea on the other. And Verne himself 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:53.479 recalled having a deep fascination with the Loire 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:55.759 and just the constant traffic of the merchant 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.580 vessels. It was his whole world. Concernation 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:00.580 wasn't just some abstract thing, was it? It was 00:04:00.580 --> 00:04:02.539 personal. It was very personal. He spent his 00:04:02.539 --> 00:04:04.620 vacations at a place called Brains, staying with 00:04:04.620 --> 00:04:07.000 his uncle, Prudent a lot. Uncle Prudent. And 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.240 Prudent wasn't just some former ship owner. The 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:11.379 source confirms he was a retired mariner who 00:04:11.379 --> 00:04:13.960 had actually sailed around the world. Imagine 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.399 that. Right. Imagine growing up in 19th century 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:18.540 France with a great uncle who could tell you 00:04:18.540 --> 00:04:21.639 stories about the entire globe. It provided not 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:24.579 just inspiration, but an early real life model 00:04:24.579 --> 00:04:27.519 for global exploration. So that real world background 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:30.399 gave him the setting. But the theme that really 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:33.300 defined his work, this idea of escape and survival, 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:36.980 the Robinsonod. that was planted by his teacher 00:04:36.980 --> 00:04:39.740 at six years old yeah at six years old it's a 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:43.240 fascinating psychological detail it is in 1834 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:45.740 jules was sent to a boarding school where the 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:48.839 teacher was a woman named madame sambin her husband 00:04:48.839 --> 00:04:51.819 was a naval captain who had been missing presumed 00:04:51.819 --> 00:04:54.620 lost at sea for decades that's incredibly tragic 00:04:54.620 --> 00:04:57.199 but instead of mourning she would tell the children 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.129 that her husband was merely a castaway that he 00:05:00.129 --> 00:05:03.290 would one day return ingeniously surviving, just 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:05.870 like Daniel Defoe's character, Robinson Crusoe. 00:05:05.990 --> 00:05:09.129 Wow. That is such a powerful image to plant in 00:05:09.129 --> 00:05:12.189 a child's mind. Isn't it? It turns loss into 00:05:12.189 --> 00:05:15.149 promise and absence into a potential adventure. 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:18.439 It's like a blueprint for heroism through isolation. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.339 Exactly. And that blueprint stayed with him for 00:05:21.339 --> 00:05:23.680 his entire life. It became a major theme. He 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:25.879 kept coming back to it. He repeatedly explored 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:28.240 this idea of characters being marooned and then 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:30.500 forced to rebuild civilization through sheer 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:33.180 scientific ingenuity. You see it most clearly 00:05:33.180 --> 00:05:36.660 in The Mysterious Island in 1874, where the protagonists 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:39.920 literally transform an island into this technological 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:43.220 paradise. Right, but also in The School for Robinsons 00:05:43.220 --> 00:05:46.079 in 1882, and even really late in his career with 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.579 The Castaways of the Flag in 1900. It's this 00:05:48.579 --> 00:05:51.779 permanent narrative fixation, a kind of psychological 00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:54.680 safe harbor for him. Okay, so speaking of formative 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:57.199 childhood events, we have to tackle the really 00:05:57.199 --> 00:05:59.480 famous story that almost every English biography 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:03.579 includes. The Coralie legend. Ah, yes. Can you 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:05.600 tell us the actual story versus the myth that's 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:07.939 been built up around it? Of course. The famous 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:10.420 story, the one everyone knows, is that an 11 00:06:10.420 --> 00:06:12.740 -year -old Jules, desperate to win a coral necklace 00:06:12.740 --> 00:06:15.379 for his cousin Caroline, snuck aboard the three 00:06:15.379 --> 00:06:18.600 -mast ship Coralie as a cabin boy. His plan being 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.660 to sail to the Indies to earn his fortune. Right. 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:24.240 And his father supposedly caught him at the very 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:26.740 last minute and forced him to promise that he 00:06:26.740 --> 00:06:29.180 would only travel in his imagination from then 00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:31.470 on. I have to admit, I always loved that anecdote. 00:06:31.550 --> 00:06:34.310 It just perfectly sets up the armchair adventurer 00:06:34.310 --> 00:06:37.790 narrative. But the source confirms it's largely 00:06:37.790 --> 00:06:40.329 fictionalized, isn't it? It's highly exaggerated. 00:06:40.569 --> 00:06:43.589 It was popularized by his first biographer, who 00:06:43.589 --> 00:06:46.149 was actually his niece, Marguerite Allatelafieu, 00:06:46.290 --> 00:06:49.149 and she likely did it to create a more dramatic, 00:06:49.370 --> 00:06:52.490 more marketable origin story. So there was no 00:06:52.490 --> 00:06:54.639 grand escape. Well, there might have been a minor 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:57.120 real incident where he tried to run away, but 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:59.660 the sweeping cinematic escape on the Coralie 00:06:59.660 --> 00:07:02.839 to retrieve a necklace, that's basically a piece 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:04.420 of historical fiction. Wait, so the legendary 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:07.639 promise, travel only in his imagination, was 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:09.819 essentially manufactured by his own niece? It 00:07:09.819 --> 00:07:12.899 seems so. That's an incredible betrayal of the 00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:15.980 historical record. But at the same time, it's 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.879 the perfect, almost prophetic summary of his 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:21.230 later life. It is, and it serves as a really 00:07:21.230 --> 00:07:23.910 powerful illustration of how easily myth can 00:07:23.910 --> 00:07:26.290 replace reality, especially when it provides 00:07:26.290 --> 00:07:28.870 such a clean narrative arc. So the truth is that 00:07:28.870 --> 00:07:30.810 his imagination was spurred by something much 00:07:30.810 --> 00:07:34.509 more mundane. By rejection and duty, not a foiled 00:07:34.509 --> 00:07:37.779 sea voyage. And duty meant law. His father, Pierre 00:07:37.779 --> 00:07:40.560 Verne, fully expected Jules as the firstborn 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:43.819 son to inherit the established, respectable family 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:47.439 law practice in Nantes. So in 1847, Jules was 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:51.019 sent off to Paris for law school. He was technically 00:07:51.019 --> 00:07:54.040 fulfilling his filial duty, but his passion was 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:55.980 completely elsewhere. He just threw himself into 00:07:55.980 --> 00:07:58.680 the Parisian literary world. He did. He was heavily 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:00.839 influenced by Victor Hugo's romantic movement 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:04.290 and started writing serious theater. This is 00:08:04.290 --> 00:08:06.850 where he befriends Alexandre Dumas, Phil's the 00:08:06.850 --> 00:08:09.029 son of the famous novelist. So he's trying to 00:08:09.029 --> 00:08:10.990 be a serious man of letters. He's sharing a flat 00:08:10.990 --> 00:08:13.389 with the composer Aristide Dignard, just soaking 00:08:13.389 --> 00:08:15.829 up that whole artistic scene. He did manage to 00:08:15.829 --> 00:08:18.350 pass his law exams, earning his license on draw 00:08:18.350 --> 00:08:21.990 in January 1851. But by then, his heart belonged 00:08:21.990 --> 00:08:24.850 entirely to the stage and the page. And this 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:27.449 conflict with his father came to an inevitable 00:08:27.449 --> 00:08:31.810 climax in January 1852. His father issued the 00:08:31.810 --> 00:08:34.789 ultimate ultimatum. return to Nantes immediately 00:08:34.789 --> 00:08:37.610 and take over the established practice or be 00:08:37.610 --> 00:08:40.190 cut off financially. That's the moment of decision 00:08:40.190 --> 00:08:43.009 that determined his entire career. And he refused. 00:08:43.350 --> 00:08:46.610 The source gives us his definitive, really courageous 00:08:46.610 --> 00:08:55.289 reply. He wrote, It was a complete rejection 00:08:55.289 --> 00:08:58.110 of his father's expectations and that whole secure 00:08:58.110 --> 00:09:00.490 bourgeois life that was waiting for him in Nantes. 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:03.059 So his professional life was determined by this 00:09:03.059 --> 00:09:05.840 profound break with his father's world. But his 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:08.340 romantic life was similarly defined by an earlier 00:09:08.340 --> 00:09:10.659 and you could argue equally painful rejection. 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:13.559 This is the Hermione complex. Exactly. A wound 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:15.799 that really marked his literary output forever. 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.159 So tell us about the Hermione complex. It sounds 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:20.159 like something that reaches far deeper than just 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:23.399 a simple heartbreak. It does. While he was studying 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:26.059 in Paris, Verne met a woman named Rose Harmony 00:09:26.059 --> 00:09:30.379 Arnaud Grostier back in Nantes in 1848. And he 00:09:30.379 --> 00:09:33.840 fell just intensely and completely in love with 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:36.519 her. He was writing her poetry. Dozens of romantic 00:09:36.519 --> 00:09:39.399 poems. For him, this was the central defining 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:42.480 romance of his young life. But her parents objected, 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:44.740 I assume, just as his father would have objected 00:09:44.740 --> 00:09:47.700 to his literary ambitions. Precisely. Hermione's 00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:49.559 parents rejected Verne as a potential husband 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:52.659 because he was just a law student with this uncertain... 00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:55.240 maybe even scandalous ambition of becoming a 00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:57.360 writer. Not a good prospect. Not at all. So they 00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.600 quickly married her off instead to a man named 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:02.100 Armand Therrien Delahaye, who was a very rich 00:10:02.100 --> 00:10:05.240 landowner. So the woman he loved was taken from 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:07.580 him not because she didn't love him back, but 00:10:07.580 --> 00:10:10.220 because of his uncertain financial and social 00:10:10.220 --> 00:10:12.679 status. That must have been a permanent wound. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:15.139 It would have just confirmed his suspicion that 00:10:15.139 --> 00:10:18.779 non -dissociety prioritized wealth over passion 00:10:18.779 --> 00:10:22.399 or artistic merit. It absolutely was. The scholar 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:24.679 Christian Schelleberg actually coined the term 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:28.080 Hermione complex to describe the direct psychological 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:31.220 fallout, which you can see across Verne's entire 00:10:31.220 --> 00:10:34.350 bibliography. So this complex refers to a recurring 00:10:34.350 --> 00:10:37.389 literary trope in his work. Yes, the trope of 00:10:37.389 --> 00:10:39.450 the young, innocent woman married against her 00:10:39.450 --> 00:10:42.809 will, often to an older, richer or socially superior 00:10:42.809 --> 00:10:45.870 man, which then results in tragedy, emotional 00:10:45.870 --> 00:10:49.009 isolation or just desperation. Can you give us 00:10:49.009 --> 00:10:50.570 some examples of how this psychological wound 00:10:50.570 --> 00:10:53.059 showed up in his novels? Sure. Look at Gironde 00:10:53.059 --> 00:10:56.340 in his early novella Master Zacharias from 1854. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:59.700 She's engaged to a wealthy but heartless suitor 00:10:59.700 --> 00:11:02.840 and faces tragedy. Or you could consider Sava 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:05.679 in Matthias Sandor from 1885. What happens to 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:07.750 her? Her father's enemy arranges her marriage 00:11:07.750 --> 00:11:10.549 purely for financial gain. And then famously, 00:11:10.889 --> 00:11:14.590 there's Ellen in a floating city from 1871 who 00:11:14.590 --> 00:11:16.909 is trapped in a terrible marriage and is desperately 00:11:16.909 --> 00:11:19.210 seeking escape. So these characters, trapped 00:11:19.210 --> 00:11:21.870 by financial and societal constraints, are just 00:11:21.870 --> 00:11:23.850 direct projections of his painful experience. 00:11:24.190 --> 00:11:26.210 And his grudge against the rigid social structure 00:11:26.210 --> 00:11:28.850 that denied him his love. It's a really powerful 00:11:28.850 --> 00:11:31.590 realization. The adventure writer, the supposed 00:11:31.590 --> 00:11:34.830 profit of technology, was actually driven not 00:11:34.830 --> 00:11:37.629 by the purity of science, but by this profound 00:11:37.629 --> 00:11:41.049 emotional pain and the deep desire to see justice 00:11:41.049 --> 00:11:43.750 done for the wronged and the displaced. Absolutely. 00:11:43.970 --> 00:11:45.950 And you have to remember, the early life challenges 00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:48.190 weren't just romantic and professional. They 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:49.909 were also physical. That's right. The sources 00:11:49.909 --> 00:11:51.950 detail his health issues. He suffered from these 00:11:51.950 --> 00:11:55.269 recurring, intense stomach cramps. What modern 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:57.629 medical scholars now hypothesize was probably 00:11:57.629 --> 00:12:01.309 colitis. And he also endured four distinct attacks 00:12:01.309 --> 00:12:03.809 of facial paralysis. Which must have been terrifying. 00:12:04.330 --> 00:12:06.529 He feared it was a nervous disorder that was 00:12:06.529 --> 00:12:09.169 leading to madness, though it was likely caused 00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:12.070 by a middle ear inflammation. But living with 00:12:12.070 --> 00:12:14.710 those chronic unexplained physical ailments must 00:12:14.710 --> 00:12:17.629 have added another layer of anxiety to his already 00:12:17.629 --> 00:12:19.850 precarious existence as a struggling writer. 00:12:20.129 --> 00:12:22.090 It certainly seemed to contribute to a sense 00:12:22.090 --> 00:12:24.590 of internal conflict. His physical struggles 00:12:24.590 --> 00:12:27.299 also paralleled his political ones. Yes. When 00:12:27.299 --> 00:12:29.899 he was required to enlist in the military in 00:12:29.899 --> 00:12:34.100 1851, he expressed these strong, articulate anti 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:36.860 -war sentiments. He wrote that to perform military 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:40.120 duties, you have to abandon all dignity. And 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:42.720 that principled anti -militarism remained a constant 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:45.000 theme in his work, didn't it? It did, sometimes 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:47.259 even leading to conflict with his more conservative 00:12:47.259 --> 00:12:50.240 father. So he has rejected the law. He suffered 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:53.039 this profound romantic wound. And he's trying 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:55.419 to survive as a writer in Paris with no family 00:12:55.419 --> 00:12:58.450 support. How does he bridge that gap between 00:12:58.450 --> 00:13:01.769 his literary aspirations and the simple need 00:13:01.769 --> 00:13:04.639 for a stable income? He finds a solution through 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.960 marriage and finance. He marries Honorine and 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:10.200 Hebe Moral in 1857, who was a widow and already 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:12.279 had two children, which offered him some stability. 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:14.460 And then critically, he gets a job. He does. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:16.980 To secure the kind of steady income that would 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:19.120 allow him to write freely, he finally leaves 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.899 the unstable world of theater and takes a full 00:13:21.899 --> 00:13:24.440 -time job as an agent de change, which is essentially 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:27.539 a stockbroker on the Paris Bourse. A stockbroker. 00:13:27.580 --> 00:13:29.539 That seems like the ultimate anti -Vern job. 00:13:29.899 --> 00:13:32.759 It does, doesn't it? The world of numbers. risk, 00:13:32.919 --> 00:13:35.740 and bourgeois finance, clashing with these dreams 00:13:35.740 --> 00:13:39.019 of global escape. But that tension is key. The 00:13:39.019 --> 00:13:41.620 bourse job was a compromise, a necessary sacrifice. 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:44.799 But this is where the meticulous researcher we 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:47.460 all know truly took shape. Because he had to 00:13:47.460 --> 00:13:50.120 be so disciplined. Incredibly. He had to wake 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:52.799 up extremely early each morning to write before 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.139 the bourse opened. But during his off hours, 00:13:55.220 --> 00:13:58.200 he wasn't socializing. He was just relentlessly 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:01.059 accumulating knowledge. Let's talk about his 00:14:01.059 --> 00:14:03.649 research system. Because this is what separates 00:14:03.649 --> 00:14:06.740 him from most other writers of his time. He effectively 00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:09.639 created his own private library and database. 00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:12.179 He spent vast amounts of time at the Bibliothèque 00:14:12.179 --> 00:14:14.980 Nationale de France taking copious, organized 00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:17.740 notes from every book, newspaper, magazine, or 00:14:17.740 --> 00:14:19.539 scientific report he could get his hands on. 00:14:19.659 --> 00:14:22.220 And maintained this gigantic personal system 00:14:22.220 --> 00:14:24.600 of note cards. Cross -referenced by geography, 00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:27.840 geology, astronomy, technology. He kept his system 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:29.659 for the rest of his life. He was a professional 00:14:29.659 --> 00:14:32.259 writer working in secret, building the factual 00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:34.879 reservoir that would eventually fuel his voyages. 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:38.460 He wasn't inventing. He was curating. Precise. 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:41.000 And this diligence and just the sheer volume 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:44.259 of his notes brings us directly to the single 00:14:44.259 --> 00:14:47.360 most important, and I think you could say fraught, 00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:50.960 collaboration of his entire career. His publisher. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:53.299 The relationship that would make him world famous, 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:57.159 but also change his artistic identity, his partnership 00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:00.240 with peer Jules Hetzel. That meeting in 1862 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:03.629 was a true pivot point in literary history. Verne 00:15:03.629 --> 00:15:05.889 came to Hetzel, who was already one of France's 00:15:05.889 --> 00:15:08.129 most influential publishers. He'd worked with 00:15:08.129 --> 00:15:10.509 literary heavyweights like Victor Hugo, Honoré 00:15:10.509 --> 00:15:13.789 de Balzac, George Sand. Exactly. And Verne presented 00:15:13.789 --> 00:15:16.409 him with a manuscript that was then titled Voyage 00:15:16.409 --> 00:15:18.350 en Ballon. And Hetzel wasn't just looking for 00:15:18.350 --> 00:15:21.950 adventure fiction. He had a very specific, ambitious 00:15:21.950 --> 00:15:26.269 commercial and moral purpose in mind. Absolutely. 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:28.909 Hetzel was just about to launch his high -quality 00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:32.269 family magazine, the magazine Education and Recreation. 00:15:32.649 --> 00:15:35.450 the magazine of education and recreation. And 00:15:35.450 --> 00:15:37.769 this was aimed at a very specific audience. High 00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:41.429 -minded, progressive bourgeois families. It needed 00:15:41.429 --> 00:15:43.409 content that was rigorously entertaining and 00:15:43.409 --> 00:15:45.970 instructive. It was designed to educate French 00:15:45.970 --> 00:15:49.389 youth in geography and modern science while upholding 00:15:49.389 --> 00:15:52.750 very strict moral standards. And Verne's manuscript, 00:15:52.990 --> 00:15:55.789 which later became Five Weeks in a Balloon, fit 00:15:55.789 --> 00:15:58.190 that mandate perfectly. It was scientifically 00:15:58.190 --> 00:16:02.059 researched, exciting, and morally clean. Hetzel 00:16:02.059 --> 00:16:04.139 accepted the novel, but only after requiring 00:16:04.139 --> 00:16:06.899 revisions to make it less dryly scientific. He 00:16:06.899 --> 00:16:09.679 wanted more action. It was published in 1863, 00:16:09.860 --> 00:16:12.419 and it launched Verne's career. But the real 00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:14.740 game changer was the long -term contract Verne 00:16:14.740 --> 00:16:17.059 signed. Yes. Tell us about the specifics of that 00:16:17.059 --> 00:16:19.220 contract, because it gave him financial security, 00:16:19.500 --> 00:16:21.620 but at what cost to his artistic freedom? Well, 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:24.340 Verne agreed to provide three volumes of text 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:27.940 per year for a flat annual fee. Crucially, this 00:16:27.940 --> 00:16:30.659 was a steady salary, not a royalty per book sale. 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:32.620 So he could finally leave the stock market. He 00:16:32.620 --> 00:16:34.279 could leave the insecurity of the bourse and 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:36.799 live solely on his writing. It guaranteed him 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:38.960 an audience and financial freedom, but it also 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:41.620 placed him firmly under Hetzel's editorial control 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:44.659 for decades. And this collaboration quickly turned 00:16:44.659 --> 00:16:47.240 into a literary mandate, officially launching 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:50.700 the series Voyages Extraordinaire, the extraordinary 00:16:50.700 --> 00:16:53.639 voyages with the publication of The Adventures 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:57.120 of Captain Hatteras in 1866. And Hetzel's vision 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:00.429 for this series was, frankly, encyclopedic. He 00:17:00.429 --> 00:17:03.429 explicitly stated this ambitious goal. The series 00:17:03.429 --> 00:17:06.289 was to outline all the geographical, geological, 00:17:06.529 --> 00:17:08.950 physical, and astronomical knowledge amassed 00:17:08.950 --> 00:17:11.849 by modern science. And to recount in an entertaining 00:17:11.849 --> 00:17:14.970 and picturesque format that is his own, the history 00:17:14.970 --> 00:17:17.049 of the universe. I mean, that is almost arrogant 00:17:17.049 --> 00:17:19.430 in its scope, the history of the universe. And 00:17:19.430 --> 00:17:22.410 Verne later confirmed that this ambition to depict 00:17:22.410 --> 00:17:24.529 the entire Earth, and not just the Earth but 00:17:24.529 --> 00:17:27.509 the universe, was his running theme. He recognized 00:17:27.509 --> 00:17:29.670 the ambition, though, noting that to leave a 00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:32.250 completed work behind, one would need to live 00:17:32.250 --> 00:17:34.950 to be at least 100 years old. But here is the 00:17:34.950 --> 00:17:37.910 critical point that mandate demanded optimism, 00:17:38.289 --> 00:17:41.609 educational rigor and commercial viability. And 00:17:41.609 --> 00:17:44.609 that commercial structure led directly to major 00:17:44.609 --> 00:17:48.450 artistic conflicts because Verne's natural inclinations 00:17:48.450 --> 00:17:51.690 were often darker, more pessimistic and politically 00:17:51.690 --> 00:17:54.589 sharper than Hetzel's family audience could bear. 00:17:54.769 --> 00:17:57.049 Let's focus on those three critical moments of 00:17:57.049 --> 00:17:59.029 conflict because they tell us everything about 00:17:59.029 --> 00:18:01.069 the tension between the artist and the publisher. 00:18:01.269 --> 00:18:03.970 First, the editorial interference on Captain 00:18:03.970 --> 00:18:06.069 Hatteras. Right. In the original manuscript, 00:18:06.349 --> 00:18:09.289 Verne wrote a truly tragic, heroic ending for 00:18:09.289 --> 00:18:11.950 Captain Hatteras. He sacrifices himself in the 00:18:11.950 --> 00:18:14.210 Arctic wilderness. And Hetzel wouldn't have it. 00:18:14.309 --> 00:18:17.849 He absolutely refused. He demanded that Verne 00:18:17.849 --> 00:18:20.349 rewrite the climax, insisting that the protagonist 00:18:20.349 --> 00:18:22.890 must survive. So Verne had to change the entire 00:18:22.890 --> 00:18:25.970 artistic trajectory of the novel just to satisfy 00:18:25.970 --> 00:18:28.170 the commercial need for a less depressing ending. 00:18:28.430 --> 00:18:32.440 Yes, Hatteras survived. But he went mad. He was 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:35.039 left babbling incoherently and always pointing 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:37.380 north, forever searching for the pole he found. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:39.819 It was a compromise that allowed for survival 00:18:39.819 --> 00:18:42.539 while retaining a sliver of that tragic weight. 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:45.859 But it was still a major concession to the mandated 00:18:45.859 --> 00:18:48.920 optimism of the voyage's extraordinaires. Okay, 00:18:48.980 --> 00:18:51.079 the second conflict is even more famous because 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:54.420 it involves a book that was almost entirely suppressed, 00:18:54.819 --> 00:18:58.319 Paris, in the 20th century. Vern wrote this manuscript 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:01.579 in 1863, very early in his career, and it was 00:19:01.579 --> 00:19:03.660 a complete departure from the educational adventure 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:06.519 model he was developing. It was a dystopian future, 00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:10.230 a satire set in the year 1960. And in it, he 00:19:10.230 --> 00:19:13.609 envisioned a world dominated by giant glass skyscrapers, 00:19:13.609 --> 00:19:16.529 vast impersonal financial institutions, and a 00:19:16.529 --> 00:19:18.930 complete absence of meaningful art or culture. 00:19:19.109 --> 00:19:21.349 It was a full -throated condemnation of the machine 00:19:21.349 --> 00:19:24.029 age and a highly pessimistic view of technological 00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:26.650 progress, a view that was completely contradictory 00:19:26.650 --> 00:19:28.609 to the image Hetzel was trying to cultivate for 00:19:28.609 --> 00:19:30.930 him. So Hetzel rejected the manuscript outright. 00:19:31.210 --> 00:19:33.789 He found it too subversive and far too negative 00:19:33.789 --> 00:19:36.170 for a family magazine focused on education and 00:19:36.170 --> 00:19:38.950 recreation. He even reportedly advised Verne. 00:19:39.029 --> 00:19:41.190 Stick to your wonderful geographical stories. 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:43.190 You are not ready for this subject. And that 00:19:43.190 --> 00:19:45.710 manuscript was literally lost to history until 00:19:45.710 --> 00:19:48.509 it was published posthumously in 1994. And it 00:19:48.509 --> 00:19:51.410 changed scholarly perception overnight. It proved 00:19:51.410 --> 00:19:53.750 that Verne was grappling with genuinely dark. 00:19:54.109 --> 00:19:57.470 complex and literary ideas about modernity, but 00:19:57.470 --> 00:19:59.650 he was forced to shelve them to keep his publishing 00:19:59.650 --> 00:20:02.369 contract. It's a staggering price to pay for 00:20:02.369 --> 00:20:05.210 security. It is. But the third and perhaps most 00:20:05.210 --> 00:20:08.109 emotionally taxing conflict was the battle over 00:20:08.109 --> 00:20:11.009 Captain Nemo in 20 ,000 Leagues Under the Seas 00:20:11.009 --> 00:20:15.220 in 1869. Nemo is one of literature's most iconic 00:20:15.220 --> 00:20:18.440 antiheroes, a man driven by intellectual brilliance 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:21.660 and just this profound vengeance. But Vern's 00:20:21.660 --> 00:20:23.839 original conception was deeply political and 00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:26.819 very specific. Nemo was a Polish scientist whose 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:28.940 family was brutally murdered by Russian forces 00:20:28.940 --> 00:20:32.539 during the suppression of the 1863 -1864 January 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:35.599 uprising in Poland. So his vengeance was directed 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:38.130 specifically against the Russian Empire. A deeply 00:20:38.130 --> 00:20:41.690 political, anti -colonial figure, a rebel against 00:20:41.690 --> 00:20:44.670 European power structures. But as you can guess, 00:20:44.769 --> 00:20:47.730 Russia was a crucial, lucrative market for Hetzel's 00:20:47.730 --> 00:20:49.430 books. Right. He couldn't afford to alienate 00:20:49.430 --> 00:20:52.710 them. Exactly. Hetzel feared alienating the powerful 00:20:52.710 --> 00:20:55.809 Russian market. The publisher insisted that Nemo's 00:20:55.809 --> 00:20:58.809 enemy be generalized or redirected. And Verne 00:20:58.809 --> 00:21:00.930 fought this vehemently, seeing it as an artistic 00:21:00.930 --> 00:21:03.069 and moral betrayal of his character's motivation. 00:21:03.509 --> 00:21:05.529 So what was the compromise they finally reached? 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.279 Verne finally compromised by making Nemo's past 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:11.240 mysterious. He redirected his vengeance to be 00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:13.660 vaguely against the oppressors of the world and 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:16.579 specifically introduced a subplot that tied Nemo 00:21:16.579 --> 00:21:18.579 to the fight against the slave trade. So while 00:21:18.579 --> 00:21:20.599 the final work is still incredibly powerful, 00:21:20.759 --> 00:21:24.430 that profound... personal anti -colonial rage 00:21:24.430 --> 00:21:27.769 that originally fueled Nemo was diluted. It was. 00:21:27.950 --> 00:21:30.329 And this entire pattern, the survival of Hatteras, 00:21:30.410 --> 00:21:32.170 the suppression of Paris in the 20th century, 00:21:32.390 --> 00:21:35.130 the neutering of Nemo's politics, it demonstrates 00:21:35.130 --> 00:21:37.130 how the security of the Hetzel contract came 00:21:37.130 --> 00:21:39.829 at the cost of Verne's freedom to be a darker, 00:21:39.910 --> 00:21:42.369 more critical, and fundamentally more literary 00:21:42.369 --> 00:21:46.109 artist. And yet, despite those creative compromises, 00:21:46.250 --> 00:21:49.410 the collaboration led to massive financial success. 00:21:50.220 --> 00:21:53.000 It enabled Verne to achieve the kind of bourgeois 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:56.279 respectability he had once been denied. The real 00:21:56.279 --> 00:21:58.220 wealth, though, didn't just come from book sales, 00:21:58.500 --> 00:22:00.960 which were substantial. It came largely from 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:03.759 the enormously successful stage adaptations of 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:06.920 his works. Around the World in 80 Days in 1874 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:10.319 and Michael Strogoff in 1876 were just smash 00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:13.440 hits on the Parisian stage. They became cultural 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:16.359 phenomena that cemented his fame and earned him 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:18.460 a substantial income from theatrical rights. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:21.339 And that financial freedom allowed him to indulge 00:22:21.339 --> 00:22:24.000 his lifelong love of the sea, transforming his 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:26.460 life from an armchair researcher into a genuine, 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:28.819 though I'd say cautious, traveler. He purchased 00:22:28.819 --> 00:22:31.420 three successive boats, all named Somerset. And 00:22:31.420 --> 00:22:33.759 actually sailed them around Europe. It's important 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:35.660 to note, though, that these voyages were not 00:22:35.660 --> 00:22:38.559 just vacations. They were extended research trips. 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:42.200 Oh, absolutely. He meticulously documented the 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:44.779 coastlines, the weather, the ports he visited, 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:47.400 and was continually feeding his notecard system 00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:50.539 with fresh, firsthand data. He used these trips 00:22:50.539 --> 00:22:53.220 to gather the precise details that gave his novels 00:22:53.220 --> 00:22:55.980 their authenticity. Personal tragedy did strike, 00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:59.019 however, in 1886. A very difficult year for him. 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:02.039 On March 9th, Verne was shot twice in the leg 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:04.420 by his nephew Gaston, who was suffering from 00:23:04.420 --> 00:23:06.500 mental illness and spent the rest of his life 00:23:06.500 --> 00:23:08.759 in an asylum. And the bullet caused... a permanent 00:23:08.759 --> 00:23:11.240 limp, a physical reminder of the dark side of 00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:14.279 his family life. And in that same year, 1886, 00:23:14.539 --> 00:23:17.200 Hetzel died. It's a remarkable confluence of 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:19.740 events. It is. And after the death of his demanding, 00:23:19.819 --> 00:23:21.960 commercially -focused publisher, and after his 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:24.960 own personal trauma, scholars note that Verne's 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:27.980 works became noticeably darker and more cynical. 00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:31.079 He shifted his focus somewhat, moving more fully 00:23:31.079 --> 00:23:33.519 into public life. He was elected town councillor 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.640 of Amiens in 1888. And he served there for 15 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:38.940 years, championing public libraries and civic 00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:42.779 improvements. He died on March 24, 1905, in Amiens, 00:23:42.980 --> 00:23:45.579 suffering from chronic diabetes. and complications 00:23:45.579 --> 00:23:49.200 from a stroke. His son, Michel Verne, then took 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:51.940 over the management of his literary estate, overseeing 00:23:51.940 --> 00:23:54.480 the publication of the final manuscripts. And 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:56.779 here is the kicker that adds yet another layer 00:23:56.779 --> 00:23:59.599 of editorial complexity and revisionism to his 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:02.160 story. Go on. It was later discovered that Michel 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:05.440 Verne had made extensive changes, often rewriting 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:08.539 his father's final, darker works, including The 00:24:08.539 --> 00:24:10.220 Lighthouse at the End of the World and The Golden 00:24:10.220 --> 00:24:13.019 Volcano, before they were published in the Voyage's 00:24:13.019 --> 00:24:15.779 Extraordinaire series. So even after his death... 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:18.599 The real Verne was being masked by editorial 00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:21.099 interference, trying to maintain that established 00:24:21.099 --> 00:24:23.559 tone of optimism and adventure that Hetzel had 00:24:23.559 --> 00:24:26.160 defined. Exactly. The original unedited versions 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:28.480 of these later works only finally saw publication 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:30.720 toward the end of the 20th century, revealing 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:33.680 the extent of the tragedy. So the man we thought 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:36.039 we knew was a diligent researcher constantly 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:38.940 battling commercial mandates, a political voice 00:24:38.940 --> 00:24:41.839 silenced by market fears, and an author edited 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:44.869 by both his publisher and his own son. And that 00:24:44.869 --> 00:24:47.609 context fundamentally changes how we view the 00:24:47.609 --> 00:24:50.769 next crucial section, the powerful myth that 00:24:50.769 --> 00:24:53.390 he was primarily a technological prophet. It 00:24:53.390 --> 00:24:55.730 is the single most common label attached to him, 00:24:55.789 --> 00:24:58.869 the father of science fiction. Yet your source 00:24:58.869 --> 00:25:01.730 material shows that Verne himself vehemently 00:25:01.730 --> 00:25:04.150 rejected this title and the whole notion that 00:25:04.150 --> 00:25:06.549 he was predicting the future. He flatly stated, 00:25:06.650 --> 00:25:09.109 I have invented nothing. He saw himself not as 00:25:09.109 --> 00:25:12.250 a technician or futurist, but as a literary artist. 00:25:12.890 --> 00:25:15.390 So his actual goal was not to forecast technology. 00:25:15.690 --> 00:25:18.750 No, it was to depict the earth and, vitally, 00:25:18.849 --> 00:25:21.789 to achieve a very high ideal of beauty of style. 00:25:22.089 --> 00:25:25.029 He wanted to be judged alongside Balzac and Hugo, 00:25:25.269 --> 00:25:28.630 not simply as a novelty writer of gadgets. This 00:25:28.630 --> 00:25:30.670 is a crucial distinction that most English -speaking 00:25:30.670 --> 00:25:33.529 readers entirely miss. If he wasn't trying to 00:25:33.529 --> 00:25:35.390 invent, then what was the role of science and 00:25:35.390 --> 00:25:38.230 technology in his books? For Verne, science was 00:25:38.230 --> 00:25:40.269 simply a vehicle. It was a narrative necessity, 00:25:40.589 --> 00:25:42.509 not the destination or the core intellectual 00:25:42.509 --> 00:25:45.069 focus of the story. He explained this himself 00:25:45.069 --> 00:25:47.190 using the perfect example of his first novel, 00:25:47.329 --> 00:25:49.650 Five Weeks in a Balloon. Right. He clarified 00:25:49.650 --> 00:25:52.470 that he wrote the book not as a story about ballooning, 00:25:52.470 --> 00:25:55.670 but as a story about Africa. Precisely. His goal 00:25:55.670 --> 00:25:58.990 was to provide a romantic, factual, and geographical 00:25:58.990 --> 00:26:01.869 description of the African continent at a time 00:26:01.869 --> 00:26:04.329 when much of it was still being charted. But, 00:26:04.390 --> 00:26:07.170 as he said, there was no means of taking my travelers 00:26:07.170 --> 00:26:10.430 through Africa otherwise than in a balloon. And 00:26:10.430 --> 00:26:12.670 that is why a balloon is introduced. He even 00:26:12.670 --> 00:26:14.890 admitted he had no faith in the possibility of 00:26:14.890 --> 00:26:17.109 ever steering balloons at the time he wrote the 00:26:17.109 --> 00:26:19.710 novel. He did. That shifts the paradigm entirely. 00:26:19.990 --> 00:26:22.809 The submarine, the moon cannon, the drilling 00:26:22.809 --> 00:26:25.849 apparatus, they are narrative solutions. They're 00:26:25.849 --> 00:26:27.950 structural devices that allow his characters 00:26:27.950 --> 00:26:31.309 to reach the remote research corners of the world 00:26:31.309 --> 00:26:33.900 he wanted to describe. The science merely serves 00:26:33.900 --> 00:26:36.019 the geography and the psychological adventure. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:39.339 And yet the myth persists that he was this genius 00:26:39.339 --> 00:26:41.839 prophet who foresaw everything from the lunar 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:44.460 module to the electric submarine. And the scholarly 00:26:44.460 --> 00:26:47.279 consensus suggests this enduring claim is heavily 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.980 exaggerated, driven by something less tangible 00:26:49.980 --> 00:26:52.319 than actual truth. What's the evidence for that 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:55.339 exaggeration? I found Theodore L. Thomas's observation 00:26:55.339 --> 00:26:59.549 from 1961. Really fascinating here. Thomas observed 00:26:59.549 --> 00:27:02.589 that Verne's profound storytelling skill, coupled 00:27:02.589 --> 00:27:05.029 with readers' faulty memories of books they often 00:27:05.029 --> 00:27:07.589 first encountered as children, causes people 00:27:07.589 --> 00:27:09.829 to remember things from it that are not there. 00:27:10.130 --> 00:27:13.009 So we fill in the blanks. We do. The impression 00:27:13.009 --> 00:27:15.450 of valid scientific prediction, Thomas notes, 00:27:15.630 --> 00:27:18.809 seems to grow as the years roll by. That is a 00:27:18.809 --> 00:27:21.109 startling thought. The prophecy isn't inherent 00:27:21.109 --> 00:27:23.950 in the text. It's manufactured by our own nostalgia 00:27:23.950 --> 00:27:27.150 and post hoc rationalization. We see the invention 00:27:27.150 --> 00:27:29.609 today, and we just assume Vern must have written 00:27:29.609 --> 00:27:32.470 it exactly as it is now. A perfect example is 00:27:32.470 --> 00:27:35.009 From the Earth to the Moon. Readers remember 00:27:35.009 --> 00:27:37.529 the precise calculations in the Florida launch 00:27:37.529 --> 00:27:40.630 site. But what they forget is that Vern's capsule 00:27:40.630 --> 00:27:42.809 was soft -cushioned and launched from a giant 00:27:42.809 --> 00:27:45.990 cannon, an idea that scientifically would have 00:27:45.990 --> 00:27:48.670 instantly killed the occupants due to the G -forces. 00:27:48.809 --> 00:27:50.970 So it's the accurate geographical research that 00:27:50.970 --> 00:27:53.470 sticks in our minds while the impossible mechanics 00:27:53.470 --> 00:27:56.309 are forgotten. So if the accuracy wasn't prophecy, 00:27:56.630 --> 00:27:59.430 how do we explain his indisputable command of 00:27:59.430 --> 00:28:02.470 detail regarding, say, the pressure resistance 00:28:02.470 --> 00:28:05.250 of a submarine hull, or the dimensions required 00:28:05.250 --> 00:28:08.369 for a long -distance cannon? Verne himself always 00:28:08.369 --> 00:28:10.589 attributed any connection between scientific 00:28:10.589 --> 00:28:13.650 developments and his work to mere coincidence. 00:28:14.519 --> 00:28:17.220 He didn't have a crystal ball. He had that meticulously 00:28:17.220 --> 00:28:19.819 organized filing cabinet filled with notes. It 00:28:19.819 --> 00:28:21.980 all comes back to the research. It does. His 00:28:21.980 --> 00:28:24.779 accuracy was the direct result of his relentless, 00:28:24.920 --> 00:28:28.140 almost manic research. He said he always took 00:28:28.140 --> 00:28:30.039 numerous notes out of every book, newspaper, 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:32.640 magazine, or scientific report that I came across. 00:28:33.019 --> 00:28:35.619 He was extrapolating based on the best current 00:28:35.619 --> 00:28:38.559 data available, not inventing new laws of physics. 00:28:39.150 --> 00:28:41.970 That makes him less of a futuristic prophet and 00:28:41.970 --> 00:28:44.130 more of a masterful cartographer of existing 00:28:44.130 --> 00:28:47.029 knowledge. It's the difference between extrapolation 00:28:47.029 --> 00:28:50.170 based on cutting -edge data and genuine speculative 00:28:50.170 --> 00:28:52.490 invention. It's the difference between Jules 00:28:52.490 --> 00:28:55.490 Byrne and H .G. Wells, who really did delve into 00:28:55.490 --> 00:28:58.170 the sociological implications of impossible technology. 00:28:58.490 --> 00:29:00.930 And this complexity led to huge ambiguity in 00:29:00.930 --> 00:29:03.910 how critics categorized him. The French writer 00:29:03.910 --> 00:29:06.869 Maurice Renard claimed Verne never wrote a single 00:29:06.869 --> 00:29:09.670 sentence of Scientific Marvelous, which highlights 00:29:09.670 --> 00:29:12.109 the difficult relationship between the voyage's 00:29:12.109 --> 00:29:14.130 extraordinaires and what later became defined 00:29:14.130 --> 00:29:17.369 as Anglo -American science fiction. For French 00:29:17.369 --> 00:29:19.390 critics, his work was too grounded in reality 00:29:19.390 --> 00:29:22.089 to be simple genre fiction. And that struggle 00:29:22.089 --> 00:29:25.289 over genre and intent leads directly to the tragedy 00:29:25.289 --> 00:29:28.349 of his literary reputation. This is maybe the 00:29:28.349 --> 00:29:31.619 most acute point of this deep dive. the tale 00:29:31.619 --> 00:29:34.319 of two completely different literary reputations 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.559 on either side of the channel. In France, the 00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:39.059 trajectory was initially one of great promise 00:29:39.059 --> 00:29:42.400 and admiration. Early in his career, he was enthusiastically 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:44.920 received and celebrated by major literary figures. 00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:47.180 People like George Sand. George Sand, one of 00:29:47.180 --> 00:29:48.980 the most prominent writers of the time, wrote 00:29:48.980 --> 00:29:51.460 effusively about his work, and Théophile Gautier 00:29:51.460 --> 00:29:54.160 praised his style. So why did he end up feeling 00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:56.640 like an outsider who never took any place in 00:29:56.640 --> 00:29:59.480 French literature? Because of his massive, overwhelming 00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:02.339 popular success, especially with the stage adaptations. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:05.720 When Around the World in 80 Days became a global 00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:08.500 theatrical phenomenon, Rowan was suddenly viewed 00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:11.380 by the literary elite as too commercial, too 00:30:11.380 --> 00:30:15.000 popular. And too focused on entertainment rather 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:17.819 than high art. It's the classic snobbery trap. 00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:20.359 Once you become a mass success, you are dismissed 00:30:20.359 --> 00:30:22.960 as a commodity. And contemporary critics, like 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:26.380 Emil Zola, started to dismiss him as merely a 00:30:26.380 --> 00:30:29.880 genre -based storyteller, unfit for serious academic 00:30:29.880 --> 00:30:32.700 study or nomination for the prestigious Académie 00:30:32.700 --> 00:30:34.980 Française. They saw the technological apparatus 00:30:34.980 --> 00:30:38.099 as childish, completely missing the rich geographic 00:30:38.099 --> 00:30:40.500 and stylistic detail that was really at the core 00:30:40.500 --> 00:30:42.809 of his work. And this critical dismissal. based 00:30:42.809 --> 00:30:45.450 purely on literary ideology and his market penetration, 00:30:45.710 --> 00:30:48.390 was felt so acutely by Verne himself. And that 00:30:48.390 --> 00:30:50.549 is the source of his profound lament about never 00:30:50.549 --> 00:30:53.130 taking any place in French literature. He craved 00:30:53.130 --> 00:30:55.309 the recognition of his peers as a stylist. For 00:30:55.309 --> 00:30:58.930 decades after his death, this academic snub persisted. 00:30:59.210 --> 00:31:02.390 But in the 1960s and 70s, something shifted. 00:31:02.940 --> 00:31:06.599 A massive French rehabilitation began. A Jules 00:31:06.599 --> 00:31:09.339 Verne cult developed among scholars and young 00:31:09.339 --> 00:31:11.519 writers who started taking his work seriously 00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:13.640 as literature, not just as adventure stories. 00:31:13.880 --> 00:31:16.039 And it was literary heavyweights who forced the 00:31:16.039 --> 00:31:18.960 change. Roland Barthez, the great French literary 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:22.220 theorist, wrote the seminal essay Nautilus de 00:31:22.220 --> 00:31:24.880 Bateau -Ivre. Nautilus and the Drunken Boat. 00:31:24.900 --> 00:31:27.829 Right. And Bartha's essay was pivotal because 00:31:27.829 --> 00:31:30.150 it treated the voyage's extraordinaires as a 00:31:30.150 --> 00:31:33.849 purely literary text. Bartha's analyzed Verne's 00:31:33.849 --> 00:31:36.049 use of language, his symbolism, his narrative 00:31:36.049 --> 00:31:38.470 structures. Treating the mechanisms like the 00:31:38.470 --> 00:31:40.890 Nautilus, not as technical blueprints, but as 00:31:40.890 --> 00:31:43.789 profound psychological metaphors. Yes, metaphors 00:31:43.789 --> 00:31:46.769 for enclosure, solitude, and exploration. This 00:31:46.769 --> 00:31:49.089 forced the critics to analyze his style and themes 00:31:49.089 --> 00:31:51.410 rather than just his technological gadgetry. 00:31:51.490 --> 00:31:53.970 And the final validation, the ultimate sign that 00:31:53.970 --> 00:31:56.069 he was now officially recognized as high art, 00:31:56.190 --> 00:31:59.250 came in 1978. That's when Journey to the Center 00:31:59.250 --> 00:32:01.130 of the Earth was accepted for the French university 00:32:01.130 --> 00:32:04.609 system's aggregation reading list. Now, for listeners 00:32:04.609 --> 00:32:07.470 unfamiliar, the aggregation is a highly competitive 00:32:07.470 --> 00:32:10.690 national examination required to certify secondary 00:32:10.690 --> 00:32:13.400 school teachers. And its reading list is reserved 00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:16.299 for works considered essential to French literary 00:32:16.299 --> 00:32:19.480 and cultural heritage. Verne's inclusion meant 00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:22.599 he was now mandatory study, confirming his status 00:32:22.599 --> 00:32:24.940 as an unquestioned member of the French literary 00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:27.980 canon. OK, now contrast that powerful trajectory 00:32:27.980 --> 00:32:31.180 with his reputation in the English speaking world. 00:32:31.579 --> 00:32:34.319 which, as the source notes, was considerably 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:37.259 slower in changing. Often dismissing him as a 00:32:37.259 --> 00:32:40.279 writer for children or a naive proponent of science. 00:32:40.599 --> 00:32:42.700 And the tragedy here is entirely commercial and 00:32:42.700 --> 00:32:45.200 translational? It is. British and American publishers 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:47.920 in the 19th and early 20th centuries made a conscious 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:50.460 decision to market his books almost exclusively 00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:53.720 to young audiences. This commercial choice cemented 00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:56.259 his long -term reputation as merely a children's 00:32:56.259 --> 00:32:58.640 author, preventing adult readers and serious 00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:00.789 critics from engaging with his work. But the 00:33:00.789 --> 00:33:03.829 real sin was the quality deficit. The early English 00:33:03.829 --> 00:33:06.309 translations are universally criticized for being 00:33:06.309 --> 00:33:09.269 not just poor, but fundamentally altered, abridged, 00:33:09.269 --> 00:33:12.089 and just full of errors. So readers in the Anglophone 00:33:12.089 --> 00:33:14.410 world weren't actually reading Verne. They were 00:33:14.410 --> 00:33:17.049 reading highly commercialized, simplified adaptations. 00:33:17.750 --> 00:33:19.990 And the quotes from contemporary writers who 00:33:19.990 --> 00:33:22.670 later discovered the original French are just. 00:33:23.710 --> 00:33:26.430 They're damning. The British writer Adam Roberts 00:33:26.430 --> 00:33:29.730 noted the bizarre situation that he realized 00:33:29.730 --> 00:33:32.529 he hadn't been reading Jules Verne at all for 00:33:32.529 --> 00:33:35.309 decades, but rather these simplified English 00:33:35.309 --> 00:33:37.769 versions. And Michael Crichton, the American 00:33:37.769 --> 00:33:41.430 novelist, was particularly scathing. He described 00:33:41.430 --> 00:33:45.009 the published English prose as clunky, choppy, 00:33:45.009 --> 00:33:47.809 tone deaf. Crichton specifically investigated 00:33:47.809 --> 00:33:51.410 the notorious 1872 translation of Journey to 00:33:51.410 --> 00:33:53.650 the Center of the Earth by a publisher called 00:33:53.650 --> 00:33:55.609 Griffith and Farron. And what he found was just 00:33:55.609 --> 00:33:58.190 shocking. Crichton noted that the translators 00:33:58.190 --> 00:34:00.990 blithely altered the text, giving Verne's characters 00:34:00.990 --> 00:34:03.430 new names and adding whole pages of their own 00:34:03.430 --> 00:34:06.069 invention, thus effectively obliterating the 00:34:06.069 --> 00:34:08.550 meaning and tone of Verne's original. They didn't 00:34:08.550 --> 00:34:11.190 just shorten books. They actively injected new, 00:34:11.329 --> 00:34:13.750 incorrect scientific data. And critically, they 00:34:13.750 --> 00:34:15.949 removed the detailed geographical and technical 00:34:15.949 --> 00:34:18.650 descriptions that Verne had so meticulously researched. 00:34:19.179 --> 00:34:22.099 Think about that magnitude of editorial vandalism. 00:34:22.139 --> 00:34:25.159 That's incredible. Whole pages of invented material, 00:34:25.559 --> 00:34:28.400 crucial passages of scientific exposition removed, 00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:32.199 character names changed, and his political critiques, 00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:35.260 like those we discussed with Nemo, often sanitized 00:34:35.260 --> 00:34:38.139 completely. This just provided English -speaking 00:34:38.139 --> 00:34:41.219 readers with a cheap, simplistic version, missing 00:34:41.219 --> 00:34:44.079 the very literary and scientific depth that earned 00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:47.059 him his admiration in France. And the most unfortunate 00:34:47.059 --> 00:34:49.639 reality is that while far more accurate English 00:34:49.639 --> 00:34:52.480 translations have appeared since 1965, those 00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:55.840 older, deficient public domain versions are continually 00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:58.320 republished and distributed freely, especially 00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:01.019 online. So it just prolongs the misunderstanding 00:35:01.019 --> 00:35:04.239 from millions of new readers, creating a permanent 00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:06.940 barrier to the real Verne. Despite the persistent 00:35:06.940 --> 00:35:09.239 critical misrepresentation, especially in the 00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:11.599 English world, his influence has been massive 00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:14.650 and widespread. On the literary side, he influenced 00:35:14.650 --> 00:35:17.110 heavy hitters like Roland Barthes, Jean -Paul 00:35:17.110 --> 00:35:19.650 Sartre, Julio Cortázar. And the author of The 00:35:19.650 --> 00:35:21.989 Little Prince, Antoine de Saint -Exupéry. And 00:35:21.989 --> 00:35:24.250 the scientific community has been equally inspired. 00:35:25.269 --> 00:35:27.570 Explorers and scientists who acknowledge Verne's 00:35:27.570 --> 00:35:30.250 profound inspiration include the first man in 00:35:30.250 --> 00:35:33.800 space, Yuri Gagarin. the rocket scientist Wernher 00:35:33.800 --> 00:35:36.699 von Braun, the Soviet rocketry pioneer Konstantin 00:35:36.699 --> 00:35:39.380 Tsiolkovsky, and the controversial American rocket 00:35:39.380 --> 00:35:41.739 engineer Jack Parsons. He also essentially helped 00:35:41.739 --> 00:35:45.260 inspire the entire steampunk genre, which glamorizes 00:35:45.260 --> 00:35:48.099 science fiction based on 19th century technology. 00:35:48.360 --> 00:35:51.099 The ultimate summary of his legacy, simplified 00:35:51.099 --> 00:35:53.900 or not, really comes from Ray Bradbury, who said, 00:35:54.039 --> 00:35:57.039 We are all, in one way or another, the children 00:35:57.039 --> 00:36:00.219 of Jules Verne. We've spent this deep dive uncovering 00:36:00.219 --> 00:36:02.739 the profound layers of Jules Verne, moving far 00:36:02.739 --> 00:36:05.119 past that simple label of a prophet of technology. 00:36:05.500 --> 00:36:07.780 We've seen him as the deeply emotional man marked 00:36:07.780 --> 00:36:10.179 by lost love, the victim of the Hermione complex. 00:36:10.579 --> 00:36:13.400 We've seen him as the diligent researcher, meticulously 00:36:13.400 --> 00:36:15.659 filling his note cards with facts that gave his 00:36:15.659 --> 00:36:18.460 fiction an unparalleled realism. He was the anti 00:36:18.460 --> 00:36:21.119 -war voice and the literary artist who valued 00:36:21.119 --> 00:36:24.250 style. constantly battling a powerful publisher, 00:36:24.510 --> 00:36:27.130 Hetzel, whose commercial mandate demanded that 00:36:27.130 --> 00:36:30.230 Verne's complex, sometimes pessimistic, work 00:36:30.230 --> 00:36:33.170 be simplified, sanitized, and made palatable 00:36:33.170 --> 00:36:35.710 for a family audience. And we have seen how those 00:36:35.710 --> 00:36:37.769 commercial interests led to the profound, tragic 00:36:37.769 --> 00:36:39.690 betrayal of his work in English translation. 00:36:40.480 --> 00:36:42.719 And the relevance for you, the listener, is clear. 00:36:42.900 --> 00:36:45.400 Verne's visionary work didn't spring from some 00:36:45.400 --> 00:36:48.280 mystical ability to see the future. No, it came 00:36:48.280 --> 00:36:51.320 from an informed, meticulous exploration of existing 00:36:51.320 --> 00:36:54.099 scientific knowledge, combined with a profound 00:36:54.099 --> 00:36:56.639 psychological understanding of what motivates 00:36:56.639 --> 00:36:59.559 humanity escape, vengeance, and the desire for 00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:02.800 justice. True visionary work often stems from 00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:05.500 relentless, informed research, not just prophecy. 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:07.920 We discussed how Wundt lamented that to finish 00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:09.739 his project, he would have needed to live to 00:37:09.739 --> 00:37:12.400 be 100 years old. And we also discussed how his 00:37:12.400 --> 00:37:14.820 son Michel altered some of his final, darker 00:37:14.820 --> 00:37:17.199 manuscripts. And we know that the original, highly 00:37:17.199 --> 00:37:19.800 pessimistic manuscript of Paris in the 20th century, 00:37:19.860 --> 00:37:22.760 written in 1863, was suppressed for decades and 00:37:22.760 --> 00:37:26.099 only found and published in 1994. So this raises 00:37:26.099 --> 00:37:29.059 one final provocative thought for you to mull 00:37:29.059 --> 00:37:31.820 over. Considering the decades of rigid editorial 00:37:31.820 --> 00:37:34.260 control he faced, both from Hetzel and his own 00:37:34.260 --> 00:37:36.239 son, and the dark nature of the original works 00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:38.820 that have been recovered, what other lost, darker, 00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:41.260 or more literary manuscripts of the real Jules 00:37:41.260 --> 00:37:43.880 Verne might still be hidden in some dusty archive 00:37:43.880 --> 00:37:45.940 waiting to fundamentally change our understanding 00:37:45.940 --> 00:37:47.400 of this world -spanning imagination?