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Yesterday and Tomorrow
This book includes eight novelettes by Jules Verne.
The Eternal Adam
The Fate of Jean Morenas
An Ideal City
Ten Hours Hunting
Frritt-Flacc
Gil Braltar
In The Twenty-Ninth Century: The Day of an American Journalist in 2889
Mr. Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flat
The Eternal Adam
The Fate of Jean Morenas
An Ideal City
Ten Hours Hunting
Frritt-Flacc
Gil Braltar
In The Twenty-Ninth Century: The Day of an American Journalist in 2889
Mr. Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flat
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1910
4 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Jules Verne
6,531 books12.1k followersNovels of French writer Jules Gabriel Verne, considered the founder of modern science fiction, include
Journey to the Center of the Earth
(1864) and
Around the World in Eighty Days
(1873).
This author who pioneered the genre. People best know him for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before people invented navigable aircraft and practical submarines and devised any means of spacecraft. He ranks behind Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie as the second most translated author of all time. People made his prominent films. People often refer to Verne alongside Herbert George Wells as the "father of science fiction."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_V...
This author who pioneered the genre. People best know him for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before people invented navigable aircraft and practical submarines and devised any means of spacecraft. He ranks behind Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie as the second most translated author of all time. People made his prominent films. People often refer to Verne alongside Herbert George Wells as the "father of science fiction."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_V...
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 31, 2021
FRANÇAIS: Ce recueil de nouvelles de Jules Verne (en français) comprend les histoires suivantes:
1. La famille Raton , un conte de fées.
2. M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle. Mi-Bémol, une nouvelle onirique sur deux enfants.
3. La Destinée de Jean Morénas, une histoire réaliste sur une erreur judiciaire.
4. Le Humbug, une critique acerbe des Etats-Unis.
5. Au XXIX-me siècle. La journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889, science-fiction futuriste qui décrit assez bien le monde de la fin du XXe siècle, dont Verne pensait qu'il faudrait un millénaire pour arriver.
6. L'Éternel Adam, une histoire futuriste glaçante sur la contingence de l'effort humain.
J'ai aimé mieux les numéros 2 et 6.
ENGLISH: This collection of short stories by Jules Verne (in French) comprises the following stories:
1. La famille Raton, a fairy tale.
2. M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle. Mi-Bémol, an oniric short story about two children.
3. La Destinée de Jean Morénas, a realistic story about a miscarriage of justice.
4. Le Humbug, an acid criticism of the United States.
5. Au XXIX-me siècle. La journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889, a futuristic science-fiction that describes quite well the world at the end of the XXth century, which Verne thought would take one millennium to arrive.
6. L'Éternel Adam, a futuristic blood-chilling story about the contingency of human effort.
I've liked best numbers 2 and 6.
ESPAÑOL: Esta colección de cuentos de Julio Verne comprende los siguientes relatos:
1. La familia Ratón, un cuento de hadas.
2. El señor Re Sostenido y la señorita Mi bemol, un cuento onírico sobre dos niños.
3. El destino de Jean Morénas, una historia realista sobre un error judicial.
4. El Le farsante, una ácida crítica a los Estados Unidos.
5. En el siglo XXIX. La jornada de un periodista americano en 2889 , ciencia-ficción futurista que describe bastante bien el mundo de finales del siglo XX, que Verne creyó tardaría un milenio en llegar.
6. El eterno Adán, historia futurista escalofriante sobre la contingencia del esfuerzo humano.
Los cuentos 2 y 6 son los que más me han gustado.
1. La famille Raton , un conte de fées.
2. M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle. Mi-Bémol, une nouvelle onirique sur deux enfants.
3. La Destinée de Jean Morénas, une histoire réaliste sur une erreur judiciaire.
4. Le Humbug, une critique acerbe des Etats-Unis.
5. Au XXIX-me siècle. La journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889, science-fiction futuriste qui décrit assez bien le monde de la fin du XXe siècle, dont Verne pensait qu'il faudrait un millénaire pour arriver.
6. L'Éternel Adam, une histoire futuriste glaçante sur la contingence de l'effort humain.
J'ai aimé mieux les numéros 2 et 6.
ENGLISH: This collection of short stories by Jules Verne (in French) comprises the following stories:
1. La famille Raton, a fairy tale.
2. M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle. Mi-Bémol, an oniric short story about two children.
3. La Destinée de Jean Morénas, a realistic story about a miscarriage of justice.
4. Le Humbug, an acid criticism of the United States.
5. Au XXIX-me siècle. La journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889, a futuristic science-fiction that describes quite well the world at the end of the XXth century, which Verne thought would take one millennium to arrive.
6. L'Éternel Adam, a futuristic blood-chilling story about the contingency of human effort.
I've liked best numbers 2 and 6.
ESPAÑOL: Esta colección de cuentos de Julio Verne comprende los siguientes relatos:
1. La familia Ratón, un cuento de hadas.
2. El señor Re Sostenido y la señorita Mi bemol, un cuento onírico sobre dos niños.
3. El destino de Jean Morénas, una historia realista sobre un error judicial.
4. El Le farsante, una ácida crítica a los Estados Unidos.
5. En el siglo XXIX. La jornada de un periodista americano en 2889 , ciencia-ficción futurista que describe bastante bien el mundo de finales del siglo XX, que Verne creyó tardaría un milenio en llegar.
6. El eterno Adán, historia futurista escalofriante sobre la contingencia del esfuerzo humano.
Los cuentos 2 y 6 son los que más me han gustado.
September 28, 2017
I never read any of Jules Verne's great novels, so it was probably a bit unfair for me to start with these, his more obscure stories, including the novelette he wrote shortly before he died. My brother loaned this book to me because he knows I like Edgar Allan Poe, and one of the stories in this volume is compared to Poe's story "William Wilson." My brother is the one who's been on a Jules Verne kick. I read that story first, but I liked it enough that I went back and read the others.
The novelette supposes that an unnamed catastrophe has overtaken the Earth and that there is only a single continent that isn't underwater, except for some ruins of Atlantis that have been uncovered. It supposes that the current civilization isn't the world's first, but that civilizations have risen and fallen at least twice in the past. It's fairly interesting. If global warming continues at the current rate, it might become more and more realistic.
Another story in this collection is inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favorites, by Verne's fellow French author Alexandre Dumas. It concerns a wrongly-accused prisoner given the chance to escape from his unwarranted bonds. Of course, the short story is MUCH more condensed than Dumas's 1,000-page brick.
One is set in the 29th century, and it's pretty interesting. Verne thought newspapers could be replaced by experts delivering the news via videophone. Some of his ideas will be familiar to fans of Futurama, such as the pneumatic tubes that move people (although Verne's are located under the oceans).
This is second-tier material, none of it great, but it is pretty interesting to read what an innovative thinker imagined the future to be as he was writing in the late 19th century. Verne is often called the Father of Modern Science Fiction, and though we all know Mary Shelley really started the genre in 1818 when she published Frankenstein, Verne did sort of launch the genre in the direction it would go in the 20th century.
The novelette supposes that an unnamed catastrophe has overtaken the Earth and that there is only a single continent that isn't underwater, except for some ruins of Atlantis that have been uncovered. It supposes that the current civilization isn't the world's first, but that civilizations have risen and fallen at least twice in the past. It's fairly interesting. If global warming continues at the current rate, it might become more and more realistic.
Another story in this collection is inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favorites, by Verne's fellow French author Alexandre Dumas. It concerns a wrongly-accused prisoner given the chance to escape from his unwarranted bonds. Of course, the short story is MUCH more condensed than Dumas's 1,000-page brick.
One is set in the 29th century, and it's pretty interesting. Verne thought newspapers could be replaced by experts delivering the news via videophone. Some of his ideas will be familiar to fans of Futurama, such as the pneumatic tubes that move people (although Verne's are located under the oceans).
This is second-tier material, none of it great, but it is pretty interesting to read what an innovative thinker imagined the future to be as he was writing in the late 19th century. Verne is often called the Father of Modern Science Fiction, and though we all know Mary Shelley really started the genre in 1818 when she published Frankenstein, Verne did sort of launch the genre in the direction it would go in the 20th century.
January 5, 2026
Ayer y mañana es un volumen desigual, compuesto por diversos relatos breves que se mueven entre escenarios del pasado y un futuro más o menos distópico. No se trata de una novela unitaria, sino de un conjunto heterogéneo, lo que ya condiciona la experiencia de lectura: el libro avanza a trompicones, sin un verdadero crescendo narrativo.
Es importante señalar que muchos de estos textos fueron rehechos, revisados o directamente redactados en colaboración con su hijo, Michel Verne, a partir de materiales que el propio Julio Verne había dejado inéditos o en estado embrionario. Este dato resulta clave para entender el resultado final. La calidad literaria es, en conjunto, floja, y varios relatos dan la sensación de ser descartes, borradores o esbozos de novelas que nunca llegaron a madurar. Hay ideas sugerentes, pero rara vez desarrolladas con la plenitud que el lector espera del Verne clásico.
En lo personal, me ha costado terminar el libro. La lectura se hace irregular y, en algunos momentos, fatigosa. Aun así, aparecen de forma intermitente rasgos reconocibles de Julio Verne:
Descripciones largas, especialmente técnicas o ambientales, aunque aquí menos exuberantes y menos envolventes que en sus grandes novelas.
Personajes trazados con pocos rasgos, eficaces en lo esquemático, pero sin el desarrollo psicológico ni la progresión narrativa que encontramos en Veinte mil leguas de viaje submarino o La isla misteriosa.
Hay también escenas de humor, a veces ligero, casi anecdótico, que recuerdan al Verne más irónico. Sin embargo, el tono general es distinto al de su etapa más celebrada. Se percibe un cierto pesimismo, una tristeza de fondo, como si el autor —o al menos la voz que emerge de estos textos tardíos— ya no confiara plenamente en el progreso científico como motor de redención humana. El entusiasmo decimonónico se enfría; la mirada hacia el futuro resulta más ambigua, cuando no desencantada.
Con todo, incluso en un libro menor como este, Verne sigue sorprendiendo. Vuelve a mencionar inventos y desarrollos tecnológicos futuros que, con el tiempo, acabarían cumpliéndose, y eso no deja de asombrar. Hay momentos en los que uno tiene la impresión de que Verne escribía como si dispusiera de una máquina del tiempo, capaz de asomarse al porvenir con una lucidez casi inquietante.
En suma, Ayer y mañana no es un buen punto de entrada a Julio Verne, ni una obra representativa de su talento mayor. Es un libro para lectores ya familiarizados con él, interesados en sus márgenes, sus restos, sus textos póstumos, más por lo que revelan sobre el final de una mirada literaria que por su valor artístico en sí mismo. Una lectura irregular, a ratos tediosa, pero con destellos que recuerdan —aunque de forma apagada— por qué Verne sigue siendo Verne.
Es importante señalar que muchos de estos textos fueron rehechos, revisados o directamente redactados en colaboración con su hijo, Michel Verne, a partir de materiales que el propio Julio Verne había dejado inéditos o en estado embrionario. Este dato resulta clave para entender el resultado final. La calidad literaria es, en conjunto, floja, y varios relatos dan la sensación de ser descartes, borradores o esbozos de novelas que nunca llegaron a madurar. Hay ideas sugerentes, pero rara vez desarrolladas con la plenitud que el lector espera del Verne clásico.
En lo personal, me ha costado terminar el libro. La lectura se hace irregular y, en algunos momentos, fatigosa. Aun así, aparecen de forma intermitente rasgos reconocibles de Julio Verne:
Descripciones largas, especialmente técnicas o ambientales, aunque aquí menos exuberantes y menos envolventes que en sus grandes novelas.
Personajes trazados con pocos rasgos, eficaces en lo esquemático, pero sin el desarrollo psicológico ni la progresión narrativa que encontramos en Veinte mil leguas de viaje submarino o La isla misteriosa.
Hay también escenas de humor, a veces ligero, casi anecdótico, que recuerdan al Verne más irónico. Sin embargo, el tono general es distinto al de su etapa más celebrada. Se percibe un cierto pesimismo, una tristeza de fondo, como si el autor —o al menos la voz que emerge de estos textos tardíos— ya no confiara plenamente en el progreso científico como motor de redención humana. El entusiasmo decimonónico se enfría; la mirada hacia el futuro resulta más ambigua, cuando no desencantada.
Con todo, incluso en un libro menor como este, Verne sigue sorprendiendo. Vuelve a mencionar inventos y desarrollos tecnológicos futuros que, con el tiempo, acabarían cumpliéndose, y eso no deja de asombrar. Hay momentos en los que uno tiene la impresión de que Verne escribía como si dispusiera de una máquina del tiempo, capaz de asomarse al porvenir con una lucidez casi inquietante.
En suma, Ayer y mañana no es un buen punto de entrada a Julio Verne, ni una obra representativa de su talento mayor. Es un libro para lectores ya familiarizados con él, interesados en sus márgenes, sus restos, sus textos póstumos, más por lo que revelan sobre el final de una mirada literaria que por su valor artístico en sí mismo. Una lectura irregular, a ratos tediosa, pero con destellos que recuerdan —aunque de forma apagada— por qué Verne sigue siendo Verne.
November 27, 2011
Extraña recopilación de textos breves. Se puede dividir en tres partes, claramente diferenciables que, a despecho de lo que parecería indicar el título del volumen, corresponden a tres tiempos: pasado, presente y futuro.
"Aventuras de la familia Ratón" y "El señor Re Sostenido y la señorita Mi Bemol" corresponden al pasado, entendido éste como la infancia de la propia persona, y son, como tales, historias destinadas al público más pequeño. Cándidas, tiernas y aleccionadoras.
"El destino de Juan Morenas" y "El Humbug" corresponderían al presente de un autor adulto y muestran ambas una actitud mucho más realista, hasta el extremo de jugar con el desengaño ante situaciones aparentemente ideales.
"En el siglo XXIX" y "El eterno Adán" corresponden, finalmente, al futuro de la humanidad y son claras muestras de la maestría de Verne para la Ciencia Ficción. La última, principalmente, es un excelente anticipo de lo que posteriormente sería la "Edad de oro" del género y justifica por sí sola la lectura de un volumen que, por lo demás, resultaría casi absolutamente prescindible.
"Aventuras de la familia Ratón" y "El señor Re Sostenido y la señorita Mi Bemol" corresponden al pasado, entendido éste como la infancia de la propia persona, y son, como tales, historias destinadas al público más pequeño. Cándidas, tiernas y aleccionadoras.
"El destino de Juan Morenas" y "El Humbug" corresponderían al presente de un autor adulto y muestran ambas una actitud mucho más realista, hasta el extremo de jugar con el desengaño ante situaciones aparentemente ideales.
"En el siglo XXIX" y "El eterno Adán" corresponden, finalmente, al futuro de la humanidad y son claras muestras de la maestría de Verne para la Ciencia Ficción. La última, principalmente, es un excelente anticipo de lo que posteriormente sería la "Edad de oro" del género y justifica por sí sola la lectura de un volumen que, por lo demás, resultaría casi absolutamente prescindible.
November 4, 2018
Recopilación de algunos cuentos disimiles de Julio Verne. Bastante aburridos y mediocres. algunos son de la juventud del autor y otros debe haberlos editado el hijo para poder publicarlos.
Verne triunfo mas con la novela, donde desarrolla mas lo personajes y la trama. Estos son todos registros bastante diferentes a los que lo hicieron famoso.
Aventuras de la familia ratón: un cuento de hadas que no es gran cosa, con todos los clichés del genero.
El señor re sostenido...: arranca prometedor, con incluso cierta configuración terrorífica, pero queda en nada, todo es un sueño.
El destino de Juan Morenas: este es el mas parecido a algunas de sus novelas, una especie de Conde de Montecristo, con un giro inesperado al final. el mas fiel a su estilo.
Humbug: una humorada sin gracia.
En el siglo XXIX: una historia futurista, pero que increíblemente para lo que nos tiene acostumbrados Verne, quedó obsoleta y se equivoca bastante en su visión del futuro.
El eterno Adán: es la mejor del lote, una novela corta casi parece una obra de ciencia ficción moderna.
Verne triunfo mas con la novela, donde desarrolla mas lo personajes y la trama. Estos son todos registros bastante diferentes a los que lo hicieron famoso.
Aventuras de la familia ratón: un cuento de hadas que no es gran cosa, con todos los clichés del genero.
El señor re sostenido...: arranca prometedor, con incluso cierta configuración terrorífica, pero queda en nada, todo es un sueño.
El destino de Juan Morenas: este es el mas parecido a algunas de sus novelas, una especie de Conde de Montecristo, con un giro inesperado al final. el mas fiel a su estilo.
Humbug: una humorada sin gracia.
En el siglo XXIX: una historia futurista, pero que increíblemente para lo que nos tiene acostumbrados Verne, quedó obsoleta y se equivoca bastante en su visión del futuro.
El eterno Adán: es la mejor del lote, una novela corta casi parece una obra de ciencia ficción moderna.
June 13, 2025
The French edition contains these stories:
1. La famille Raton
2. M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle. Mi-Bémol
3. La Destinée de Jean Morénas
4. Le Humbug
5. Au XXIX-me siècle. La journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889
6. L'Éternel Adam
My favorite was the second, Mr. Ray-Sharp and Miss Me-Flat, about a cathedral children choir.
On the other hand, the English edition does not contain #1 and #4, and instead contains the following four stories, which I have not read:
An Ideal City
Ten Hours Hunting
Frritt-Flacc
Gil Braltar
https://www.julesverne.ca/vernebooks/...
1. La famille Raton
2. M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle. Mi-Bémol
3. La Destinée de Jean Morénas
4. Le Humbug
5. Au XXIX-me siècle. La journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889
6. L'Éternel Adam
My favorite was the second, Mr. Ray-Sharp and Miss Me-Flat, about a cathedral children choir.
On the other hand, the English edition does not contain #1 and #4, and instead contains the following four stories, which I have not read:
An Ideal City
Ten Hours Hunting
Frritt-Flacc
Gil Braltar
https://www.julesverne.ca/vernebooks/...
April 16, 2023
Hier et Demain (Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1910) (1 volume) 63K words
The last short story collection by Verne was published posthumously in 1910. It contains four novelettes and a couple of short stories ("In the Twenty-ninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889", and "The Humbug"). Like the previous collection ("Dr. Ox"), this one was published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages. And, like the posthumous novels in the series, the stories here were edited and modified by Jules Verne's son, Michel.
I'm reading this in Spanish, but I have to warn you that this collection is difficult to find in English. A translated collection called "Yesterday and Tomorrow" was published in 1965, but it doesn't contain two of the stories here ("Adventures of the Rat Family", and "The Humbug"), and in exchange it contains some of the stories that were originally published, not in a short story collection, but accompanying one of the Extraordinary Voyage novels. The reader in English who wants to read the whole thing would need to hunt for the missing stories somewhere else (for example, both missing stories have been published in standalone editions in English). If you are interested, https://www.isfdb.org/ is a useful resource to see where each story was published.
Having said this, let's talk about the stories.
La Famille Raton ("Adventures of the Rat Family")
Plot: The adventure takes place "in the age of fairies and magicians, and also during the time that animals talked." A whole family of rats has been magically transformed by the evil magician Gardafour and is now languishing as a family of oysters. Can Ratin, our hero, wait for Ratine, his beloved, until she is transformed to her true form once again? Can he, with the help of the fairy Firmenta, outfox Gardafour and the evil Prince Kissador, who scheme to keep the beautiful Ratine locked away forever?
Comment: As the plot indicates, this is a fairy tail for children. Verne tells it in a very colloquial tone, sometimes addressing the readers as "my dear children". I found it imaginative and occasionally amusing, although it probably went on a bit longer than it needed to.
M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle Mi-Bémol ("Mr Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flatt")
Plot: The story centers around two young children in a small village near Lake Constance in Switzerland. The town is visited by a mysterious Hungarian named Effarene, “at once artiste, tuner, organ vendor, and organ builder.” The village elders are grateful when Effarene offers to replace the recently departed church organist, but we soon learn the macabre details about his proposal to outfit the organ with a specially built register of children’s voices.
Comment: A dark fantasy tale, reminding me at times of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is told in first person by one of the children who sings in the school choir; the "Mr Ray Sharp" from the title refers to him, while "Miss Me Flatt" refers to the girl he likes, who also sings in the choir. The story plays with the anxieties about the dehumanization brought about by technology and mechanization. For those who hate stories where children are hurt, I'll say that the resolution was much less dark than I was expecting. A cop-out, some might say, but I did enjoy the story.
La Destinée de Jean Morénas ("The Fate of Jean Morénas")
Plot: Jean Morénas is serving a sentence of penal servitude for a crime he did not commit, the murder of his uncle Alexandre. Years later, a mysterious man gains access to the prison under the pretence of philanthropic work, but actually intending to help Jean escape and flee to a foreign country. Jean, however, has different ideas: he cannot leave without visiting his beloved Marguerite in their village. There he will face a tragic dilemma.
Comment: After two fantasy stories, this one is a more realistic family drama/adventure. The story is more tragic than you usually get with Verne, but enjoyable.
Le Humbug ("The Humbug: The American Way of Life")
Plot: On board the steamship Kentucky, traveling between New York and Albany, the French narrator meets an eccentric merchant named Meade Augustus Hopkins. Hopkins intends to found a kind of privately-owned World Fair near Albany. But, while this ambitious project is being built, an astonishing discovery is made: the gigantic skeleton of a human-like being that has been buried for countless centuries. But is it a genuine discovery, or part of the schemes of a charlatan?
Comment: I have commented elsewhere that Verne had a half admiring, half amused attitude towards US citizens. He admired their initiative and entrepreneurship, but at the same time he saw the funny side of it and liked satirising it. This is clearly apparent in this short story, which Verne presents as one of those things that could only happen in America. The over-the-top entrepreneur Hopkins has that can-do attitude that gains the admiration of his countrymen, but is he the real deal or is he full of hot air? I found the discovery of ancient human fossils an interesting subject for a Verne story, but this one concentrates on social satire much more than on paleontology. In fact, the interest here is mostly the satire, since the plot is quite basic.
Au xxixe siècle : La Journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889 ("In the Twenty-ninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889")
Plot: The story, set in the 29th century, follows a day in the life of an American journalist and businessman named Francis Bennett, who owns a newspaper called the Earth Chronicle. Throughout the story, Firmin Bennett uses various technological advancements to conduct his business and personal life, and we see some of the wonders of the future world.
Comment: A bit shorter than the other stories in the book, this is one of those science-fiction tour de forces where the author tries to anticipate what life will be like in the future, and what technological advances will be available. As often happens with these things, Verne does some interesting things extrapolating from what existed in his time, and presents suitably wondrous advances in communication, transport, energy. However, he of course missed things that he had no way of guessing, like the rise of computers, the internet and AIs. He is also blind to social change, and in that sense the society he describes is not that different from Verne's own. The positions of high qualifications and responsibility are filled by men; while the main character conducts his business, his wife is in Europe buying clothes and hats, although in frequent contact with him through teleconference. He does get some political guesses right, like the impossibility of wars between superpowers because of mutual assured destruction or China's one-child policy. All in all, it's fun seeing how Verne envisioned the future from his late 19th century perspective.
L'Éternel Adam ("The Eternal Adam")
Plot: Zartog Sofr-Aï-Sran, an archaeologist from a civilization much different from ours, is in the middle of a scientific controversy about the origins of humankind. Due to their interpretation of the archeological record, some scientists believe that humanity's ancestors lost craneal capacity at some point, before recovering it again. Zartog discovers a buried ancient document, that he is eventually able to translate. It is the journal of a man claiming to be a survivor to the total destruction of civilisation.
Comment: This may be my favorite Verne short story. It feels like a Golden Age science fiction story, with sense of wonder and a lot to think about. It's a pity Verne did not expand it into a novel.
See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/thread...
The last short story collection by Verne was published posthumously in 1910. It contains four novelettes and a couple of short stories ("In the Twenty-ninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889", and "The Humbug"). Like the previous collection ("Dr. Ox"), this one was published as part of the Extraordinary Voyages. And, like the posthumous novels in the series, the stories here were edited and modified by Jules Verne's son, Michel.
I'm reading this in Spanish, but I have to warn you that this collection is difficult to find in English. A translated collection called "Yesterday and Tomorrow" was published in 1965, but it doesn't contain two of the stories here ("Adventures of the Rat Family", and "The Humbug"), and in exchange it contains some of the stories that were originally published, not in a short story collection, but accompanying one of the Extraordinary Voyage novels. The reader in English who wants to read the whole thing would need to hunt for the missing stories somewhere else (for example, both missing stories have been published in standalone editions in English). If you are interested, https://www.isfdb.org/ is a useful resource to see where each story was published.
Having said this, let's talk about the stories.
La Famille Raton ("Adventures of the Rat Family")
Plot: The adventure takes place "in the age of fairies and magicians, and also during the time that animals talked." A whole family of rats has been magically transformed by the evil magician Gardafour and is now languishing as a family of oysters. Can Ratin, our hero, wait for Ratine, his beloved, until she is transformed to her true form once again? Can he, with the help of the fairy Firmenta, outfox Gardafour and the evil Prince Kissador, who scheme to keep the beautiful Ratine locked away forever?
Comment: As the plot indicates, this is a fairy tail for children. Verne tells it in a very colloquial tone, sometimes addressing the readers as "my dear children". I found it imaginative and occasionally amusing, although it probably went on a bit longer than it needed to.
M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle Mi-Bémol ("Mr Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flatt")
Plot: The story centers around two young children in a small village near Lake Constance in Switzerland. The town is visited by a mysterious Hungarian named Effarene, “at once artiste, tuner, organ vendor, and organ builder.” The village elders are grateful when Effarene offers to replace the recently departed church organist, but we soon learn the macabre details about his proposal to outfit the organ with a specially built register of children’s voices.
Comment: A dark fantasy tale, reminding me at times of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is told in first person by one of the children who sings in the school choir; the "Mr Ray Sharp" from the title refers to him, while "Miss Me Flatt" refers to the girl he likes, who also sings in the choir. The story plays with the anxieties about the dehumanization brought about by technology and mechanization. For those who hate stories where children are hurt, I'll say that the resolution was much less dark than I was expecting. A cop-out, some might say, but I did enjoy the story.
La Destinée de Jean Morénas ("The Fate of Jean Morénas")
Plot: Jean Morénas is serving a sentence of penal servitude for a crime he did not commit, the murder of his uncle Alexandre. Years later, a mysterious man gains access to the prison under the pretence of philanthropic work, but actually intending to help Jean escape and flee to a foreign country. Jean, however, has different ideas: he cannot leave without visiting his beloved Marguerite in their village. There he will face a tragic dilemma.
Comment: After two fantasy stories, this one is a more realistic family drama/adventure. The story is more tragic than you usually get with Verne, but enjoyable.
Le Humbug ("The Humbug: The American Way of Life")
Plot: On board the steamship Kentucky, traveling between New York and Albany, the French narrator meets an eccentric merchant named Meade Augustus Hopkins. Hopkins intends to found a kind of privately-owned World Fair near Albany. But, while this ambitious project is being built, an astonishing discovery is made: the gigantic skeleton of a human-like being that has been buried for countless centuries. But is it a genuine discovery, or part of the schemes of a charlatan?
Comment: I have commented elsewhere that Verne had a half admiring, half amused attitude towards US citizens. He admired their initiative and entrepreneurship, but at the same time he saw the funny side of it and liked satirising it. This is clearly apparent in this short story, which Verne presents as one of those things that could only happen in America. The over-the-top entrepreneur Hopkins has that can-do attitude that gains the admiration of his countrymen, but is he the real deal or is he full of hot air? I found the discovery of ancient human fossils an interesting subject for a Verne story, but this one concentrates on social satire much more than on paleontology. In fact, the interest here is mostly the satire, since the plot is quite basic.
Au xxixe siècle : La Journée d'un journaliste américain en 2889 ("In the Twenty-ninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889")
Plot: The story, set in the 29th century, follows a day in the life of an American journalist and businessman named Francis Bennett, who owns a newspaper called the Earth Chronicle. Throughout the story, Firmin Bennett uses various technological advancements to conduct his business and personal life, and we see some of the wonders of the future world.
Comment: A bit shorter than the other stories in the book, this is one of those science-fiction tour de forces where the author tries to anticipate what life will be like in the future, and what technological advances will be available. As often happens with these things, Verne does some interesting things extrapolating from what existed in his time, and presents suitably wondrous advances in communication, transport, energy. However, he of course missed things that he had no way of guessing, like the rise of computers, the internet and AIs. He is also blind to social change, and in that sense the society he describes is not that different from Verne's own. The positions of high qualifications and responsibility are filled by men; while the main character conducts his business, his wife is in Europe buying clothes and hats, although in frequent contact with him through teleconference. He does get some political guesses right, like the impossibility of wars between superpowers because of mutual assured destruction or China's one-child policy. All in all, it's fun seeing how Verne envisioned the future from his late 19th century perspective.
L'Éternel Adam ("The Eternal Adam")
Plot: Zartog Sofr-Aï-Sran, an archaeologist from a civilization much different from ours, is in the middle of a scientific controversy about the origins of humankind. Due to their interpretation of the archeological record, some scientists believe that humanity's ancestors lost craneal capacity at some point, before recovering it again. Zartog discovers a buried ancient document, that he is eventually able to translate. It is the journal of a man claiming to be a survivor to the total destruction of civilisation.
Comment: This may be my favorite Verne short story. It feels like a Golden Age science fiction story, with sense of wonder and a lot to think about. It's a pity Verne did not expand it into a novel.
See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/thread...
January 4, 2026
Among Jules Verne fans, I.O. Evans' work as editor is problematic. He was known to edit out some of the more adult content of Verne's works, engage in some faulty translation, etc. This collection of Jules Verne short stories, "Yesterday and Tomorrow" has some editorial problems.
To start with, Evans stated he omitted two stories from the book because they were of inferior quality. Perhaps so. But as a Jules Verne fan, I would like to read the stories and judge for myself how bad they are. Because quite frankly, as far I'm concerned, the tales in this book are largely mediocre. They're definitely not among the best thing Verne wrote. The only exceptions were "Frrritt-Flacc" and "Mr. Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flat". "The Eternal Adam" would have been better if not for all the improbable elements in it. (All but a relatively tiny mass of land covered by water. Only one ship survived this fantastic deluge. [You mean there weren't any other ocean liners out and full of people when this disaster struck? How likely is that?])
I might have liked "Ten Hours Hunting" a whole lot better if the editor, I.O. Evans, hadn't decided to include a huge spoiler in his introduction to the story. The spoiler ruined part of the impact of the story. I'd've found it funnier if I hadn't been expecting something to happen, something Evans gave away.
Overall, "Yesterday and Tomorrow" is far from prime Jules Verne. It's definitely for the die-hard fan (like me). Now that I think about it, "Yesterday and Tomorrow" reads like it's the literary equivalent of song demos, outtakes and scenes deleted from a movie. There are some decent stories in it, but for the most part there's better writings by Jules Verne available.
To start with, Evans stated he omitted two stories from the book because they were of inferior quality. Perhaps so. But as a Jules Verne fan, I would like to read the stories and judge for myself how bad they are. Because quite frankly, as far I'm concerned, the tales in this book are largely mediocre. They're definitely not among the best thing Verne wrote. The only exceptions were "Frrritt-Flacc" and "Mr. Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flat". "The Eternal Adam" would have been better if not for all the improbable elements in it. (All but a relatively tiny mass of land covered by water. Only one ship survived this fantastic deluge. [You mean there weren't any other ocean liners out and full of people when this disaster struck? How likely is that?])
I might have liked "Ten Hours Hunting" a whole lot better if the editor, I.O. Evans, hadn't decided to include a huge spoiler in his introduction to the story. The spoiler ruined part of the impact of the story. I'd've found it funnier if I hadn't been expecting something to happen, something Evans gave away.
Overall, "Yesterday and Tomorrow" is far from prime Jules Verne. It's definitely for the die-hard fan (like me). Now that I think about it, "Yesterday and Tomorrow" reads like it's the literary equivalent of song demos, outtakes and scenes deleted from a movie. There are some decent stories in it, but for the most part there's better writings by Jules Verne available.
August 29, 2017
Sáenz de Jubera, finales de 1910 ó 1920 (ya no sé qué edición tengo). Lo mismo que con las póstumas de Verne, todo modificado y alterado por Michel, e incluso alguna cosa original de él mismo, como la del Periodista en el siglo XXX, el Eterno Adán y casi el Destino de Juan Morenas, que fue completamente re escrita.
August 26, 2024
I really tried
It was a hard read
It was a hard read
April 15, 2013
review of
Jules Verne's Yesterday And Tomorrow
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - April 14, 2013
As is entirely too often the case, my review is "too long" to be presented in its entirety here so I've had to put it under the "My Writing" section of my GoodReads profile. The end of it is truncated here. For the entire review go here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3...
For those of you who are only familiar w/ Verne's more famous novels that involve gadgetry & 'exotic' travels & who want to read some short stories that show a more diverse side to his imagination, this bk is for you. Selected largely from "filler" stories that Verne himself might've considered minor, there are, nonetheless, some interesting things here.
From I. O. Evans' introduction: "Five years after Jules Verne's death in 1905, half-a-dozen of his shorter works, which had never previously been published in book form, were included in one volume." [..] "That volume forms the basis of the present collection of short stories and oddments, hitherto, so far as I can ascertain, unpublished in Britain." (p 7) That means that it probably took 60 yrs after Verne's death for these to appear in English. Strange, isn't it?, that even a writer as popular as Verne was so neglected.
"Two stories included in the original volume have, however, been omitted as lacking in general interest, and have been replaced by others culled from various sources.
"One of the omissions, La Famille Raton (this could perhaps best be translated as "Mr. Rat and his Family") seems to be a fairy-story, but it is so absurdly fantastic that one cannot be certain whether Verne meant it "seriously" as an entertainment for children or simply as a burlesque for the amusement of sardonic adults; it appeared in the Figaro illustré for January 1891.
"The title of the other, Le Humbug, needs no translation: this is a fierce satire of the type of character whom the author disliked intensely, the boastful mendacious American "go-getter"; its hero is a caricature of a super-Barnum. Written about 1893, it never appeared before Verne's death; it may, indeed, not have been written with a view to publication at all - its author may simply have been "letting off steam."" - p 7
As usual, I find the editor/translator's excising choices to be execrable. At least he lets the reader know what he left out - in the process of wch he gets me interested in what he's not made available to me. Too bad.
The 1st story in the collection was probably of the most immediate interest to me for this reason: "This long-short story, "The Eternal Adam," is believed to be the last of Verne's works; afflicted with cataract, he dictated it almost from his death-bed." (p 9) Imagine that! What will YOU be doing on yr death bed? I imagine myself alone, perhaps talking to a vaudeo-camcorder.
"The Eternal Adam" continues the investigation of evolution vs religion that was so well developed in Verne's novel entitled The Village In The Treetops (see my review here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3... ). At the same time, it investigates the possible circularity of human development & devolution: "For more than eight thousand years, the history of the Mahart-Iten-Schu, gradually getting more complete and more exact, described only conflicts and wars, at first of individual against individual, then of family against family, then of tribe against tribe." (p 11)
Writing assumes an important place in this history: "mankind had invented writing, so as to perpetuate his thoughts. Then - the invention went back more than five hundred years - he had found a method of spreading the written word far and wide in an endless number of copies by the aid of a block cast once and for all. It was really from this invention that all others had sprung." (p 14) How many people think of writing as an "invention" - the printing press, yes, but writing? I like the idea of inventions that are more thought process oriented than they are object oriented.
"Zartog Sofr" [..] "by systematising and codifying the patient observations of his predecessors and of himself" [..] "had arrived at his law of the evolution of living matter, a law universally accepted". (p 15) Does this imply that, to Verne's mind, in the 4 yrs since The Village In The Treetops & this story that he found 'Darwinism' to be "universally accepted"? As w/ that novel, Verne has his character question this over the 'missing link issue': "Between man and the animals there was no point of union." (p 16)
On the subject of skulls found: "The very largest were found among the debris, somewhat scanty to be sure, found on the surface of the layer of silt. The conscientious examination of these venerable remains admitted of no doubt that the men living at that distant epoch had a cerebral development far superior to that of their successors - including the very contemporaries of Zartog Sofr. So that, during a period of a hundred and sixty or a hundred and seventy centuries, there had been an obvious retrogression, followed by a new ascent." (pp 17-18) One of the only things I remember from a Physical Anthropology course I took 38 or so yrs ago is that Neanderthals had bigger brains than contemporary humans & that this didn't necessarily indicate superior intelligence. SO, so much for Verne's character's simple-minded assertion.
Verne has his character Sofr take what strikes me as a pretty atheistic position: "When you have given up trying to understand something, it is only too easy to bring in the intervention of a deity. But that makes it useless to look for an answer to the riddles of the universe, for no sooner are the questions asked than they are suppressed." (p 20) Thank you, Jules Verne. At least one supposedly devout Christian had the courage to say such a thing on his deathbed instead of whimpering for the protection of a deity out of fear.
Sofr finds an ancient time capsule & translates it, thus bringing the reader back to the '20th century':
"That was the beginning of the discussion. A fervent Darwinist, and a convinced supporter of natural selection, Moreno asked Bathurst ironically if he seriously believed if he seriously believed in the legend of the Earthly Paradise. Bathurst replied that at any rate he believed in God and that as the existence of Adam and Eve was stated in the Bible, he refused to question it.
"Moreno retorted that he believed in God at least as much as his adversary, but it was quite likely that the first man and the first woman were only myths and symbols. So there was nothing irreligious in supposing that the Bible had meant thus to typify the breath of life introduced by the Creative Power into the first cell, from which all the others had then evolved." - p 24
I suspect that Verne identified more w/ his Moreno character. This time capsule reveals to Sofr a story akin to other 'last-man-on-Earth' narratives such as Mary Shelley's 1826 The Last Man & M. P. Shiel's 1901 The Purple Cloud or it cd be sd that "The Eternal Adam" presages such stories as Ward Moore's 1942 Greener Than You Think or the 4 disaster novels of J. G. Ballard - esp the 1962 The Drowned World. Wd Ballard have known of Verne's story? "Dr. Moreno put forward the theory that these remains must have come from ancient Atlantis". (p 42) How long have myths of Atlantis been around for?
In the time-capsule-related disaster narrative, Verne has his characters observe evolution occurring at a fantastically accelerated rate. This seems like another indication to me that the dying Verne had come to be at peace w/ the notion of evolution & wished to describe it on a human scale: "A few, however, able to adapt themselves to the new living conditions, flourished in the fresh water just as they had in the salt. But the process did not stop there: a few of these plants gifted with an even greater power of accommodation, adapted themselves first to fresh water and then to the open air. At first along the banks and then further and further away from them they have spread into the interior." - p 43
This story, in & of itself, made reading this collection worthwhile to me. While I didn't particularly like the next story, "The Fate of Jean Morenas", it was at least so over-the-top romantic that it was interesting. The editor/translator explains: "This story is another of those which never appeared during its author's lifetime - understandably enough, for it is obviously full of the wildest improbabilities." [..] "Verne had in his early days derived much inspiration from two of the leading authors of his own country, Dumas and Victor Hugo." (p 49) &, yes, I can definitely see their influences here.
One can also see the unfortunate conventional prejudices of the editor in things quoted above: He distrusts the "absurdly fantastic", rejects "fierce satire" & "wild[..] improbabilities", Definitely NOT a man after my own heart!!
One can see the influence of such Dumas stories as The Count of Monte Cristo or The Man in the Iron Mask in wch men are imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit, etc. Verne waxes philosophical re prisons:
"If there is any place in the world where equality ought to not prevail it is certainly within a prison. Varying with the magnitude of the crimes and the degree of moral turpitude, the scale of penalties ought to imply distinctions of castes and ranks. But far from this. Convicts of all ages and types are shamefully huddled together. From that deplorable promiscuity there can only result a hideous corruption, and the contagion of evil ravages among this gangrenous mass." - p 51
In other words, 'evil' people are stronger than 'good' ones & will bring them down to their 'level'. Why not apply this to all of society then? Personally, I think that influence can go both ways. At any rate, the romanticism of this story is of the type where the hero's very heroicism produces the greatest tragedy. It's quite the tear-jerker.
Next is "An Ideal City", an address he gave to the Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts of Amiens upon becoming an elected member: "The following address, which appeared in the Academy's "Memories" for 1875, though not to be taken too seriously, shows, according to his biographer Marguerite de la Fuye, "a humorous and enlightened appreciation of urban problems." It also shows his concern at the growing Americanization of European life, and it gives some interesting sidelights - which, we may be sure, were not wasted on his audience - on contemporary conditions in Amiens." (p 83) I'm reminded of a guy that I, unfortunately, used to work for, who gave speeches that were written for him by speech-writing software. No such shortcuts for Verne! This lecture wd be a delight in any day & age! Verne went that extra light-yr.
He takes advantage of a time-travel dream pretext to do things like promote the train line that he thinks does the best job: ""instead of the "N" of the Nord line, I saw the "P" and the "F" of Picardy and Flanders. What did this mean? Had the little company absorbed the big one, by any chance? Were we now going to have the carriages heated, even when it was cold in October, against all the company's rules? Were we going to have the compartments properly dusted?" - p 85
Verne's humorous vision of the future included music:
"Nothing musical in these phrases. No melody, no time, no harmony! The quintessence of Wagner? The algebra of sound? The triumph of discord! An effort like that of instruments being tuned in an orchestra, before the curtain rises!
"Around me, the strollers, now grouped together, were applauding in a style which I'd seen only at gymnastic displays.
""But it's the music of the future?" I exclaimed in spite of myself. "Have I left my own time?"
"Certainly this seemed likely, for on approaching the notice which gave the names of the pieces, I read this bewildering title:
""No.1: Reverie in a minor key on the Square of the hypotenuse!"" - p 88
The word "prophetic", of course, often occurs in relation to Verne & I'd say that that passage is exemplary of both foresight & music theory mediocrity. Bringing mathematics in is prophetic, choosing Wagner as an example of the 'far-out-nik' shows how limited his knowledge 'inevitably' was: Wagner is implied to have no "melody, no time, no harmony". Hardly. But, HEY!, this was 1875 - I think that the things that truly radically altered music didn't start to happen until at least 10 yrs later. So who can blame Verne?
But Verne becomes truly farsighted only 2 pp later when he predicts a concert essentially streamed world-wide electronically:
""But if he isn't coming, when will he give this concert?"
""He's giving it now."
""Here?"
""Yes, here, in Amiens, and at the same time in London, Vienna, Rome, St. Petersburg, and Pekin!""
[..]
""Just read the notice! You'll see that this is an electrical concert!"
"I read the notice, and indeed at that very moment the famous ivory-pounder was playing in Paris; but by no means of electric wires his instrument was linked up with the pianos of London, Vienna, Rome, St. Petersburg, and Pekin. So, whenever he struck a note, the identical note resounded on the strings of these distant pianos, the keys being instantaneously depressed by the electric current!" - p 90
A similarly wonderful prediction is made in Verne's novel Carpathian Castle (wch I've reviewed here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... ). Verne encounters a future doctor: ""Our sick! Have we had any sick since France adopted the Chinese system! Now it's just as if you were in China." / "In China! That wouldn't much surprise me!" / "Yes, our patients pay us their fees only so long as they keep well!" (p 94) Ha! Well that cd be a double-edged sword - a healthy person might become sick just from the pressure of having to pay a doctor all the time. Becoming sick wd be a way of avoiding unaffordable debt.
American industrial efficiency is parodied: "Then on all sides were machines of American origin, carried to the last extremes of progress. One was given a live pig, and out of it came two hams, one York and one Westphalian! To another was offered a rabbit, still quivering, and it produced a silk hat! This one absorbed an ordinary fleece and ejected a complete suit of clothes in the best style! That one devoured a three-year-old calf and reproduced it in the twofold form of a smoking blanquette of veal and a pair of newly-polished shoes!" (p 101) Harumph! Seems awfully genocidal to me! Why not the repurposing of already dead things?
A comedy about hunting seems like a funny thing to have follow that last bit but there it is: "Ten Hours Hunting". The narrator is rather forcefully invited to go hunting. It's shockingly revealed that he's never had a gun. He goes to an inn where a scene ensues worthy of Rabelais or Sterne: "And there was I, who'd naively asked our hostess, an old lady of Picardy with an untidy shock of hair, if there were any fleas in our room! / "Oh, no!" she'd told me. "The lice eat them!"" (p 109)
Then, "Frritt-Flacc", "Greatly influenced though he was by the work of Adgar Allan Poe, Verne wrote very few occult or "horror" stories. Here is one of the exceptions, which appears to have been suggested by Poe's, "William Wilson."" (p 124) This one's partially interesting just for the sound effects of the title as they appear throughout. It's also a conspicuously moral tale told to presumably influence the character of his readers.
"Gli Braltar": "Much as he found to admire in the British character, Verne seems to have developed a great dislike of what is now called the country's "establishment," and to have regarded british imperialism with a very unfavorable eye - the inclusion in the Empire of Gilbraltar seems to have especially jarred upon him." (p 133) Ok, this was published in 1887 & it can be sd to be both anti-imperialist & pro animal rights!
""Will you surrender?" he howled.
""Never!" replied General MacKackmale.
Suddenly, just as the soldiers were surrounding him, Gil Braltar emitted a prolonged and shrill "Sriss." At once the courtyard of the house itself, were filled with an invading army.
"Could it be credible! They were monkeys, they were apes - hundreds of them! Had they come to seize from the English that Rock of which they themselves are the true owners, that hill on which they had dwelt even before the Spanish, and certainly long before Cromwell had dreamed of conquering it for Britain?" - pp 137-138
Amazing. As w/ the other 5 bks by Verne that I've recently reviewed I was going to give this a 3 star rating but just transcribing that little bit has prompted me to make this one a 4! This particular story even has a pretty darned good punchline that I'm going to give away here (w/o really giving away what leads up to it): "And that is why England, always practical, decided that in future it would send to the Rock only the ugliest of its generals, so that the monkeys could be deceived once more." - p 140
Jules Verne's Yesterday And Tomorrow
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - April 14, 2013
As is entirely too often the case, my review is "too long" to be presented in its entirety here so I've had to put it under the "My Writing" section of my GoodReads profile. The end of it is truncated here. For the entire review go here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3...
For those of you who are only familiar w/ Verne's more famous novels that involve gadgetry & 'exotic' travels & who want to read some short stories that show a more diverse side to his imagination, this bk is for you. Selected largely from "filler" stories that Verne himself might've considered minor, there are, nonetheless, some interesting things here.
From I. O. Evans' introduction: "Five years after Jules Verne's death in 1905, half-a-dozen of his shorter works, which had never previously been published in book form, were included in one volume." [..] "That volume forms the basis of the present collection of short stories and oddments, hitherto, so far as I can ascertain, unpublished in Britain." (p 7) That means that it probably took 60 yrs after Verne's death for these to appear in English. Strange, isn't it?, that even a writer as popular as Verne was so neglected.
"Two stories included in the original volume have, however, been omitted as lacking in general interest, and have been replaced by others culled from various sources.
"One of the omissions, La Famille Raton (this could perhaps best be translated as "Mr. Rat and his Family") seems to be a fairy-story, but it is so absurdly fantastic that one cannot be certain whether Verne meant it "seriously" as an entertainment for children or simply as a burlesque for the amusement of sardonic adults; it appeared in the Figaro illustré for January 1891.
"The title of the other, Le Humbug, needs no translation: this is a fierce satire of the type of character whom the author disliked intensely, the boastful mendacious American "go-getter"; its hero is a caricature of a super-Barnum. Written about 1893, it never appeared before Verne's death; it may, indeed, not have been written with a view to publication at all - its author may simply have been "letting off steam."" - p 7
As usual, I find the editor/translator's excising choices to be execrable. At least he lets the reader know what he left out - in the process of wch he gets me interested in what he's not made available to me. Too bad.
The 1st story in the collection was probably of the most immediate interest to me for this reason: "This long-short story, "The Eternal Adam," is believed to be the last of Verne's works; afflicted with cataract, he dictated it almost from his death-bed." (p 9) Imagine that! What will YOU be doing on yr death bed? I imagine myself alone, perhaps talking to a vaudeo-camcorder.
"The Eternal Adam" continues the investigation of evolution vs religion that was so well developed in Verne's novel entitled The Village In The Treetops (see my review here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3... ). At the same time, it investigates the possible circularity of human development & devolution: "For more than eight thousand years, the history of the Mahart-Iten-Schu, gradually getting more complete and more exact, described only conflicts and wars, at first of individual against individual, then of family against family, then of tribe against tribe." (p 11)
Writing assumes an important place in this history: "mankind had invented writing, so as to perpetuate his thoughts. Then - the invention went back more than five hundred years - he had found a method of spreading the written word far and wide in an endless number of copies by the aid of a block cast once and for all. It was really from this invention that all others had sprung." (p 14) How many people think of writing as an "invention" - the printing press, yes, but writing? I like the idea of inventions that are more thought process oriented than they are object oriented.
"Zartog Sofr" [..] "by systematising and codifying the patient observations of his predecessors and of himself" [..] "had arrived at his law of the evolution of living matter, a law universally accepted". (p 15) Does this imply that, to Verne's mind, in the 4 yrs since The Village In The Treetops & this story that he found 'Darwinism' to be "universally accepted"? As w/ that novel, Verne has his character question this over the 'missing link issue': "Between man and the animals there was no point of union." (p 16)
On the subject of skulls found: "The very largest were found among the debris, somewhat scanty to be sure, found on the surface of the layer of silt. The conscientious examination of these venerable remains admitted of no doubt that the men living at that distant epoch had a cerebral development far superior to that of their successors - including the very contemporaries of Zartog Sofr. So that, during a period of a hundred and sixty or a hundred and seventy centuries, there had been an obvious retrogression, followed by a new ascent." (pp 17-18) One of the only things I remember from a Physical Anthropology course I took 38 or so yrs ago is that Neanderthals had bigger brains than contemporary humans & that this didn't necessarily indicate superior intelligence. SO, so much for Verne's character's simple-minded assertion.
Verne has his character Sofr take what strikes me as a pretty atheistic position: "When you have given up trying to understand something, it is only too easy to bring in the intervention of a deity. But that makes it useless to look for an answer to the riddles of the universe, for no sooner are the questions asked than they are suppressed." (p 20) Thank you, Jules Verne. At least one supposedly devout Christian had the courage to say such a thing on his deathbed instead of whimpering for the protection of a deity out of fear.
Sofr finds an ancient time capsule & translates it, thus bringing the reader back to the '20th century':
"That was the beginning of the discussion. A fervent Darwinist, and a convinced supporter of natural selection, Moreno asked Bathurst ironically if he seriously believed if he seriously believed in the legend of the Earthly Paradise. Bathurst replied that at any rate he believed in God and that as the existence of Adam and Eve was stated in the Bible, he refused to question it.
"Moreno retorted that he believed in God at least as much as his adversary, but it was quite likely that the first man and the first woman were only myths and symbols. So there was nothing irreligious in supposing that the Bible had meant thus to typify the breath of life introduced by the Creative Power into the first cell, from which all the others had then evolved." - p 24
I suspect that Verne identified more w/ his Moreno character. This time capsule reveals to Sofr a story akin to other 'last-man-on-Earth' narratives such as Mary Shelley's 1826 The Last Man & M. P. Shiel's 1901 The Purple Cloud or it cd be sd that "The Eternal Adam" presages such stories as Ward Moore's 1942 Greener Than You Think or the 4 disaster novels of J. G. Ballard - esp the 1962 The Drowned World. Wd Ballard have known of Verne's story? "Dr. Moreno put forward the theory that these remains must have come from ancient Atlantis". (p 42) How long have myths of Atlantis been around for?
In the time-capsule-related disaster narrative, Verne has his characters observe evolution occurring at a fantastically accelerated rate. This seems like another indication to me that the dying Verne had come to be at peace w/ the notion of evolution & wished to describe it on a human scale: "A few, however, able to adapt themselves to the new living conditions, flourished in the fresh water just as they had in the salt. But the process did not stop there: a few of these plants gifted with an even greater power of accommodation, adapted themselves first to fresh water and then to the open air. At first along the banks and then further and further away from them they have spread into the interior." - p 43
This story, in & of itself, made reading this collection worthwhile to me. While I didn't particularly like the next story, "The Fate of Jean Morenas", it was at least so over-the-top romantic that it was interesting. The editor/translator explains: "This story is another of those which never appeared during its author's lifetime - understandably enough, for it is obviously full of the wildest improbabilities." [..] "Verne had in his early days derived much inspiration from two of the leading authors of his own country, Dumas and Victor Hugo." (p 49) &, yes, I can definitely see their influences here.
One can also see the unfortunate conventional prejudices of the editor in things quoted above: He distrusts the "absurdly fantastic", rejects "fierce satire" & "wild[..] improbabilities", Definitely NOT a man after my own heart!!
One can see the influence of such Dumas stories as The Count of Monte Cristo or The Man in the Iron Mask in wch men are imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit, etc. Verne waxes philosophical re prisons:
"If there is any place in the world where equality ought to not prevail it is certainly within a prison. Varying with the magnitude of the crimes and the degree of moral turpitude, the scale of penalties ought to imply distinctions of castes and ranks. But far from this. Convicts of all ages and types are shamefully huddled together. From that deplorable promiscuity there can only result a hideous corruption, and the contagion of evil ravages among this gangrenous mass." - p 51
In other words, 'evil' people are stronger than 'good' ones & will bring them down to their 'level'. Why not apply this to all of society then? Personally, I think that influence can go both ways. At any rate, the romanticism of this story is of the type where the hero's very heroicism produces the greatest tragedy. It's quite the tear-jerker.
Next is "An Ideal City", an address he gave to the Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts of Amiens upon becoming an elected member: "The following address, which appeared in the Academy's "Memories" for 1875, though not to be taken too seriously, shows, according to his biographer Marguerite de la Fuye, "a humorous and enlightened appreciation of urban problems." It also shows his concern at the growing Americanization of European life, and it gives some interesting sidelights - which, we may be sure, were not wasted on his audience - on contemporary conditions in Amiens." (p 83) I'm reminded of a guy that I, unfortunately, used to work for, who gave speeches that were written for him by speech-writing software. No such shortcuts for Verne! This lecture wd be a delight in any day & age! Verne went that extra light-yr.
He takes advantage of a time-travel dream pretext to do things like promote the train line that he thinks does the best job: ""instead of the "N" of the Nord line, I saw the "P" and the "F" of Picardy and Flanders. What did this mean? Had the little company absorbed the big one, by any chance? Were we now going to have the carriages heated, even when it was cold in October, against all the company's rules? Were we going to have the compartments properly dusted?" - p 85
Verne's humorous vision of the future included music:
"Nothing musical in these phrases. No melody, no time, no harmony! The quintessence of Wagner? The algebra of sound? The triumph of discord! An effort like that of instruments being tuned in an orchestra, before the curtain rises!
"Around me, the strollers, now grouped together, were applauding in a style which I'd seen only at gymnastic displays.
""But it's the music of the future?" I exclaimed in spite of myself. "Have I left my own time?"
"Certainly this seemed likely, for on approaching the notice which gave the names of the pieces, I read this bewildering title:
""No.1: Reverie in a minor key on the Square of the hypotenuse!"" - p 88
The word "prophetic", of course, often occurs in relation to Verne & I'd say that that passage is exemplary of both foresight & music theory mediocrity. Bringing mathematics in is prophetic, choosing Wagner as an example of the 'far-out-nik' shows how limited his knowledge 'inevitably' was: Wagner is implied to have no "melody, no time, no harmony". Hardly. But, HEY!, this was 1875 - I think that the things that truly radically altered music didn't start to happen until at least 10 yrs later. So who can blame Verne?
But Verne becomes truly farsighted only 2 pp later when he predicts a concert essentially streamed world-wide electronically:
""But if he isn't coming, when will he give this concert?"
""He's giving it now."
""Here?"
""Yes, here, in Amiens, and at the same time in London, Vienna, Rome, St. Petersburg, and Pekin!""
[..]
""Just read the notice! You'll see that this is an electrical concert!"
"I read the notice, and indeed at that very moment the famous ivory-pounder was playing in Paris; but by no means of electric wires his instrument was linked up with the pianos of London, Vienna, Rome, St. Petersburg, and Pekin. So, whenever he struck a note, the identical note resounded on the strings of these distant pianos, the keys being instantaneously depressed by the electric current!" - p 90
A similarly wonderful prediction is made in Verne's novel Carpathian Castle (wch I've reviewed here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... ). Verne encounters a future doctor: ""Our sick! Have we had any sick since France adopted the Chinese system! Now it's just as if you were in China." / "In China! That wouldn't much surprise me!" / "Yes, our patients pay us their fees only so long as they keep well!" (p 94) Ha! Well that cd be a double-edged sword - a healthy person might become sick just from the pressure of having to pay a doctor all the time. Becoming sick wd be a way of avoiding unaffordable debt.
American industrial efficiency is parodied: "Then on all sides were machines of American origin, carried to the last extremes of progress. One was given a live pig, and out of it came two hams, one York and one Westphalian! To another was offered a rabbit, still quivering, and it produced a silk hat! This one absorbed an ordinary fleece and ejected a complete suit of clothes in the best style! That one devoured a three-year-old calf and reproduced it in the twofold form of a smoking blanquette of veal and a pair of newly-polished shoes!" (p 101) Harumph! Seems awfully genocidal to me! Why not the repurposing of already dead things?
A comedy about hunting seems like a funny thing to have follow that last bit but there it is: "Ten Hours Hunting". The narrator is rather forcefully invited to go hunting. It's shockingly revealed that he's never had a gun. He goes to an inn where a scene ensues worthy of Rabelais or Sterne: "And there was I, who'd naively asked our hostess, an old lady of Picardy with an untidy shock of hair, if there were any fleas in our room! / "Oh, no!" she'd told me. "The lice eat them!"" (p 109)
Then, "Frritt-Flacc", "Greatly influenced though he was by the work of Adgar Allan Poe, Verne wrote very few occult or "horror" stories. Here is one of the exceptions, which appears to have been suggested by Poe's, "William Wilson."" (p 124) This one's partially interesting just for the sound effects of the title as they appear throughout. It's also a conspicuously moral tale told to presumably influence the character of his readers.
"Gli Braltar": "Much as he found to admire in the British character, Verne seems to have developed a great dislike of what is now called the country's "establishment," and to have regarded british imperialism with a very unfavorable eye - the inclusion in the Empire of Gilbraltar seems to have especially jarred upon him." (p 133) Ok, this was published in 1887 & it can be sd to be both anti-imperialist & pro animal rights!
""Will you surrender?" he howled.
""Never!" replied General MacKackmale.
Suddenly, just as the soldiers were surrounding him, Gil Braltar emitted a prolonged and shrill "Sriss." At once the courtyard of the house itself, were filled with an invading army.
"Could it be credible! They were monkeys, they were apes - hundreds of them! Had they come to seize from the English that Rock of which they themselves are the true owners, that hill on which they had dwelt even before the Spanish, and certainly long before Cromwell had dreamed of conquering it for Britain?" - pp 137-138
Amazing. As w/ the other 5 bks by Verne that I've recently reviewed I was going to give this a 3 star rating but just transcribing that little bit has prompted me to make this one a 4! This particular story even has a pretty darned good punchline that I'm going to give away here (w/o really giving away what leads up to it): "And that is why England, always practical, decided that in future it would send to the Rock only the ugliest of its generals, so that the monkeys could be deceived once more." - p 140
September 14, 2025
Verne died in 1905 with a lot of unpublished works, including short stories in this collection. Quite different from his adventure novels, which have given me the first impression that he's not a versatile writer. This has proven me wrong! My faves:
The Eternal Adam: the rise and fall of the human species seem to be cyclical; "...to admit that man--forty thousand years ago!--had reached a civilisation comparable with--if not superior to--that which we enjoy today? ...But that would be to deny the future, to announce that our efforts are all in vain, and that progress is as precarious and as uncertain as a bubble of foam on the surface of the waves!"
The Fate of Jean Morénas: I never would've thought I'd get emotional with this "Shawshank Redemption" + heartbreaking love story written by ...Verne!
Gil Braltar: satirical commentary on imperialism; "...to be overcome by mere apes! ...This simple precaution will secure it for ever the ownership of Gibraltar." (Is this Boulle's inspiration for "Planet of the Apes"?)
There are 5 other short stories in here, 2 of them antiquated but whimsical/funny thought experiments on utopian (steampunk-esque) futures, another 2 non-SF Mark Twain-esque anecdotes, and 1 that's very much gothic horror, similar to Edgar Allan Poe's. Highly recommended! I wonder why he'd decided that these were unworthy of being published?
The Eternal Adam: the rise and fall of the human species seem to be cyclical; "...to admit that man--forty thousand years ago!--had reached a civilisation comparable with--if not superior to--that which we enjoy today? ...But that would be to deny the future, to announce that our efforts are all in vain, and that progress is as precarious and as uncertain as a bubble of foam on the surface of the waves!"
The Fate of Jean Morénas: I never would've thought I'd get emotional with this "Shawshank Redemption" + heartbreaking love story written by ...Verne!
Gil Braltar: satirical commentary on imperialism; "...to be overcome by mere apes! ...This simple precaution will secure it for ever the ownership of Gibraltar." (Is this Boulle's inspiration for "Planet of the Apes"?)
There are 5 other short stories in here, 2 of them antiquated but whimsical/funny thought experiments on utopian (steampunk-esque) futures, another 2 non-SF Mark Twain-esque anecdotes, and 1 that's very much gothic horror, similar to Edgar Allan Poe's. Highly recommended! I wonder why he'd decided that these were unworthy of being published?
February 7, 2019
The Eternal Adam was a great story. The second one was good too. The rest were entertaining but not overly special in any way, hence the three stars
June 16, 2021
A very enjoyable collection of his short stories. It was fascinating to see a different side of the great storyteller.
December 18, 2007
This is a collection of very varied stories, not all equally good, but the best of them are extremely interesting. For me, the best are the two clearly science fiction pieces, "The New Adam" and "A Journalist of the 29th Century." "The New Adam" would be harrowing if it were not mercifully short (about 40 pages). It describes the extermination of most of humanity circa 1900 -- a handful of survivors escape in Mexico by fleeing up a mountain in an early auto just ahead of a tsunami (this is vividly illuistrated on the cover). They later join the crew of a British ship, and sail across the world, finding nearly all the land has sunk. They eventually land on what is apparently the only remaining island, where their descendents rapidly revert to savagery despite the best efforts of a few remaining scholars to preserve their knowledge. This story is set within a frame story in which a scholar of the far-distant future
who has, in effect, reinvented Darwinian evolution,
is dismayed to discover archaelogical evidence that
humanity, instead of descending from apes, had regressed from a higher civilization after a cataclysm. This is interesting as showing what archaeology should, in fact, reveal, if the young-earth creationists were correct. (Verne himself is said to have been opposed to Darwin, but apparently not on young earth principles. His earth is in fact older than his imaginary scientist supposes --the catacysm that destroys our civilization also reveals ruins from Atlantis, so it is even older than we know).The brief sketch of the history of this scholar's culture is an agreeable example of Vernse's sheer inventive subcreation for its own sake: he outlines centuries of history including 3 competing nations with intersting invented names, finally absorbed into one empire, which has now lasted 200 years but is showing signs of decay. It reminded me a bit of Olaf Stapleton, whom I know only by repute for constructing vast histories in relatively short texts. "The Journalist of the 29th Century" imagines
a media tycoon very like, say, Ted Turner. He is in fact named Frank Bennet and supposedly is the heir of the nineteenth century publisher James Gordon Bennet.
His family newspaper has now been replaced by a news service delivered by a sort of visiphone -- rather like what would happen if most people came to rely on accessing their news through TV delivered on their cell phones. The story takes us through a day in the life of the tycoon, who has immense political power (he mediates a dispute between Russia, which has now annexed Germany (as Stalin nearly did) and France, which has now annexed Spain and Italy. Britain is now a colony of America (as some critics of Tony Blair would agree). Bennet's fashionable wife is able to travel by undersea tunnel (which is faster than the available airplanes) to Paris for shopping, and back
by the evening of the same day (with amusing results).
Besides these two stories, the others include a melodramatic but otherwise ordinary story set in 19th century France, concerning a prisoner rather like Dumas's Monte Cristo, a story of a greedy doctor who dies a horrible death -- again, set in an imaginary seaport in an imaginary country, which I found more intersting than the plot--and a story of Swiss village children who are almost turned into a living church organ (but this has a disappointing "it was only a dream" ending).
who has, in effect, reinvented Darwinian evolution,
is dismayed to discover archaelogical evidence that
humanity, instead of descending from apes, had regressed from a higher civilization after a cataclysm. This is interesting as showing what archaeology should, in fact, reveal, if the young-earth creationists were correct. (Verne himself is said to have been opposed to Darwin, but apparently not on young earth principles. His earth is in fact older than his imaginary scientist supposes --the catacysm that destroys our civilization also reveals ruins from Atlantis, so it is even older than we know).The brief sketch of the history of this scholar's culture is an agreeable example of Vernse's sheer inventive subcreation for its own sake: he outlines centuries of history including 3 competing nations with intersting invented names, finally absorbed into one empire, which has now lasted 200 years but is showing signs of decay. It reminded me a bit of Olaf Stapleton, whom I know only by repute for constructing vast histories in relatively short texts. "The Journalist of the 29th Century" imagines
a media tycoon very like, say, Ted Turner. He is in fact named Frank Bennet and supposedly is the heir of the nineteenth century publisher James Gordon Bennet.
His family newspaper has now been replaced by a news service delivered by a sort of visiphone -- rather like what would happen if most people came to rely on accessing their news through TV delivered on their cell phones. The story takes us through a day in the life of the tycoon, who has immense political power (he mediates a dispute between Russia, which has now annexed Germany (as Stalin nearly did) and France, which has now annexed Spain and Italy. Britain is now a colony of America (as some critics of Tony Blair would agree). Bennet's fashionable wife is able to travel by undersea tunnel (which is faster than the available airplanes) to Paris for shopping, and back
by the evening of the same day (with amusing results).
Besides these two stories, the others include a melodramatic but otherwise ordinary story set in 19th century France, concerning a prisoner rather like Dumas's Monte Cristo, a story of a greedy doctor who dies a horrible death -- again, set in an imaginary seaport in an imaginary country, which I found more intersting than the plot--and a story of Swiss village children who are almost turned into a living church organ (but this has a disappointing "it was only a dream" ending).
Read
February 9, 2014Tapestry of Temporal Travel
This particular edition's cover features an illustration from the first of eight short stories in this Jules Verne anthology. Edited by I. O. Evans YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW offers an eclectic group of tales which span the ancient past, the surrealistic or humorous present, and the distant future. In these almost 200 pages Verne explores various aspects of the human condition: the continuity of civilization, a desperate attempt to achieve justice in the penal system, light satires on municipal progress and advice for novice hunters, plus Gothic horror in a surrealistic milieu, American entrepreneurship in the 21st century, and in a Swiss village from a child's viewpoint. Even British imperialism comes under literary fire.
Some stories seem to be "fillers," while one was written on his death bed--in short, there is something for all tastes. Jules Verne--the Inventor of the Future, according to Franz Born--reveals some literary inspiration from other sci fi/fantasy authors. Despite varying length and styles there are selections sure to please devotees of Jules Verne. (Best read on a dark and stormy night by a cozy fire...)
(October 12, 2009)
This particular edition's cover features an illustration from the first of eight short stories in this Jules Verne anthology. Edited by I. O. Evans YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW offers an eclectic group of tales which span the ancient past, the surrealistic or humorous present, and the distant future. In these almost 200 pages Verne explores various aspects of the human condition: the continuity of civilization, a desperate attempt to achieve justice in the penal system, light satires on municipal progress and advice for novice hunters, plus Gothic horror in a surrealistic milieu, American entrepreneurship in the 21st century, and in a Swiss village from a child's viewpoint. Even British imperialism comes under literary fire.
Some stories seem to be "fillers," while one was written on his death bed--in short, there is something for all tastes. Jules Verne--the Inventor of the Future, according to Franz Born--reveals some literary inspiration from other sci fi/fantasy authors. Despite varying length and styles there are selections sure to please devotees of Jules Verne. (Best read on a dark and stormy night by a cozy fire...)
(October 12, 2009)
April 28, 2019
This should really be called "The Odds and Ends of Verne" or something more creative in the same vein. It is a collection of some stories that were not published in his lifetime, some short stories that were published alongside novels, and things that were probably not meant to be published at all, including one speech and one piece of juvenilia highly influenced by Victor Hugo.
With such a hodge-podge, it comes as no surprise that the quality is equally mixed. As is usual, the tales are largely entertaining, cruise along at a breezy pace, and contain some surprisingly accurate predictions of the future, including television and China introducing a policy limiting the number of kids a family could have. Overall, it's a largely entertaining read.
With such a hodge-podge, it comes as no surprise that the quality is equally mixed. As is usual, the tales are largely entertaining, cruise along at a breezy pace, and contain some surprisingly accurate predictions of the future, including television and China introducing a policy limiting the number of kids a family could have. Overall, it's a largely entertaining read.
October 15, 2011
Packed with unusual gems, this book was a most enjoyable read. I'd not experienced Verne as a humorist before, but his story about his first (and only) hunting trip is hysterical. I did not think of him as a suspense writer, but his story about the doctor is positively Poe-esque. It's not Verne's highest-quality work, but this collection of entertaining and varied vignettes is worth reading for any classical sci-fi fan.
August 19, 2016
(...) Das quatro novelas, fiquei agradavelmente presa na última ‘O Eterno Adão’. Uma premissa que se revela interessante, uma extrapolação razoável e um conjunto de eventos que nos põem a pensar no ‘E se…’. Esta foi, sem qualquer dúvida, a história que mais me cativou. (...)
Podem ler a opinião completa aqui: http://blog.sarafarinha.com/2016/08/1...
Podem ler a opinião completa aqui: http://blog.sarafarinha.com/2016/08/1...
April 9, 2013
Quite amazing how accurate Verne was considering the lack of knowledge during his time. Worth a read.
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