Paris in the Twentieth Century (23 page)
Read Paris in the Twentieth Century Online
Authors: Jules Verne
Jules Verne
was born in Nantes in
1828,
of
legal and seafaring stock, and though educated for the law refused to work
seriously at anything but writing. Despite moderate success with plays, Verne
did not achieve fame until publication of his novella
Five Weeks in a Balloon
(1853).
Coupling a gift for adventure writing with the public interest in technological
discoveries, Verne continued with a series of highly successful prophetic
science fiction and adventure stories, including
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
(1870)
and Around the World in 80 Days
(1873).
By the time of his death in
1905
he had written close to one hundred books.
About the Translator
Richard Howard
,
born in Cleveland in
1929,
is the
author of ten volumes of poetry, the third of which won a Pulitzer Prize in
1970,
and of many translations from the French. He is a professor of English at the
University of Houston and is poetry editor of
The Paris Review.
The
paper book was set in Perpetua, a typeface designed by the English artist Eric
Gill, and cut by The Monotype Corporation between 1928 and 1930. Perpetua is a
contemporary face of original design, without any direct historical antecedents.
The shapes of the roman letters are derived from the techniques of
stonecutting. The larger display sizes are extremely elegant and form a most
distinguished series of inscriptional letters.
The
ebook uses Calibri for its default font. Calibri is also a contemporary sans
serif font.
[1]
Paul-Louis Courier (
1772-1825): A brilliant polemicist, one of the strongest
figures of intellectual opposition to the legitimist and clerical reaction
after 1815.
[2]
Alphonse Karr:
French litterateur, a friend of Verne's publisher Hetzel,
known for his satirical verve.
[3]
Adolphe Joanne:
French geographer, founder of the Guides Joanne, ancestor
of the Guides Bleus.
[4]
Jean-Baptiste Jobard:
Belgian engineer of French origin, the source of numerous
innovations and inventions.
[5]
Étienne
Lenoir:
Inventor of a gas motor which is the origin of all
present-day automobile motors.
[6]
Thomas Russell Crampton:
English engineer, inventor of one of the first high-speed
locomotives.
[7]
Joseph Prudhomme:
Character created by Henri Monnier, the type of
self-satisfied and sententious bourgeois.
[8]
Charles-Paul de Kock:
Prolific author of anecdotal and humorous novels, very
popular with a wide public but constantly derided by cultivated circles in the
Romantic period.
[9]
Claude Perrault:
French architect and scientist, brother of the fabulist
Charles Perrault.
[10]
Charles Stanhope:
English writer and scientist.
[11]
Maurel
and
Jayet:
Inventors of a calculating machine, presented to the
Academy of Sciences in 1849.
[12]
Henri Mondeux:
A prodigious calculator; a simple shepherd from Tours,
now forgotten after an ephemeral celebrity.
[13]
Charles Wheatstone:
British inventor of one of the first electric telegraphs,
and of the rheostat.
[14]
Giovanni Caselli:
Italian scientist and inventor of the "Pan-telegraph,
" which permitted telegraphic reproduction of writing and drawing.
[15]
Watt and Burgess:
A method of treating wood still in use which produces
paper from tree trunks within a few hours.
[16]
Calino:
The main character in a successful vaudeville by Barri
é
re,
whose
naïveté
became proverbial.
[17]
Jeanselme:
A family of cabinetmakers celebrated in the nineteenth
century.
[18]
Claude Goudimel:
French composer, a Protestant killed in the Saint
Bartholomew Massacre.
[19]
Les Huguenots:
A famous opera by Meyerbeer.
[20]
Thilorier:
A physicist famous for his public experiments on the
liquefaction of carbonic gas.
[21]
Sigismund Thalberg:
A famous piano virtuoso and composer, briefly a rival of
Franz Liszt.
[22]
Émile Prudent
and
Jules Schulhoff:
Pianists and composers admired in Verne's day.
[23]
Guillaume Tell:
A famous opera by Rossini.
[24]
Robert le Diable:
A famous opera by Meyerbeer.
[25]
Louis-Joseph-Ferdinand H
é
rold:
French operatic composer.
[26]
Daniel-Fran
ç
ois-Esprit Auber:
French operatic composer.
[27]
F
é
licien-C
é
sar David:
French composer, much admired by
Berlioz.
[28]
Victor Mass
é
:
French composer of operas and operettas.
[29]
"
Enfin Wagnerbe vint":
A play on words using Boileau's famous line from
l'Art Po
é
tique
"Enfin Malherbe vint" and the name of Wagner.
[30]
Jacques Amyot:
French Renaissance author, famous for translations of
Plutarch and Longus.
[31]
Mathurin R
é
gnier:
French sixteenth-century poet.
[32]
Ancillon:
French Protestant family, emigrated to Germany after the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, including several generations of writers,
historians, and statesmen.
[33]
Charles Nodier:
One of the first French Romantic writers.
[34]
Vincent Voiture:
French poet and wit of the seventeenth century.
[35]
Jean-Jacques Pélissier:
Marshal of France, notably distinguished
during the Crimean War by
capturing Sevastopol after a siege of eleven months and by the conquest of the
Malakoff fortress, which protected the city.
[36]
Pierre-Jean de B
é
ranger:
Author of patriotic songs of liberal and Napoleonic
inspiration.
[37]
Saint-Point:
A village near
Mâcon
,
the site of Lamartine's ch
â
teau.
[38]
Jules-Gabriel Janin:
French novelist and critic, a friend of Verne's publisher
Hetzel.
[39]
Charles Monselet:
French journalist and gastronome, a friend of Verne's
publisher Hetzel.
[40]
Fr
é
d
é
ric Souli
é
:
French novelist and dramatic author, a friend of Verne's publisher Hetzel.
[41]
L
é
on Gozlan:
French journalist, at one time Balzac's secretary; a
close friend of Verne's publisher Hetzel.
[42]
Victor Cousin:
French philosopher, professor of history and philosophy at
the Sorbonne.
[43]
Pierre Leroux:
One of the chief French socialist thinkers of the
nineteenth century.
[44]
É
mile de Girardin:
French journalist and polemicist.
[45]
Louis-Fran
ç
ois Veuillot:
French Catholic journalist and polemicist.
[46]
Claude-Antoine Noriac:
French dramatic author.
[47]
Jean-Baptiste-Alfred Assollant:
French author of books for young people.
[48]
Paradol (Lucien-Anatole Prevost-Paradol):
French political
journalist.
[49]
Aur
é
lien Scholl:
French novelist and chronicler, friend of Verne's
publisher Hetzel.
[50]
Edmond-Fran
ç
ois-Valentin About:
A brilliant and caustic French writer, friend of Verne's
publisher Hetzel.
[51]
Francisque Sarcey:
French dramatic critic for forty years.
[52]
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray:
French eighteenth-century novelist and statesman.