INVASION OF THE SEA

Name: INVASION OF THE SEA
Author: Jules Verne
ISBN: 0-8195-6465-6

by Jules Verne & edited by Arthur B. Evans & translated by Edward Baxter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2001

Clear, readable translation of a minor but prescient adventure novel, with useful annotations, a brief Verne biography, and...

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The revival for the French father of science fiction that began with the discovery of his unpublished Paris in the Twentieth Century (1996) continues with the first English translation of this short novel, the last Verne (1828–1905) published during his lifetime. Though famous for a handful of tales about visionary eccentrics and their technological triumphs, Verne wrote more than 60 from 1863 to 1919: some were altered by his son Michel; most, according to editor Evans (French/DePauw University) have been either badly translated, or not translated at all, and, hence, unknown to Verne's English-speaking admirers. The Invasion of the Sea, the first in what will be a series of reprints in Wesleyan's Early Classics of Science Fiction, imagines that a canal project has transformed a vast portion of the Tunisian Sahara into an inland sea. While noting the sea's positive effects on French Colonial trade, Verne, still an uncanny seer of our future, finds a villain in Hadjar, a wily Berber warlord. Having previously been content to raid camel caravans and slaughter European explorers, as his ancestors had done for centuries, Hadjar correctly views the inland sea as a threat to his brutal way of life, and turns his ragtag gang of henchmen into a band of terrorists. Journalistic explorations of North Africa and wide-eyed discourse about technology are paced with action scenes as the resourceful French Captain Hardigan tries to stop Hadjar and bring him to justice. Verne, somewhat more cynical here than in his earlier works, ends with a biblical-style catastrophe, suggesting that antimodern fanaticism might be a harder problem than making the desert bloom.

Clear, readable translation of a minor but prescient adventure novel, with useful annotations, a brief Verne biography, and 44 b&w illustrations from the original French edition.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-8195-6465-6

Page Count: 280

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
by Jules Verne & translated by Jordan Stump

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MAGELLANIA
by Jules Verne & translated by Benjamin Ivry

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PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
by Jules Verne

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

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GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.