Journey Through the Impossible (24 page)

ACKNOWLEDGI"ENTS

1. Edward Baxter's translations of Jules Verne are Family without a Name
(Toronto: NC Press, 1982), The Fur Country (Toronto, NC Press, 1987),
[The] Invasion of the Sea (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press,
2001), The Humbug-The American Way of Life (in: The Jules Verne Encyclopedia, edited by Brian Taves and Stephen Michaluk Jr. [Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1996], pp. 73-85).

INTRODUCTION

1. Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Paris: Hetzel, 1869-1870).

2. De la Tee a la lone (Paris: Hetzel, 1865).

3. A complete bibliography of Verne's works (novels, short stories,
plays, etc.) can be found at www.jv.gilead.org.il/biblio/.

4. The most important French publisher of the nineteenth century, Pierre Jules Hetzel (1814-1886) published Alphonse Daudet, Alexandre
Dumas, Charles Dickens, Theophile Gautier, and Jules Verne. His illustrators were, among many others, Leon Benett, Emile Bayard, Georges Bertall,
Gustave Dore, Eugene Froment, Tony Johannot, and Ernest Messonier. In
1873, he turned the management of the publishing company over to his son,
Louis-Jules Hetzel, who eventually sold it to Hachette in 1914.

5. Le Sphinx des glaces (Paris: Hetzel, 1897).

6. Astounding Stories 16, no. 6 (February 1936): 8-32; 17, no. 1 (March
1936): 125-55; 17, no. 2 (April 1936): 132-50.

7. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.

8. Voyages extraordinaires. This title was given to the collection of
Verne's novels by Hetzel after the publication of the first four novels. In the
introduction to the first volume (Hatteras), Hetzel wrote, "The goal of the
series is, in fact, to outline all the geographical, geological, physical, and
astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science and to recount, in an
entertaining and picturesque format that is his own, the history of the universe" (translated by Arthur B. Evans).

9. "Jules Verne at Home," Temple Bar no. 129 (June 1904): 664-71.

10. Adolphe Philippe (1811-1899), known as Adolphe d'Ennery, was a
French playwright whose best-known piece, Les Deux orphelines (The Two
Orphans), was performed on Broadway in 1874, 1904, and 1926. His wife's
collection of oriental art (belonging to the State) can still be visited today in
Paris (Musee d'Ennery).

11. Cinq sernaines en ballon (Paris: Hetzel, 1863).

12. Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingtsjours (Paris: Hetzel, 1873).

13. Michel Strogoff (Paris: Hetzel, 1876).

14. Les Enfants du capitaine Grant (Paris: Hetzel, 1867-1868).

15. Les Voyages an theatre (Paris: Hetzel, 1881).

16. Barbara M. Barker, ed., Bolossy Kira: Creator of Great Musical Spectacles (An Autobiography) (Ann Arbor & London: UMI Research Press, 1988).

17. Alexandre Dumas pere (1802-1870), a French novelist and playwright of the romantic period. He is best remembered for his historical
novels The Three Musketeers (Les trois mousquetaires, 1844) and The Count of
Monte-Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, 1844). He sponsored Jules Verne at
the beginning of the young writer's literary career.

18. Theater built by Alexandre Dumas in 1846 and opened in 1847. His
plays as well as those of Shakespeare, Goethe, Calderon, Schiller, and others,
were performed until 1850 when the theater went bankrupt.

19. Les Pailles rompues (Paris: Beck, 1850). Performed June 12, 1850.

20. One of the main private theaters in Paris, besides the Comedic
francaise and the Opera, both of which belonged to the government.

2 1. Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), French composer and creator of the
Symphonic fantastique (1831).

22. Charles-Francois Gounod (1818-1893), French composer and creator of Faust (1859).

23. Georges Bizet (1838-1875), French composer and creator of
Carmen (1875).

24. Adolphe-Charles Adam (1803-1867), French composer and creator
of Si j'etais roi (1852).

2 5. Witty and cynical lyrical composition (created by Jacques Offenbach,
director of the Parisian theater Les Bouffes-Parisiens) that evolved out of the
opera-comique and later became the French operette during the last years of
the Second Empire. That period of transition-characterized by a spirit of
easygoing skepticism, a reaction to the Voltaireanism of the preceding century-seemed to permeate society. Everything was approached with a light
heart, possibly to hide any feelings of disquietude caused by the instability of
the regime. After the war of 1870, the taste of the public appeared to undergo
a change, and the operette-which combined certain characteristics of the
opera-bouffe and of the older opera-comique-came into vogue.

26. An exclusively French style of opera. The opera-comique (comic
opera) developed from earlier popular shows performed by troupes entertaining spectators at fairs. An opera-comique consists of spoken dialogue alternating with musical numbers (arias and orchester). The theater named
Opera-Comique in Paris was founded in 1715. The repertoire of the operacomique contains works as well known as Mozart's All Women Do So (Cosi Fan
Tutte, 1790), Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment (La Fille du Regiment,
1840), Berlioz's The Trojans (Les Troyens, 1856-1859), Bizet's Carmen (1875),
Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffrnann (Les Contes d'Hoffrnann, 1880), Verdi's Falstaff (1893), and Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande (1902).

27. Les Deux orphelines, 1874. The Two Orphans premiered on stage in
New York in 1875. Kate Claxton, the star who played Louise, made this role
famous, and owned the American rights to the play. The Two Orphans was
very popular with American audiences. The popularity of the play inspired at
least one French and three American film adaptations. The French film version, Les Deux orphelines (1910) was directed by Albert Capellani. The first
two American versions were filmed by the Selig Polyscope Company. The
first version (1908) was a one-reeler lasting twelve to fifteen minutes. Little
is known about this lost film. Selig's second adaptation (1911) was three reels long, and directed by Otis Turner. It starred Kathlyn Williams as Henriette
and Winnifred Greenwood as Louise. Both Selig versions were moderately
successful. In 1915, Fox Film Corporation produced its version (still called
The Two Orphans), directed by Herbert Brenon. It starred none other than
Theda Bara as Henriette and Jean Sothern as Louise. This version received
good reviews from critics, but failed at the box office. Unfortunately, this film
does not exist today. Orphans of the Storm (United Artists, 1921), the last of
D.W. Griffith's blockbuster epics, was produced with opulent sets, wonderful
costumes, and attention to detail. This was also the last film collaboration of
the great film director and his discoveries Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Both
sisters left Griffith's company after ten years and joined Henry King's Inspiration Pictures. They would appear together again in Romola (Inspiration
Pictures, for Metro-Goldwyn, 1925).

28. Keraban-le-tetu (Paris: Hetzel, 1883).

29. Mathias Sandorf (Paris: Hetzel, 1885).

30. "Maitre Zacharius," Musee des Families (April and May 1854): 193200 and 225-31.

31. The philosophy of Saint-Simonianism was created by Claude Henri
de Rouvroy, Count of Saint-Simon (1760-182 5), a French socialist born in
Paris. At the age of sixteen he went to the United States to fight in the American Revolution. When he returned to France, he supported the Revolution
there, giving up his title. He is considered one of the founders of modern
socialism.

32. L'Ile mysterieuse (Paris: Hetzel, 1874-1875).

33. Les Cinq cents millions de la Begum (Paris: Hetzel, 1879).

34. Paschal Grousset (1845-1909), French science fiction novelist who
wrote under the pseudonym of Andre Laurie and was published by Hetzel.
His science fiction novels, known as Les Romans d'aventures (The Adventure
Novels) and published between 1884 and 1905, truly comprise the first science fiction series ever published.

35. Maitre du monde (Paris: Hetzel, 1904).

36. Le Chateau des Carpathes (Paris: Hetzel, 1892).

37. Face an drapeau (Paris: Hetzel, 1896).

38. "Le docteur Ox" (Paris: Hetzel, 1874).

39. Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), French composer whose operettas
are considered masterpieces of the opera-comique. He was born in Cologne,
Germany, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire. By 1875 he had composed
ninety operettas.

40. Voyage au centre de la terre (Paris: Hetzel, 1864).

41. Hector Servadac (Paris: Hetzel, 1877).

42. Jules Barbier (1825-1901), French librettist who worked with
Gounod and Offenbach.

43. Michel Carre (1819-1872), French librettist who worked with
Offenbach and Jules Verne.

44. Parisian theater opened in 1782 and is still in use today.

45. Jules Verne began to work on Mona Lisa in 1851 and was still
working on it in 1855, when he wrote a letter to his mother indicating that
he was changing the title from Leonardo da Vinci to Mona Lisa. This play is in
verse and was never produced on stage. Jules Verne read it publicly in 1874
at the Academic d'Amiens. Its first publication was in 1974, in the twentyfifth issue of the magazine Cahiers de l'Herne. It's available in book form
(Paris: L'Herne, 1995).

46. Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (Paris: Hetzel, 1866).

47. Autour de la lone (Paris: Hetzel, 1870).

48. L'Ecole des robinsons (Paris: Hetzel, 1882).

49. Le Rayon vert (Paris: Hetzel, 1882).

50. Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingtsjours (Paris: Hetzel, 1873).

51. L'Etoile du sud (Paris: Hetzel, 1884).

52. Sans dessus dessous (Paris: Hetzel, 1889).

53. Robur le Conquerant (Paris: Hetzel, 1886).

54. L'lle a helice (Paris: Hetzel, 1895).

55. Jules Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery, Voyage a travers l'bnpossible
(Paris: J.J. Pauvert, 1981). Introduction, notes, and comments by Francois
Raymond and Robert Pour-voyeur.

56. Joseph Laissus, "Le Voyage a travers l'Impossible," Bulletin de la
Societe Jules Verne (Nouvelle serie) 3, no. 12 (October-December 1969):
79-81.

57. Robert Pour-voyeur, "Du nouveau ... sur l'Impossible!" Bulletin de
la Societe Jules Verne (Nouvelle serie) 12, no. 45 (January-March 1978):
137-51.

58. Oscar-Louis-Antoine-Ferdinand de Lagoanere, French composer,
born in Bordeaux on August 25, 1853. He was a prolific and successful composer and conductor. In the 1880s he became director of the Theatre des
Menus-Plaisirs and later of the Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens. His last
known work was published in 1907. Nothing of him is known after that date.

NOTES TO THE PLAY

ACT 1: THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

1. Andernak is sometimes used for Andernach, a German town on the
Rhine River between Koblenz and Bonn. A similar name is used by Jules
Verne in the short story "Master Zacharius" (published by Hetzel in 1874) in
which the castle of Andernatt is located somewhere in the Swiss Alps, where
the real town of Andermatt exists. A music lover, Jules Verne was inspired by
Jacques Offenbach; Andernak rhymes with the repetitive phrases in "Va pour
Kleinzach," from act I, scene 6, of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoinann, which
was running in February 1881 at the Opera-Comique in Paris. journey
Through the Impossible has the same structure as The Tales of Hoinann. Jules
Verne loved to play with words and was used to intertextual anagrams
between his works (e.g., Arneka in The School of Robinsons and Artenak in
Mathias Sandorf ). There is a consanguinity between journey Through the
Impossible and The School of Robinsons (e.g., the character of Tartelet, the similarity between Andernak and Arneka, and between Kolderup and Finderup).

2. This musical instrument plays an important role in two Verne
works: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and "Mr. D Sharp and Miss E
Flat" ("Monsieur Re-dieze et mademoiselle Mi-bemol," also known as "Mr.
Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flat").

3. In 1885, in Mathias Sando , Verne has a character named Toronthal.

4. A novel published in 1866 by Hetzel with the title Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras, also
known as The English at the North Pole and The Field ofIce). Captain John Hatteras remains obsessed by a strong idea: to plant the British flag at the North
Pole. This hard, proud man has already organized two expeditions that
ended tragically. So when he orders a new ship and hires a new crew, he takes
care to remain anonymous. Richard Shandon and Dr. Clawbonny both
receive letters signed with a single initial, inviting them to accompany an
expedition on the high seas, destination unknown. As the chief officer,
Shandon is empowered to assemble the crew and pay for construction of the
ship for this adventure, the brig Forward, designed for navigation in the polar
seas. The ship is quickly built, launched, receives its orders, and departs Liverpool, sailing north toward Melville Bay. Dr. Clawbonny, the ship's physician, is erudite with an alert curiosity, gaiety, and optimism. Even as the ship
heads north, the captain has not made an appearance. Eventually a member
of the crew reveals himself to be Captain John Hatteras. Recruited as a simple sailor, Hatteras abruptly reveals his true identity and immediately
gains Clawbonny's confidence. However, the other members of the crew
have difficulty accepting the iron discipline imposed by the commander, as
they realize the purpose of the voyage: for their British crew to be the first
to reach the North Pole. In the polar winter, the brig is immobilized by ice
and a necessary frigid dormancy is made even worse by the lack of fuel. A
desperate expedition that is organized to discover a hypothetical deposit of
coal unfortunately fails. While the expedition is away, Shandon leads the
crew in a mutiny that destroys the ship. When returning, Hatteras and Clawbonny find the Forward burned; the crew has left, trying to find their way
back to England. With two faithful sailors, Hatteras and Clawbonny find
Captain Altamont, an American who also had to abandon his ship and who
is desperately ill from starvation and exposure. After seventeen days of
exhaustive walking, the five men succeed in finding the wreck of Altamont's
ship, which provides them food, coal, and enough wood to build a launch.
Soon Hatteras and Altamont fight violently, because the Englishman suspects the American of wanting to reach the pole and claim it for his country.
However, they reconcile after a dramatic hunting party during which Altamont saves Hatteras's life. In the spring, the launch is lodged onto a large
sled, driven to the edge of free water, and put to sea. After a few days of navigation, the explorers land on a steep island: the North Pole is there, atop an
active volcano. Under the influence of "polar madness," Hatteras climbs the
sides of the volcano, unfurls the flag, and slips into the crater. Caught up at
the last second by Altamont, he remains dazed and his companions understand that he has lost his reason. Ice blocks their route south, so the travelers
abandon the boat and continue by foot to the Baffin Sea. Exhausted and
without resources, they are finally saved by a whaling ship and returned to
England. Hatteras lives out his life in a mental institution, enclosed in his
insanity, not recognizing his friends, having forgotten everything, except the
direction north, the invariable direction he takes when he walks.