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Post by phileasfogg on Aug 21, 2024 20:49:49 GMT
Spoiler alerts below!!!
So, for those of you who have read Captain Antifer, I'm curious what you made of the ending. Should he have found the treasure? I think the ending was good, in a way, although I was a bit disappointed to see them come back with nothing. I also thought Verne's use of the disappearing island as the plot twist was quite clever! I didn't know that was a thing before reading this book.
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Post by farseer on Aug 21, 2024 23:56:20 GMT
I think it's within Verne's style. He was not very sympathetic to greed, and preferred to reward his heroes in a less lucrative way, like knowledge, experience, love, or even just keeping alive. When characters are guided by greed, it often ends in a somewhat ironical way. For Verne, the lack of monetary profit doesn't keep an ending from being happy.
(some spoilers follow for Five Weeks in a Balloon, The Vanished Diamond, Captain Antifer, The Golden Volcano, Around the World in 80 Days)
For example, in Five Weeks in a Balloon, when they find all that gold, and Joe convinces the others to take it as ballast... then every time they are forced to throw some of it away Joe almost get sick with the idea of the riches they are losing. In the end they are left with none, of course. Something along those lines also happens in The Vanished Diamond (aka The Southern Star), and in Captain Antifer. Also in original Jules Verne manuscript of The Golden Volcano, although his son Michel changed the ending for publication. In Around the World in 80 Days, Fogg wins the bet, but he is not guided by greed, and basically he recovers the money he had spent in his trip.
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Post by phileasfogg on Aug 22, 2024 19:03:12 GMT
Yes, now that you point that out, it's definitely characteristic of Verne's work. The title of the last chapter of Around the World is literally titled "In which it is shown that Phileas Fogg gained nothing by his tour around the world, unless it were happiness."
(spoilers for Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Five Weeks In a Balloon below)
I think you can also argue a similar outcome for Journey to the Centre of the Earth. They don't actually reach the centre of the Earth, but they had a great adventure, made it out alive, Prof. Lidenbrock receives recognition for his discoveries, and Axel gets married.
I had forgotten about Joe and the gold in Five Weeks in a Balloon! It was funny how Fergusson tells Joe not to be disappointed when they end up having to throw the gold out of the balloon and then Joe proceeds to bemoan its loss for basically the rest of the novel. I think Verne also writes somewhere in that book when they're looking for water about how he would have given all the gold for a drink or something like that.
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Post by farseer on Aug 22, 2024 23:14:00 GMT
Agreed. That's why even if the characters in a Verne novel were after money and don't get it, I do not really get the impression than the ending is not happy. Normally in that case the characters end up discovering that there are things they value more and the ending is happy for them.
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Post by farseer on Aug 22, 2024 23:29:31 GMT
I didn't know that was a thing before reading this book.
Yes, it is! I also had never heard of it, but it's inspired by Graham Island (in Italian called Ferdinandea, and in French Île Julia). According to the Wikipedia, in its last emergence in 1831 it was visited by Sir Walter Scott, and it "provided inspiration for James Fenimore Cooper's The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak, Alexandre Dumas, père's The Speronara, Jules Verne's Captain Antifer and The Survivors of the Chancellor and Terry Pratchett's Jingo." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Island_(Mediterranean_Sea) |
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Post by phileasfogg on Aug 23, 2024 12:08:17 GMT
I didn't know that was a thing before reading this book.
Yes, it is! I also had never heard of it, but it's inspired by Graham Island (in Italian called Ferdinandea, and in French Île Julia). According to the Wikipedia, in its last emergence in 1831 it was visited by Sir Walter Scott, and it "provided inspiration for James Fenimore Cooper's The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak, Alexandre Dumas, père's The Speronara, Jules Verne's Captain Antifer and The Survivors of the Chancellor and Terry Pratchett's Jingo." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Island_(Mediterranean_Sea)I know a lot of people today hold Verne in high renown mostly for the science-fiction elements to his stories, but he really has a way of showing just how amazing the natural world is! |
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berc
Administrator 
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Post by berc on Aug 30, 2024 17:26:26 GMT
I didn’t want to comment until I reread the book, and I’ve just done that! I agree with your statement that the characters often don’t receive rewards at the end of the story. My favorites are the books by Verne that are full of scientific explanations, so this one wasn’t really enjoyable for me. Also, the story started to annoy me towards the end. Although I really liked the relationship between Trégomain and Juhel, and the romance between the two young.
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Post by farseer on Aug 30, 2024 17:55:56 GMT
I think it's a fun book, an example of how Verne used humor sometimes. It reminds me of Kèraban the Inflexible because of the personality of the main character.
But, as an adventure, it's kind of weak, even though the premise is interesting. So not among Verne's best, because of that.
But, even when it's not one of his best, there's always a lot of stuff to enjoy in a Verne novel.
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Post by farseer on Aug 30, 2024 17:59:11 GMT
My favorites are the books by Verne that are full of scientific explanations, so this one wasn’t really enjoyable for me. Then you probably enjoy mostly the first part of Verne's career, because although his first books had a lot of scientific info-dumps (although the science in question is sometimes geography), Verne soon mellows out in that sense, and doesn't have so many of those. |
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berc
Administrator
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Post by berc on Aug 30, 2024 19:32:33 GMT
Correct! I prefer his early works.
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Post by phileasfogg on Aug 31, 2024 12:51:18 GMT
I do like Captain Antifer even though I will agree with what is being said here. I think the premise makes it intriguing and the twist was excellent. The middle was a bit lacking at times. I kept waiting for them to realise that Saouk was up to no good and most of the secondary characters did not add much to the story. I think Around the World in 80 Days did it perfectly when they had Fix as the unavoidable but perhaps unwanted traveling companion. Nonetheless, I didn't dislike the book.
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