Paris in the 20th Century

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Paris in the 20th Century

French edition Author Jules Verne

Original title Paris au XXme sicle Country Language Genre(s) Publisher Date published Media type 1863 (but first published 1994) Print France French Science fiction

Paris in the 20th Century (Paris au XXme sicle) is a science fiction novel by Jules Verne.

Contents

1 Plot introduction 2 Plot summary 3 Publication deferred 4 Trivia 5 Architecture

6 Literary significance and criticism 7 External links

Plot introduction
Written in 1863 but first published only in 1994, about a young man who lives in a technologically advanced, but culturally backwards future. Often referred to as Verne's "lost" novel, the work, set in August, 1960, paints a grim, dystopian view of the future.

Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow. (The status of spoiler warnings is being
discussed at this Request for Comment.)

Paris in the Twentieth Century's main character is 16-year-old Michel Dufrnoy, who graduates with a major in literature and the classics, but finds they have been forgotten in a futuristic world where only technological writing is valued. The arts are all government-sponsored, leading to what amounts to lowbrow theater for the masses. Dufrnoys alienation is said to be inspired by Vernes own experience. When Verne was the same age as Dufrnoy, he too feared that he would be unable to succeed if he followed in his familys career plans. Verne was to inherit his fathers law practice, but like Dufrnoy, he abandoned the path that had been set out for him, instead aspiring to become a writer. Dufrnoy wants to be an artist, working on his own, but finds that his book of poetry is impossible to sell, and soon, he's starving in the winter's cold, one of the few forces of nature that the science of Verne's fictional 20th Century had yet been unable to overcome. In despair, he spends his last bit of money on violets for his beloved, but finds that she has disappeared from her apartment, evicted when her father lost his job as the universitys last teacher of rhetoric. In a moving but excessively melodramatic climax, the heartbroken Dufrnoy, bereft of friends and loved ones, wanders through the frozen, mechanized, electrical wonders of Paris. The subjectivity becomes steadily more surreal as the dying artist, in a final paroxysm of despair, unconsciously circles an old cemetery before his death. Spoilers end here.

Publication deferred
Pierre-Jules Hetzel, his publisher, thought the book's pessimism would damage Verne's then-booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. In a scathing rebuke to Verne, Hetzel writes about a draft of the novel he has just seen:

"I was not expecting perfection to repeat, I knew that you were attempting the impossible but I was hoping for something better." Hetzel was also critical of Verne for not covering new ground with the novel: "In this piece, there is not a single issue concerning the real future that is properly resolved, no critique that hasnt already been made and remade before. I am surprised at you ... [it is] lackluster and lifeless." With that, Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was forgotten, only to be discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was finally published in French in 1994, and in English, by Random House, in 1997. The English translation was said to be one of the slowest to be made of the French work.

Trivia
In his Paris in the 20th Century, Verne predicted or alluded to a wide variety of modern technological items we, and earlier generations, have come to take for granted. Among them are:

gasoline-powered automobiles high-speed trains calculators The Internet (a worldwide "telegraphic" communications network) electric chairs (criminals "executed by electric charge")

Architecture
Verne predicts a geometric, modern centerpiece built for the Louvre in Paris. A modern, geometric, glass-and-steel pyramid structure was erected during the late 20th Century in the courtyard plaza of the Louvre.

Literary significance and criticism

The appearance of Verne's lost novel caused a stir among modern critics, who mostly received the book warmly, greeting it as "prescient and plausible" [1]. But ironically, some [2] saw the book every bit as unnecessarily pessimistic about the future as did Verne's editor. The book was a best seller in France, where it was heavily hyped before publication. Some critics were put off by the publisher's hype of the book, although most readily admitted it was "a work of inestimable historical importance." [3] Critic Evelyn C. Leeper suggested (presumably jokingly) that Verne might be a good candidate for a Hugo Award in 1996, noting that she had not read very many novels that were much better than Verne's work that year. The award is given annually to honor the best science fiction of the preceding year.

The work is also of importance to scholars of Verne's literature, some of whom had long asserted that none of his works ever came close to prophesying the future of a society as a whole.[4] Within two years of the novel's appearance, it had been adapted as a stage play in the Netherlands.[5]

External links

Jules Verne: An Author Before His Time? SFsite review Various editions of the work

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_in_the_20th_Century" Categories: Science fiction novels | 1994 novels | French science fiction | Novels by Jules Verne | Posthumous works

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