H. G. Wells, “In the Days of the Comet”, 1906 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: Jules Verne’ (1828-1905), “To the Sun?”, 1878. This novel is a continuation of Jules Verne’ (1838-1905), “Off on a Comet”, 1877 as both are stories of Captain Hector Servadac.
The book consists of twenty-four (24) chapters; and, the “table of contents” is shown BELOW.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1.. The Challenge.
- The Captain and the Captain’s Man.
- An Interruption both Unseasonable and Unreasonable.
- Questions Hard to Answer.
- What’s the Matter with the World?
- The New Domain.
- Fresh Experiences and Observations.
- Some of the Dangers of Quitting our Orbit.
- Notes Compared.
- The Chase After a Continent.
- A Discovery of Some Kind.
- An Inhospitable Land.
- The Rock Fortress and its Inmates.
- A Startling Discovery.
- One Solution of the Riddle.
- A Relic of Provence.
- What was Left of Italy.
- Visitors.
- A Stiff-Necked Character.
- The Fuel Question.
- The Change of Domicile.
- Life at Three Chaude.
- On the Track at Last.
- A Wild Ride.
The first sentence of each chapter is shown BELOW.
1. CAPTAIN, it does not suit me to surrender: I regret it extremely, my dear Count.
2. At the date of the beginning of our story anyone curious about the subject, by calling at the war office Paris, might find the following record, in Register 1716, pages 395.
3. A “gourbi” is a simple open framework hut, covered on the top and sides by a peculiar straw, called by the natives “driss”.
4. Why, at this very instant, to anyone that happened to be in these regions of the Mediterranean on this particular night, was the horizon so suddenly and strangely modified that even the most experienced mariner could not have recognized the circular line where the earth and sky seem to meet?
5. The stupendous phenomenon alluded to in our last chapter, whatever else it might have done, did not seem to have produced much change in the portion of the Algerine coast bounded on the west by the Bay of Mostaganem, and on the north by the Medditerranean Sea.
6. In spite of all these overpowering surprises, the Captain kept wonderfully cool.
7. In a few minutes both Governor and Population were lying in a pair of tolerably confortable beds hastily prepared by Ben in a room of the old station-house, the “giurbi” being still in a ruinous condition.
8. The sudden appearance of the Sun, dispersing every star, whether planet, satellite, or “ever-blazing orb” rendered all observations impossible till the following night.
9. There could be no doubt about it.
10. Count Timascheff had not exaggerated the “Dobryna” capacity when he offered to take Captain Hector to the end of the world.
11. This southern trip had, however, established some facts beyond all possibility of doubt.
12. It was towards the south that the cormorants, quitting the sainted king’s lonely tomb, had winged their rapid flight.
13. Well, I take your bishop, Major Oliphant, said General Murphy: he had been two days thinking over this move, but he made it at last.
14. The yacht, soon near enough to allow her name to be easily read – “Dobryna”, made for a little roadstead in the south part of the islet.
15. The Captain and the Count soon forgot the momentary irritation into which they had been thrown by the inhospitable conduct of the English officers.
16. Whilst the explorers thus pursued a conversation in which, almost unconsciously, word “Gallia” was fast assuming a geographical value in their eyes, the “Dobryna”, doubling the enormous promontory that had opposed her northern route, was now sailing as nearly as possible in the direction of the eastern end of the Pyrenees.
17. Whither now, friends, asked the Count of his companions once more assembled on the deck of the “Dobryna”.
18. The “Dobryna” had started on her exploration trip on the thirty-first of January, and she now returned to Gourbi on the fifth of March.
19. The Count’s sudden thought was a most happy one.
20. The first thing done next morning was the removal of the “Hansa” by Procopius and his men from its dangerous position on the north coast of the island to the port of the Sheliff.
21. Our friends had every reason to feel grateful.
22. The Moon: if the Moon, why had she been so long absent?
23. Three hours after sunset on the twenty-third of March the little Moon rose in the west, and the Gallians could see that she was now nearing her last quarter.
24. “Formentera”: the word had a world of meaning for the Captain and his friends.
BOOK LAST SENTENCE. Thus wound the solemn “cortège” into the heart of the mountain, reverent, mournful, slow, to the couch where they piously laid him.
Here I presented: Jules Verne’ (1828-1905), “To the Sun?”, 1878.
This novel is a continuation of Jules Verne’ (1838-1905), “Off on a Comet”, 1877 as both are stories of Hector Servadac.
SUMMARY.
1. Plot.
On the coast of Algeria, Captain Hector Servadac is with his orderly Laurent Ben Zouf, the ground beneath them is ripped off the Earth by a passing comet’.
These are stories of a comet’ called “Gallia”, that passing the Earth; and, carries Earthlings into Outer Space.
2. Characters.
Captain Hector Servadac, of the French Algerian Army (the protagonist) in charge of the boat “Dobryna”.
Laurent Ben Zouf, orderly of Captain Hector Servadac (a foil-character).
Count Wassily Timascheff, a Russian (antagonist) character.
Major John Temple Oliphant, English military garrison in Gibraltar.
General Murphy, English military garrison in Gibraltar.
3. Comments.
BELOW is the timeline of Jules Verne’ stories. If this blog post is not enough; there are many other titles by Jules Verne’ to consider.
| 1863 | Paris in the Twentieth Century |
| 1863 | Five Weeks in a Balloon |
| 1864 | Journey to the Center of the Earth |
| 1865 | From Earth to the Moon |
| 1866 | Adventures of Captain Hatteras’ |
| 1867 | In Search of Castaways |
| 1869 | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea |
| 1870 | Around the Moon |
| 1871 | A Floating City’ |
| 1872 | Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa |
| 1873 | The Fur County |
| 1873 | Around the World in Eighty Days |
| 1874 | The Mysterious Island |
| 1874 | Survivors of the Chancellor |
| 1876 | Michael Strogoff |
| 1877 | Off on a Comet’ |
| 1877 | The Underground City |
| 1878 | Dick Sand: A Captain at Fifteen |
| 1878 | To the Sun? |
| 1879 | The Begum’s Fortune |
| 1879 | Tribulations of a Chinaman in China |
| 1880 | The Steam House |
| 1881 | Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon |
| 1882 | Godfrey Morgan |
| 1882 | The Green Ray |
| 1883 | Keraban the Inflexible |
| 1884 | The Archipelago on Fire |
| 1884 | The Star of the South |
| 1885 | The Wreck of the Cynthia, Andre Laurie |
| 1885 | Mathias Sandorf |
| 1886 | Robur the Conqueror |
| 1886 | The Lottery Ticket |
| 1887 | The Flight to France |
| 1887 | North Against South |
| 1888 | Two Years Holiday |
| 1889 | The Purchase of the North Pole |
| 1889 | Family Without a Name |
| 1890 | Cesar Cascabel |
| 1891 | Mistrrss Branican |
| 1892 | The Carpathian Castle |
| 1893 | Claudius Bombarnac |
| 1893 | Foundling Mick |
| 1894 | The Wonderful Adventures of Captain Antifer |
| 1895 | The Floating Island |
| 1896 | Facing the Flag |
| 1896 | Clovis Dardentor |
| 1897 | An Antarctic Mystery |
| 1897 | The Sphinx of the Ice Fields |
| 1898 | The Super Orinoco |
| 1899 | The Will of an Eccentric Second Fatherland |
| 1901 | The Village in the Treetops |
| 1901 | The Yarns of Jean-Marie Cabidoulin |
| 1902 | The Kip Brothers |
| 1903 | Traveling Scholarships |
| 1904 | Master of the World |
| 1904 | A Drama in Livonia |
| 1905 | Invasion of the Sea |
| 1905 | The Lighthouse at the End of the World |
| 1906 | The Golden Volcano |
| 1907 | The Thompson Travel Agency |
| 1908 | The Chase of the Golden Meteor’ |
| 1908 | The Danube Pilot |
| 1909 | The Survivors of the Jonathan |
| 1910 | The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz |
| 1920 | Astonishing Adventures of the Barsac Mission |
