Jules Verne, “The Chase of the Golden Meteor”, 1908 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: Jules Verne (1828-1905), “Vanished Diamond: The Star of the South”, 1884 an African adventure SciFi novel. The “table of contents” of the book is shown BELOW. The book consists of twenty-four (24) chapters listed as follows:
Chapter #. “Title”.
#1. “One for the Frenchman”.
#2. “To the Diamond Field”.
#3. “A Little Science”.
#4. “Vandergaart Kopje”.
#5. “The Diggers at Work”.
#6. “In Camp”.
#7. “Landslip”.
#8. “The Great Experiment”.
#9. “A Surprise”.
#10. “John Watkins thinks Matters Over”.
#11. “The Star Disappear”.
#12. “Making Ready”.
#13. “Across the Transvaal”.
#14. “North to the Limpopo”.
#15. “A Pilot”.
#16. “Treason”.
#17. “An African Steeplechase”.
#18. “The Talking Ostrich”.
#19. “Wonderful Grotto”.
#20. “The Return”.
#21. “Venetian Justice”.
#22. “A Mine of a New Sort”.
#23. “The Hour of Triumph”.
#24. “The Fate of the Star”.
Here I presented: Jules Verne (1828-1905), “Vanished Diamond: The Star of the South”, 1884 an African adventure SciFi novel.
SUMMARY.
The novel takes place in South Africa; and, the setting is a mining area of Griqualand of Vandergaart Kopje. The mining land is owned by the wealthy John Watkins; and, Alice Watkins is his daughter.
The protagonist is a French engineer Victor Cyprien; and he has moved to Griqualand to study diamond formation. Our protagonist Victor Cyprien falls in love with the wealthy Alice Watkins. Since he has no money, Victor Cyprien partners with Thomas Steel in a mining claim. When the digging fails to yield diamonds, Victor Cyprien tries to make “artificial diamonds”.
The crystal structure of “diamond cubic”(element carbon) is shown ABOVE. When engineer Victor Cyprien’s experiments succeed the product is a 243 carat diamond. Victor presents his 243 carat diamond to the Watkins family; and, Alice Watkins and Victor Cyprien become an acceptable couple to the wealthy Watkins family. The 243 carat diamond is christened the “Star of the South” by Alice Watkins. This is about half the way through the story; but, the diamond “vanishes” (title: “vanished diamond) and finally at story end, the 243 carat diamond disintegrates . However, at the end of the story Alice Watkins and Victor Cyprien (the protagonist couple) “marry and live happily ever after”.
Jules Verne, “The Chase of the Golden Meteor”, 1908 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
