Around the World in 80s Days: The 1874 Play

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Around the World in 80 Days: The 1874 Play

by Jules Verne and Adolphe d’Ennery

Illustrated with the Engravings from the Original French Publication

Contributors: Philippe Burgaud, Jean-Louis Trudel, Jean-Michel Margot, Brian Taves

Edited by Brian Taves for the North American Jules Verne Society

The Palik Series

Around the World in 80 Days — The 1874 Play

by Jules Verne and Adolphe d’Ennery

© 2013 by the North American Jules Verne Society. All Rights Reserved.

This version of the book may be slightly abridged from the print version.

Published in the USA by:

BearManor Fiction

PO Box 1129

Duncan, Oklahoma 73534-1129

www.bearmanormedia.com

North American Jules Verne Society: najvs.org

ISBN 978-1-62933-047-1

Cover Design from an original 19th century French edition.

eBook construction by Brian Pearce | Red Jacket Press.

Publications of the North American Jules Verne Society

The Palik Series (edited by Brian Taves)

The Marriage of a Marquis; Contributors: Edward Baxter, Jean-Michel Margot, Walter James Miller, Kieran M. O’Driscoll, Brian Taves

Shipwrecked Family: Marooned with Uncle Robinson; Translated by Sidney Kravitz; Introduction by Brian Taves

Mr. Chimp, and Other Plays; Translated by Frank Morlock; Introduction by Jean-Michel Margot

The Count of Chanteleine: A Tale of the French Revolution; Translated by Edward Baxter; Introduction by Brian Taves; Notes by Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd, Volker Dehs

Vice, Redemption, and the Distant Colony: Stories by Jules Verne and Michel Verne; Translated, with notes, by Kieran M. O’Driscoll

Bandits & Rebels; Translated by Edward Baxter; Introduction by Daniel Compère

Golden Danube; Translated, with notes, by Kieran M. O’Driscoll

(Other volumes in preparation)

Editorial Committee of the North American Jules Verne Society:

Henry G. Franke III

Dr. Terry Harpold

Jean-Michel Margot

Dr. Brian Taves

Table of Contents

Introduction

by Philippe Burgaud, with Jean-Michel Margot and Brian Taves

Around the World in 80 Days — The 1874 Play

by Jules Verne and Adolphe d’Ennery

Afterword: The Meridians and the Calendar

by Jules Verne; Translated and Annotated by Jean-Louis Trudel

Appendix: The Play on Screen

by Brian Taves

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Contributors

The Palik Series

Previous Volumes

Endnotes

For Robert Pourvoyeur who over four decades sought to promote understanding of Verne’s career as a playwright

Introduction

by Philippe Burgaud

with Jean-Michel Margot and Brian Taves

This is the second volume devoted to Verne and theater in the North American Jules Verne Society’s Palik Series, because his output for the stage almost rivals his novels in importance. Verne not only achieved his first notice as a playwright, but adapted some of his novels to the stage. His most famous book actually began as an unproduced play, was rewritten as an acclaimed novel, and in a wholly new stage version, became a hit play. The original translation forms the core of this volume, a faithful version of the original playscript commissioned at the time of the purchase of American theatrical rights. This was undertaken by the Kiralfy brothers, theatrical impresarios who led in offering Verne’s own plays to audiences in the United States during the last three decades of the 19th century. The following pages explore first the genesis and reception of the play, then how it was brought to the United States.

A Literary and a Stage Hit

Although generally thought of as a writer of science fiction, half of Verne’s output belonged to another genre, adventure stories, and Around the World in Eighty Days is the best-remembered example. Adventure emerged as a generic tradition during the 19th century, and a key element of such fiction was its celebration of the opening of distant lands to European exploration and colonization. Verne’s adventure stories usually concern a journey and survival, combining travel, geography, political commentary, a touch of mystery, and sometimes even comedy. These elements are particularly notable not only in Around the World in Eighty Days, but also Les Tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine (The Tribulations of a Chinese in China, 1879), L’École des Robinsons (The School for Robinsons, 1882), Kéraban-le-têtu (Keraban the Inflexible, 1883), Clovis Dardentor (1896), and Le Testament d’un excentrique (The Will of an Eccentric, 1899). The contest that executed The Will of an Eccentric was a domestic version of Around the World in Eighty Days, with a cast of uniquely American characters to rival those encountered by Phileas Fogg.

Verne’s talent as a humorist has been unjustly overlooked, and was highlighted in the first volume of the Palik series, The Marriage of a Marquis. Vernian humor often finds its basis in bizarre characters, many of them placed in unusual locales, such as Kin-Fo in China, Keraban in Turkey, or Phileas Fogg in virtually any corner of the world. Satire was a prominent element, whether of evolution in Le Humbug (The Humbug, 1910) and Aventures de la famille Raton (Adventures of the Rat Family, 1891), or the parable of survival on a desert island, The School for Robinsons. In Une Fantaisie du Docteur Ox (A Fancy of Doctor Ox, 1872), Verne cleverly mocks his own literary formula, with the mad escapade of a scientist who fills a small town’s atmosphere with oxygen, speeding up the pace of living to a frenzy.

Around the World in Eighty Days, on one level a travel adventure, is also