From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Dec 10 11:04:29 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!surfnet.nl!howland.erols.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex From: Kevin Lauderdale Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: PARIS IN THE 20TH CENTURY by Jules Verne Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 09 Dec 1996 20:31:19 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 70 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1156 Paris in the Twentieth Century by Jules Verne Review Copyright 1996 Kevin Lauderdale Reading Jules Verne's PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is like nothing so much as reading one of Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels. That's not to say that PARIS is as good as the Foundation books; it's not. Verne's publisher rejected it in 1863, Verne locked the manuscript in a box, and, justifiably, forgot about it. It's nowhere near as good as any of Verne's masterpieces like AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, or even FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON. But it is a sort of "future history." It is a story written in the 1860s, which takes a look back at the events of the 1960s, which we are reading in the 1990s. Verne was not only remarkably prescient in his predictions of what twentieth century life would be like, but he got his dates right too. With only a few extreme exceptions, this book could be a novel of contemporary angst. Jules Verne, meet Jay McInerney. The hero of this short novel is a young man named Michel Dufrenoy. He is a poet in a dystopia where all forms of literature and art have vanished in favor of practical matters. Reading is now taught solely that mechanical manuals may be read. PARIS concerns his trials and tribulations in this overly mechanized Paris where commerce is all. He yearns to create, he yearns to love, and all around him others are concerned only with profit and trade. Like much of Verne, this novel is a travelogue with a plot stretched over it. In this case, the plot is very thin. We see Michel at work in an office, complete with a form of computer; he and his friends stroll along the newly built Paris canal, and he takes the metro everywhere. But PARIS is a much less developed book than Verne's other works, and his characters have little depth to them. Michel Dufrenoy is no Captain Nemo, nor a Phileas Fogg. There *are* good bits in this novel. On several occasions, Verne levels the ultimate Gallic condemnation on Twentieth Century France: it has become like England. When Michel goes to a huge bookstore to find some Nineteenth century authors, he learns that Victor Hugo and Balzac are out of print, but the store does have some contemporary poetry -- MEDITATIONS ON OXYGEN, POETIC PARALLELOGRAM, and the DECARBONATED ODES are all available. Although Verne does not envision television, the theater still exists in his Paris. There, classics are plundered and their plots reused over and over. This could be the voice of a network television producer: "We are not concerned with novelty here; all personality must be dispensed with; you will have to blend into a vast ensemble, which produces collective works, of an average appeal." This once-lost minor novel did not need to be published. It adds nothing to Verne's reputation, which has long been secure. If it did need to be published, the 1990s were not the time for it; it's just too late for this book. We can marvel at how accurate Verne was when he filled his Paris with horseless carriages, fax machines, and a society obsessed with business. But, unlike Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD, we cannot take it as a warning, because we already live there. His future is our past. This is a period piece that is more dated than most because reality has already outpaced most of Verne's fiction. His trucks only go up to thirty horsepower. PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY doesn't grip you; it doesn't inspire. It doesn't make you want to go there. Maybe it's the fact that the real Paris in the 1960's was much more exciting than the one Verne envisioned. Or maybe it's that his publisher was right 130 years ago. This is far from Verne's best work. Go read 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA again instead. %D 1996 %G 0-679-44434-3 Kevin Lauderdale This and other reviews may be found at the Kevindex Web Page http://smi.Stanford.EDU/people/kxl/Webazine.html Available by e-mail: kxl@smi.stanford.edu (Subject: Subscribe Kevindex) Available free by post: Kevin Lauderdale, MSOB x-215, Stanford, CA 94305-5479, USA Coming soon: I'll call you up and read it over the phone to you. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 3 13:38:54 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newsfeed.de.ibm.net!newsfeed.uk.ibm.net!news-m01.ny.us.ibm.net!uunet!in3.uu.net!205.252.116.190!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.sgi.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews Subject: PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Jules Verne Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 31 Dec 1996 19:54:53 GMT Organization: Software Agents Group Lines: 51 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1185 rec.arts.books.reviews:2220 PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Jules Verne (translated by Richard Howard) A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1997 Evelyn C. Leeper This is not Verne's best book, but it has a certain charm that is lacking from Verne's other works, a certain sparseness of prose that gives the appearance of an intentional style. It may be just the translator's doing, or it may be unintentional awkwardness but for me, at least, it worked. The story takes place in 1960. Much has been made of the predictions Verne made, many fairly accurate, others amusingly off. I suppose one could consider this a sort of alternate history of the steampunk ilk, but that is technically inaccurate. It's more like all those stories from the pulp era that wrote about the marvels of the 1960s which somehow never came to pass, and it's only the fact that it's newly published that gives one pause. One of Verne's "predictions" is that the great writers of the past will be forgotten, and be replaced by people who write such works as "Electric Harmonies," "Meditations on Oxygen," "Poetic Parallelogram," and "Decarbonated Odes." Well, one *is* seeing more literature inspired by, or responding to, science, but Victor Hugo and Balzac are still being read. However, I haven't heard of either Musset and Lamartine, whom Verne equates with them. But it has always been true that no one in a given time can predict which authors of the time will last and which will fade. I note that both Musset and Lamartine are in print, in reasonably priced editions, and Musset is also available at my library. And Verne certainly didn't predict that Hugo's greatest work would become a Broadway musical -- an opera, technically -- and another one would become an animated children's film. As I said, this is not a great novel, but it will be on my Hugo nomination ballot. I will admit that a part of that is that the idea of seeing Jules Verne win a Hugo, or even just be nominated for one, has a certain appeal that is hard to resist. Somehow this year I haven't read a whole lot of novels which are really that much better. %T Paris in the Twentieth Century %A Jules Verne %C New York %D 1996 %I Random House %O hardback, US$21 [1994] %G ISBN 0-679-44434-3 %P 222pp Evelyn C. Leeper | eleeper@lucent.com +1 908 957 2070 | http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824 "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." --Jorge Luis Borges