Backwards to Britain
Author | Jules Verne |
---|---|
Original title | Voyage à reculons en Angleterre et en Ecosse |
Working title | Voyage en Angleterre et en Ecosse |
Translator | Janice Valls-Russell |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Published |
|
Media type | |
ISBN | 978-286274147-5 |
Backwards to Britain (French: Voyage à reculons en Angleterre et en Ecosse)[a] is a semi-autobiographical novel by the French writer Jules Verne, written in the fall and winter of 1859–1860 and not published until 1989.[2]
The novel follows the travels of two Frenchmen, Jacques (representing Verne) and Jonathan (Verne's friend Aristide Hignard), on a journey from Paris to Scotland.[3]
Plot
Jacques Lavaret, a young Parisian man, is eager to visit Scotland. He is delighted when his friend, the composer Jonathan Savournon, announces that he can get a free trip to Britain, with room for a friend, on a
After visiting Jonathan's friend Edmond R—, who shows them around the city, Jacques and Jonathan embark at last on the steamer for Liverpool. Jacques, who speaks no English, has difficulty communicating with the ship's commander, the Scottish Captain Speedy, but he is not alone; neither of Speedy's two
Jacques and Jonathan explore the city, redolent with memories of
Arriving in London, they cross
Themes
All my life I have delighted in the works of Sir Walter Scott, and during a never-to-be-forgotten tour in the British Isles, my happiest days were spent in Scotland. I still see, as in a vision, beautiful, picturesque Edinburgh, with its Heart of Midlothian, and many entrancing memories; the Highlands, world-forgotten Iona, and the wild Hebrides. Of course, to one familiar with the works of Scott, there is scarce a district of his native land lacking some association connected with the writer and his immortal work.
Jules Verne[5]
Literary sources
Verne's experience of Scotland, and his writings about it, come from a reader's point of view: they reflect that he had discovered the country in books before setting foot there himself. In particular, his view of Scotland is heavily influenced by the works of the novelist Sir Walter Scott and the poet James Macpherson. (Indeed, Verne's novels often describe Scotland simply as the land of Scott, or as that of his hero Rob Roy.)[6]
Another source for Verne's Scottish themes came from the French writer Charles Nodier, who used his 1821 travels in Scotland as the impetus for two works he wrote that year: Promenades de Dieppe aux montagnes d’Écosse and Trilby ou le lutin d'Argail.[7] Verne cites both Nodier and Scott in the first chapter of Backwards to Britain, as well as several other writers who influenced his conception of Britain: Charles Dickens in his novels The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby; Louis Énault, author of Angleterre, Écosse, Irlande, voyage pittoresque (1859); and Francis Wey, author of Les Anglais chez eux : esquisses de mœurs et de voyage (1850–1).[8] Other writers mentioned in the book include François-René de Chateaubriand,[9] a distant relative of Verne himself;[10] Victor Hugo, whose poem "Le 7 août 1829" from Les Rayons et les Ombres is quoted;[11] and James Fenimore Cooper, an author often cited in Verne's novels.[12]
Imagery
As numerous images in Backwards to Britain imply, such as the juxtaposition of Scott with
The idea of moving backwards, as reflected in both the French and the English published titles, is a central motif in the novel. Verne continued to explore it throughout the novels published during his lifetime, collectively known as the
Publication
In 1862, Verne submitted Backwards to Britain to the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel.[15] Hetzel rejected it, but he accepted another Verne manuscript involving the more timely themes of ballooning and African explorations; it was published in 1863 as Five Weeks in a Balloon.[16] The rejected manuscript of Backwards to Britain was eventually acquired by the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Nantes.[15]
Backwards to Britain was first published in an edition edited by Christian Robin, Voyage à reculons en Angleterre et en Ecosse (Paris: Le Cherche Midi, 1989), including the text, facsimiles of two pages of the manuscript, a map, and 84 images from contemporary sources.
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ The title page of Verne's manuscript gives the title as Voyage
à reculonsen Angleterre et en Ecosse, with à reculons ("backwards") crossed out. The body of the text is headed with a different title, Essai de voyage en Angleterre et en Écosse. The 1989 published edition used Verne's full original title.[1]
References
- ^ Verne 1992, p. xii.
- ^ a b Dehs, Margot & Har’El 2007.
- ^ Butcher 1992.
- ^ Verne 1992, p. 211.
- ^ Belloc 1895.
- ^ Kleiman-Lafon 2008, §4.
- ^ Kleiman-Lafon 2008, §3–4.
- ^ Verne 1992, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Verne 1992, p. 48.
- ^ Butcher 2008, p. 29.
- ^ Verne 1992, pp. 88, 90.
- ^ Verne 1992, pp. 138, 141.
- ^ Kleiman-Lafon 2008, §6, 8.
- ^ Kleiman-Lafon 2008, §5.
- ^ a b c Unwin 2005, p. 42.
- ^ Butcher 1992, p. vii.
- ^ Verne 1992, p. iv.
Citations
- Belloc, Marie A. (February 1895), "Jules Verne at Home", Jules Verne Collection, Zvi Har’El, archived from the original on 17 November 2019, retrieved 21 August 2015
- Butcher, William (1992), "Introduction", in Verne, Jules (ed.), Backwards to Britain, Edinburgh: Chambers, pp. vii–x
- Butcher, William (2008), Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography (revised ed.), Hong Kong: Acadien
- Dehs, Volker; Margot, Jean-Michel; Har’El, Zvi (2007), "The Complete Jules Verne Bibliography: IV. Other Novels", Jules Verne Collection, Zvi Har’El, retrieved 21 August 2015
- Kleiman-Lafon, Sylvie (2008), "L'Utopie gothique de Jules Verne au pays de Rob Roy", Études écossaises, 11 (11): 51–67, S2CID 191315875, retrieved 21 August 2015
- Unwin, Timothy (2005), Jules Verne: Journeys in Writing, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press
- Verne, Jules (1992), Backwards to Britain, Edinburgh: Chambers