Tim Unwin
162
ing every contour and every particularity of nature. Thus, as has sometimes been argued, writing is also for Verne a profoundly imperialistic
pursuit, in its attempt at appropriation, coverage and possession
through language.
7 In Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, we
are told that Her Majesty’s dominion extends to the remotest corners
of the Indian sub-continent. So too, more generally, the Vernian text
tracks the meanders of every journey and every exploration, spreading
its imperialistic lexis, and checking off every location-turned-text.
So style, in the early Balzacian or Flaubertian sense of a unifying or harmonizing poetics that is continuous with, and can be inferred from, the processes of writing, is apparently not part of Verne’s
vision of and for the novel. Not that style, in the sense of pure verbal
elegance and linguistic propriety, is unimportant to him. On the contrary, he attaches explicit value to it throughout his career as a novelist, and there are many finely written passages in the Voyages
extraordinaires.
8 However, there is no discourse in Verne that suggests he might be making broader claims for his contribution to the
genre, and he does not appear to build into his work any implicit or
explicit philosophical or aesthetic propositions about it. The frequently held view that Verne was a literary outsider seems also to
have much to do with the way he positions himself in relation to his
reading public, or rather by the way he is positioned by his editor Hetzel. From the outset in 1863, when Hetzel publishes Verne’s first
novel, Cinq semaines en ballon, the remit he hands down to his protégé is that of the educator, targeting the younger reader with a mixture of science, geography and adventure. It is the classic mix of
“plaire et instruire”, though the level of instruction is predominantly
___________________________
7 See for example Andrew Martin, The Mask of the Prophet. The Extraordinary Fictions of Jules Verne (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), pp. 19-25.
8 When writing Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras in 1864, Verne engages in
some discussion with Hetzel about how to present certain aspects of his story, and
adds a remark about his own literary ambitions: “Tout ceci, c’est pour vous dire combien je cherche à devenir un styliste, mais sérieux; c’est l’idée de toute ma vie” (Letter
to Hetzel of 25 April 1864, in, Correspondance inédite de Jules Verne et de PierreJules Hetzel (1863-1886), ed. by Dumas, Olivier, Piero Gondolo della Riva et Volker
Dehs, 2 vols (Geneva: Slatkine, 1999-2001), I, p. 28). Verne himself was later to regret that he had not been taken seriously as a literary stylist: “Je ne compte pas dans la
littérature française”, he told an interviewer. See R.H. Sherard, “Jules Verne at Home:
His Own Account of his Life and Work”, McClure’s Magazine (January 1894), online
at: http://jv.gilead.org.il/sherard.html.
162
ing every contour and every particularity of nature. Thus, as has sometimes been argued, writing is also for Verne a profoundly imperialistic
pursuit, in its attempt at appropriation, coverage and possession
through language.
7 In Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, we
are told that Her Majesty’s dominion extends to the remotest corners
of the Indian sub-continent. So too, more generally, the Vernian text
tracks the meanders of every journey and every exploration, spreading
its imperialistic lexis, and checking off every location-turned-text.
So style, in the early Balzacian or Flaubertian sense of a unifying or harmonizing poetics that is continuous with, and can be inferred from, the processes of writing, is apparently not part of Verne’s
vision of and for the novel. Not that style, in the sense of pure verbal
elegance and linguistic propriety, is unimportant to him. On the contrary, he attaches explicit value to it throughout his career as a novelist, and there are many finely written passages in the Voyages
extraordinaires.
8 However, there is no discourse in Verne that suggests he might be making broader claims for his contribution to the
genre, and he does not appear to build into his work any implicit or
explicit philosophical or aesthetic propositions about it. The frequently held view that Verne was a literary outsider seems also to
have much to do with the way he positions himself in relation to his
reading public, or rather by the way he is positioned by his editor Hetzel. From the outset in 1863, when Hetzel publishes Verne’s first
novel, Cinq semaines en ballon, the remit he hands down to his protégé is that of the educator, targeting the younger reader with a mixture of science, geography and adventure. It is the classic mix of
“plaire et instruire”, though the level of instruction is predominantly
___________________________
7 See for example Andrew Martin, The Mask of the Prophet. The Extraordinary Fictions of Jules Verne (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), pp. 19-25.
8 When writing Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras in 1864, Verne engages in
some discussion with Hetzel about how to present certain aspects of his story, and
adds a remark about his own literary ambitions: “Tout ceci, c’est pour vous dire combien je cherche à devenir un styliste, mais sérieux; c’est l’idée de toute ma vie” (Letter
to Hetzel of 25 April 1864, in, Correspondance inédite de Jules Verne et de PierreJules Hetzel (1863-1886), ed. by Dumas, Olivier, Piero Gondolo della Riva et Volker
Dehs, 2 vols (Geneva: Slatkine, 1999-2001), I, p. 28). Verne himself was later to regret that he had not been taken seriously as a literary stylist: “Je ne compte pas dans la
littérature française”, he told an interviewer. See R.H. Sherard, “Jules Verne at Home:
His Own Account of his Life and Work”, McClure’s Magazine (January 1894), online
at: http://jv.gilead.org.il/sherard.html.