The Mysterious Island. Jules Verne

the balloon!”

       NOTE ON PREVIOUS TRANSLATIONS

      The only translations of MI in print follow W. H. G. Kingston’s one published by Sampson Low in 1875, also available from many sites on the Internet. Much of this translation is, in my view, above average, for it provides an accurate and readable translation of most of Verne’s text, albeit in nineteenth-century English. What is unacceptable, though, is the way it changes the names (for example, “Harding” for Smith) and deletes some of the passages, such as criticism of British India or the phrase where Pencroff speaks of rewarding his crew with “a quarter liter of wine by watch!” (II, 13). It is unfair, however, to ascribe such censorship to the nationality of the author. After all, the (British and American) publishers are more likely to be guilty, and in any case passages describing the Americans as “illiterate … asses” are still deleted from present-day translations of From the Earth to the Moon (ch. 6), of whatever nationality.

      The only other translation to date, Stephen W. White’s of 1876, with a simpler style but also more deletions, has apparently not been reprinted since, although nearly as good as Kingston’s. I. O. Evans’s 1959 Fitzroy and Lowell Bair’s 1970 Bantam editions derive directly from Kingston’s but are severely abridged versions. They thus seem to break the law in passing themselves off as authentic Verne, and have criminally contributed to Verne’s reputation in the English-speaking countries. The prize for ignoring the author’s rights, however, must go to the Bibliothèque verte edition of 1963, which cuts five-sixths of the text.

      Further information about previous editions appears below, with the approximate length provided to indicate the degree of abridgement. The French text contains about 199,000 words.¹

      1. The Mysterious Island [Dropped from the Clouds, The Abandoned, The Secret of the Island] (London: Sampson Low, trans. W. H. G. Kingston, 1875)² about 195,000 words—notable reprints: (a) New York: Vincent Parke (vols. 5–6), 1911 (b) New York: Scribner, 1918 (c) New York: Signet Classics, 1986.³

      2. Mysterious Island (Warburton, 1876 [original printing: Philadelphia: The Evening Telegraph, 1876], trans. Stephen W. White) about 175,000 words.⁴

      3. The Mysterious Island [Dropped from the Clouds, Marooned, Secret of the Island (in 2 vols.)] (1959, Hanison/Associated, Fitzroy Edition, trans. erroneously indicated as I. O. Evans) about 90,000 words.⁵

      4. The Mysterious Island (1970, Bantam, abridged by Lowell Bair, erroneously indicated as trans.) about 90,000 words.⁶

      As the present volume went to print, confirmation was received of the publication of Random House Modern Library of a new translation of MI by Jordan Stump, due to appear in 2002. Although omitting the majority of Verne’s illustrations, the translation itself is excellent. (The opening words are: “‘Are we rising?’ / “‘No! Quite the reverse! We’re sinking!’ / “‘Worse than that, Mr. Cyrus! We’re falling!’ / “‘For the love of God! Drop some ballast!’”) The introduction is, however, superficial, generally ignoring the genesis of MI and the French literary context.

      NOTES

      1. Most of the information in this section was provided by Arthur B. Evans, to whom grateful thanks are recorded.

      2. Apparently reproducing earlier serial publication as follows: The Mysterious Island (1874–75, Sampson Low in St. James Magazine, trans. not indicated) and Mysterious Island (Part I: Wrecked in the Air; “Smith” rather than “Harding,” 1874–75, Scribner in Scribner’s Monthly Magazine, trans. not indicated).

      3. The opening words are: “‘Are we going up again?’ / “‘No! On the Contrary—’ / “‘Are we descending?’ / “‘Worse than that, captain! we are falling.’ / “‘For Heaven’s sake heave out the ballast!’”

      4. “‘Are we going up again?’ / “‘No. On the contrary; we are going down!’ / “‘Worse that that, Mr. Smith, we are falling!’ / “‘For God’s sake throw over all the ballast!’”

      5. “‘Are we rising again?’ / “‘No. On the contrary.’ / “‘Are we descending?’ / “‘Worse than that, captain; we are falling!’ / “‘For heaven’s sake heave out the ballast!’”

      6. “‘Are we rising?’ / “‘No, we’re sinking.’ / “‘It’s worse than that, Cyrus; we’re falling!’ / “‘For God’s sake, throw out some ballast!’”

       INCEPTION OF THE NOVEL

A. The Manuscripts of “Uncle Robinson”

      The manuscripts of “UR” and MI are kept in the Médiathèque in Nantes. Robin (234) states that the first of the two manuscripts (“the manuscript”) of “UR” contains twenty-four chapters, with almost no crossings-out or additions, except in chapters 20 to 24. “UR” (i.e. the second manuscript) has the same twenty-four chapters of approximately the same length, in the hand Verne used for final manuscripts, except that from the middle of chapter 18 (159) it is in Honorine Verne’s writing, without any crossings-out. The principal differences between the manuscript and “UR” are stylistic and in the names.¹

      Parts of an early draft may have been written before the fateful meeting with Hetzel in September 1862. Given that the internal action of Part I ends on 29 December 1861, “UR” itself must have been begun in 1861 or later. Moreover the first manuscript is dated “186.,” implying that it can not have been begun before 1860. Guermonprez and Robin think it dates from 1861; Jules-Verne, about 1860, with “UR” from 1866.² But the action of a three-volume work presumably covered a few years—MI takes four—which would mean a correspondingly later date of writing. The correspondence showed that Verne was “taking notes” in September 1865 and recopying Part I in May 1870. Dumas and van Herp (31) argue that the handwriting of the manuscript is similar to that of 1870.

      The cover of the manuscript reads “‘UR’ / First Part” but also contains a table of calculations in pencil, with “Hetzel” followed by “8,500” and, in the following line, “5,000,” presumably francs. According to Guermonprez (“Notes,” 46), Verne’s jottings in the manuscript record that “Honorine … had brought him 60,000 FF of dowry and 50,000 in prospects”—considerable sums, and ones that have not received attention in the biographies. Both sets of jottings again support an earlier manuscript, given that the wedding took place in 1857.

      “UR” begins:

      The north of the Pacific Ocean—An abandoned boat—A mother and her four children—The man at the helm—May Heaven’s will be done!—A request without a response.

      The most deserted portion of the Pacific Ocean is that vast stretch of water limited by Asia and America to the west and east, and by the Aleutians and Hawaii to the north and south. Merchant vessels venture rarely on to this sea. No point for putting in is known and the currents are capricious. The ocean-going ships transporting goods from New Holland³ to West-America [sic] remain at lower latitudes; only the commerce between Japan and San Francisco follows the route of the great circles of the globe, slightly lower. Here there accordingly exists what one can call “a desert” from the fortieth to fiftieth degree of latitude north … / Do unknown islands still exist in this sea the size of Europe? Does Micronesia⁴ stretch as far as this latitude? … In this part of the globe, two natural phenomena cause the appearance of new islands: on one hand, plutonic action which can suddenly raise a piece of land above the waves. On the other, the permanent work of Infusoria⁵ slowly creating coral-based shoals, which in a few hundred thousand years will form a sixth continent in this part of the Pacific.⁶