VERNE, JULES. Autograph manuscript of the classic science-fiction novel Voyage au centre de la Terre. [ Journey to the Center of the Earth ]. N.p., n.d. [first published 1864]. 193 pages, folio, written in a small, neat hand in dark brown ink on both sides of lined sheets (with a red vertical center rule forming two columns to a page) removed from a ledger, a working draft with extremely heavy deletions and revisions by Verne, one half of a page (left side on rectos, right side on versos) being used for the basic manuscript and the other half for insertions, revisions and for occasional notes, with comments (most rather faint) in red pencil (?in Verne's hand) on numerous pages, the first page of the manuscript slightly soiled, slight staining to a few other pages, late nineteenth-century maroon half morocco and marbled board folding case; in very good condition. THE ONLY MANUSCRIPT OF A JULES VERNE SCIENCE-FICTION NOVEL LIKELY TO BECOME AVAILABLE Formatted and written in Verne's highly unusual ledger style (he was a clerical worker and stock broker), this manuscript is evidently the one from which the printed version (Paris 1864) was set: there are mostly pencilled notes and printer's directions in a non-authorial editorial hand throughout. As Verne destroyed the bulk of his personal papers before his death (in 1905), only a few manuscripts, of which this is one--and the only one for this book--survived. Apparently Verne, in the nineteenth century, gave this manuscript to a neighbor, who eventually passed it down to his grandson and it remained in private hands until 1991. (The Verne manuscript of his science-fiction tale "Une fantaisie du docteur Ox," 1871, 26 1/2 pages, folio, was sold at Christie's New York in The Frederick R. Koch Foundation auction, 7 June 1990, lot 140, for $49,500.) Jules Verne's narrative of a professor and his two companions who follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the incredible hollow heart of the earth is the second and one of the best of his "Voyages Extraordinaires," comprising some 65 novels and all first issued by the Paris publisher Hetzel. The author's fantastic imagination, narrative skill, and ability to incorporate (and extrapolate from) the scientific knowledge of his day, place him--along with H. G. Wells--as one of the "Inventors of Science Fiction." In his "Afterword" to A Journey to the Center of the Earth (New York: Signet, 1986), Michael Dirda writes: "When...Verne began to write Journey to the Center of the Earth he was able to adapt nearly every important element in the story's action from contemporary intellectual, literary, scientific and geographical thought...This emphasis on contemporary scientific knowledge makes Verne's work differ from most earlier fantastic voyages: Sindbad, the Argonauts, Arthurian knights and Celtic saints, all traveled into realms of primarily mythic, religious or allegorical significance. By contrast, Verne's 'voyages to known and unknown worlds' share precise, up-to-date scientific backgrounds...'Of all fictions,' [the critic] Northrop Frye had observed, 'the marvelous journey is the one formula that is never exhausted.' He might have added that few writers have taken readers on more marvelous journeys than Jules Verne."
VERNE, JULES. Autograph manuscript of the classic science-fiction novel Voyage au centre de la Terre. [ Journey to the Center of the Earth ]. N.p., n.d. [first published 1864]. 193 pages, folio, written in a small, neat hand in dark brown ink on both sides of lined sheets (with a red vertical center rule forming two columns to a page) removed from a ledger, a working draft with extremely heavy deletions and revisions by Verne, one half of a page (left side on rectos, right side on versos) being used for the basic manuscript and the other half for insertions, revisions and for occasional notes, with comments (most rather faint) in red pencil (?in Verne's hand) on numerous pages, the first page of the manuscript slightly soiled, slight staining to a few other pages, late nineteenth-century maroon half morocco and marbled board folding case; in very good condition. THE ONLY MANUSCRIPT OF A JULES VERNE SCIENCE-FICTION NOVEL LIKELY TO BECOME AVAILABLE Formatted and written in Verne's highly unusual ledger style (he was a clerical worker and stock broker), this manuscript is evidently the one from which the printed version (Paris 1864) was set: there are mostly pencilled notes and printer's directions in a non-authorial editorial hand throughout. As Verne destroyed the bulk of his personal papers before his death (in 1905), only a few manuscripts, of which this is one--and the only one for this book--survived. Apparently Verne, in the nineteenth century, gave this manuscript to a neighbor, who eventually passed it down to his grandson and it remained in private hands until 1991. (The Verne manuscript of his science-fiction tale "Une fantaisie du docteur Ox," 1871, 26 1/2 pages, folio, was sold at Christie's New York in The Frederick R. Koch Foundation auction, 7 June 1990, lot 140, for $49,500.) Jules Verne's narrative of a professor and his two companions who follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the incredible hollow heart of the earth is the second and one of the best of his "Voyages Extraordinaires," comprising some 65 novels and all first issued by the Paris publisher Hetzel. The author's fantastic imagination, narrative skill, and ability to incorporate (and extrapolate from) the scientific knowledge of his day, place him--along with H. G. Wells--as one of the "Inventors of Science Fiction." In his "Afterword" to A Journey to the Center of the Earth (New York: Signet, 1986), Michael Dirda writes: "When...Verne began to write Journey to the Center of the Earth he was able to adapt nearly every important element in the story's action from contemporary intellectual, literary, scientific and geographical thought...This emphasis on contemporary scientific knowledge makes Verne's work differ from most earlier fantastic voyages: Sindbad, the Argonauts, Arthurian knights and Celtic saints, all traveled into realms of primarily mythic, religious or allegorical significance. By contrast, Verne's 'voyages to known and unknown worlds' share precise, up-to-date scientific backgrounds...'Of all fictions,' [the critic] Northrop Frye had observed, 'the marvelous journey is the one formula that is never exhausted.' He might have added that few writers have taken readers on more marvelous journeys than Jules Verne."
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
