Jules Verne’s Transylvania: Cartographic Omissions
183
Of course, patriotic Romanian readers could read this message
(although misspelled again) as sympathetic encouragement, especially
in a time when: “With Romanian independence achieved there was an
upsurge in romantic nationalist feeling beyond the Carpathians. Socalled Daco-Romanian calendar maps became increasingly popular,
showing the Romanian population between the Black Sea and the
Tisza river as one continuous block.”
51 When Le Château des Carpathes was published in French, and later translated into Romanian, the
movement of the Romanians in Transylvania was reaching its peak
with the “Memorandum Movement” which issued a petition addressed
to Franz Joseph, published in several languages, voicing the Romanians’ grievances and receiving considerable international attention.
This Memorandum came as the conclusion to a century or so of requests, conflicts, and revolts, and thus, when Verne announces that the
future belongs to the Romanians, when in his Transylvania there are
no Hungarians and no Austrians, when his linguistic or ethnographic
documentation sees no borders between the Romanian Kingdom and
Transylvania, his words are perceived by the Romanian readers as a
positive political statement, on issues that are still debated even nowadays.
However, we can say that Verne is neither pro-Romanian, nor
against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If we examine other Vernian
texts we can see other deliberate cartographic omissions that seem to
contradict that of Le Château: if the Hungarians and Austrians are
absent from his Transylvania, Joëlle Dusseau notices a similar absence
in Le Secret de Wilhem Storitz: “Là, encore, c’est le sentiment antiallemand qui domine, même si Verne différencie parfois les
Allemands des Autrichiens, qui sont ici les grands absents (de façon
bien étonnante dans le royaume austro-hongrois…).”
52 Dusseau
underlines other political peculiarities in Verne, thus showing that the
absence of Hungarians in Le Château does not carry any antiHungarian / pro-Romanian meaning: since “Les Magyars de l’Empire
d’Autriche sont l’objet d’une autre forte sympathie, dans deux
romans, Mathias Sandorf et Le Secret de Wilhem Storitz.”
53 But there
is also an exaltation of Greek or Bulgarian nationalism.
54 Therefore,
___________________________
51 Barta and Bona, History of Transylvania, p. 617.
52 Dusseau, Jules Verne, p. 292.
53 Dusseau, Jules Verne, p. 292.
54 Dusseau, Jules Verne, p. 295.
183
Of course, patriotic Romanian readers could read this message
(although misspelled again) as sympathetic encouragement, especially
in a time when: “With Romanian independence achieved there was an
upsurge in romantic nationalist feeling beyond the Carpathians. Socalled Daco-Romanian calendar maps became increasingly popular,
showing the Romanian population between the Black Sea and the
Tisza river as one continuous block.”
51 When Le Château des Carpathes was published in French, and later translated into Romanian, the
movement of the Romanians in Transylvania was reaching its peak
with the “Memorandum Movement” which issued a petition addressed
to Franz Joseph, published in several languages, voicing the Romanians’ grievances and receiving considerable international attention.
This Memorandum came as the conclusion to a century or so of requests, conflicts, and revolts, and thus, when Verne announces that the
future belongs to the Romanians, when in his Transylvania there are
no Hungarians and no Austrians, when his linguistic or ethnographic
documentation sees no borders between the Romanian Kingdom and
Transylvania, his words are perceived by the Romanian readers as a
positive political statement, on issues that are still debated even nowadays.
However, we can say that Verne is neither pro-Romanian, nor
against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If we examine other Vernian
texts we can see other deliberate cartographic omissions that seem to
contradict that of Le Château: if the Hungarians and Austrians are
absent from his Transylvania, Joëlle Dusseau notices a similar absence
in Le Secret de Wilhem Storitz: “Là, encore, c’est le sentiment antiallemand qui domine, même si Verne différencie parfois les
Allemands des Autrichiens, qui sont ici les grands absents (de façon
bien étonnante dans le royaume austro-hongrois…).”
52 Dusseau
underlines other political peculiarities in Verne, thus showing that the
absence of Hungarians in Le Château does not carry any antiHungarian / pro-Romanian meaning: since “Les Magyars de l’Empire
d’Autriche sont l’objet d’une autre forte sympathie, dans deux
romans, Mathias Sandorf et Le Secret de Wilhem Storitz.”
53 But there
is also an exaltation of Greek or Bulgarian nationalism.
54 Therefore,
___________________________
51 Barta and Bona, History of Transylvania, p. 617.
52 Dusseau, Jules Verne, p. 292.
53 Dusseau, Jules Verne, p. 292.
54 Dusseau, Jules Verne, p. 295.