Michael Strogoff
Adventure novel | |
Publisher | Pierre-Jules Hetzel |
---|---|
Publication date | 1876 |
Published in English | 1876 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Preceded by | The Survivors of the Chancellor |
Followed by | Off on a Comet |
Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar (French: Michel Strogoff) is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1876. Critic Leonard S. Davidow,[1] considers it one of Verne's best books. Davidow wrote, "Jules Verne has written no better book than this, in fact it is deservedly ranked as one of the most thrilling tales ever written." Unlike some of Verne's other novels, it is not science fiction, but its plot device is a scientific phenomenon (Leidenfrost effect). The book was later adapted to a play, by Verne himself and Adolphe d'Ennery. Incidental music to the play was written by Alexandre Artus in 1880 and by Franz von Suppé in 1893.[2] The book has been adapted several times for films, television and cartoon series.
Plot summary
Michael Strogoff, a 30-year-old native of Omsk, is a courier for Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The Tartar khan (prince), Feofar Khan, incites a rebellion and separates the Russian Far East from the mainland, severing telegraph lines. Rebels encircle Irkutsk, where the local governor, a brother of the Tsar, is making a last stand. Strogoff is sent to Irkutsk to warn the governor about the traitor Ivan Ogareff, a former colonel, who was once demoted and exiled by this brother of the Tsar. He now seeks revenge: he intends to gain the governor's trust and then betray him and Irkutsk to the Tartar hordes.
On his way to Irkutsk, Strogoff meets Nadia Fedor, daughter of an exiled political prisoner, Basil Fedor, who has been granted permission to join her father at his exile in Irkutsk; the English war correspondent Harry Blount of the
Michael, his mother and Nadia are eventually captured by the Tartar forces, along with thousands of other Russians, during the storming of a city in the
Eventually, Michael and Nadia escape, and travel to Irkutsk with a friendly peasant, Nicolas Pigassof. They are recaptured by the Tartars; Nicolas witnesses Nadia cruelly insulted by a Tartar soldier and murders Nadia's assaulter. The Tartars then abandon Nadia and Michael and carry Nicolas away, reserving him for a greater punishment. Nadia and Michael later discover him buried up to his neck in the ground; after he dies they bury him hastily and continue onwards with great difficulty. However, they eventually reach Irkutsk, and warn the Tsar's brother in time of Ivan Ogareff. Nadia's father has been appointed commander of a suicide battalion of exiles, who are all pardoned; he joins Nadia and Michael; some days later they are married.
Sources of information
Exact sources of Verne's quite accurate knowledge of contemporary Eastern Siberia remain disputed. One popular version connects it to the novelist's meetings with
Verne's publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel sent the manuscript of the novel to the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev in August 1875 asking him for his comments on the accuracy of the conditions described in the book.[6]
While the physical description of Siberia is accurate, the Tartar rebellion described was not a rebellion and the strength as well as the geographical reach of the Tartars is highly exaggerated, although there had been one sizeable insurrection under
Musical adaptations
- La guerra santa, three-act zarzuela by Emilio Arrieta, text by Luis Mariano de Larra and Enrique Pérez Escrich , (Madrid, 1879) is an adaptation of Verne's novel
- Michel Strogoff, musical by Jack Ledru, text by Henri Varna (Paris, 1963)
Screen adaptations
Title | Year | Country | Director | Strogoff | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Michael Strogoff | 1910 | US | J. Searle Dawley | Charles Ogle | silent one-reeler produced by Edison Studios, The Bronx, New York
|
[7] |
Michael Strogoff | 1914 | US | Lloyd B. Carleton | Jacob P. Adler
|
silent; the master negatives and initial prints for this screen production burned in the 1914 Lubin vault fire | |
Michel Strogoff | 1926 | France / Germany | Victor Tourjansky | Ivan Mosjoukine | silent | [8] |
Michel Strogoff | 1936 | France | Jacques de Baroncelli, Richard Eichberg |
Anton Walbrook | [9] | |
The Czar's Courier | 1936 | Germany | Richard Eichberg | Anton Walbrook | [10] | |
The Soldier and the Lady | 1937 | US | George Nicholls, Jr.
|
Anton Walbrook | later released as Michael Strogoff | [11] |
Miguel Strogoff | 1943 | Mexico | Miguel M Delgado | Julián Soler | [12] | |
Michel Strogoff | 1956 | France, Italy, Yugoslavia | Carmine Gallone | Curd Jürgens | [13] | |
The Triumph of Michael Strogoff | 1961 | France, Italy | Victor Tourjansky | Curd Jürgens | [14] | |
Strogoff | 1970 | Bulgaria, France, Italy | Eriprando Visconti | John Phillip Law | Released in Germany as Der Kurier des Zaren and in France as Michel Strogoff | [15] |
Michel Strogoff | 1975 | Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary | Jean-Pierre Decourt
|
Raimund Harmstorf | 4-part TV drama | [16] |
Michele Strogoff, il corriere dello zar | 1999 | Germany, France, Italy | Fabrizio Costa | Paolo Seganti | [17] | |
Les Aventures extraordinaires de Michel Strogoff | 2004 | France | Bruno-René Huchez, Alexandre Huchez |
Anthony Delon | ||
Michael Strogoff | 2013 | Italy | episode of TV series "JV: The Extraordinary Adventures of Jules Verne"; totally divergent plot | [18] |
The town of Marfa, Texas was named after the character Marfa Strogoff in this novel.[19]
Boardgame
In 2017 a board game was published by Devir Games, designed by Alberto Corral and developed and illustrated by Pedro Soto. Similar to the book, in the game players are couriers racing across Russia to thwart the assassination plot by Count Ivan Ogareff. Players will race one another but will also race the Count, who moves across Russia on a separate track. Along the way, players must face and overcome troubles such as bears and bad weather, avoid the spy Sangarra who tries to delay their progress, and avoid capture by the Tartar forces who conspire with Count Ogareff. Players must balance the racing element of the game, resting enough to preserve health, and dealing with the troubles they face along the way before crisis ensues. The game usually ends when a player confronts Ogareff in Irkusk and a showdown ensues. The game is highly thematic and true to the novel, with artwork that draws on traditional Russian carving techniques from the era.[20]
References
- ^ Verne, Classic Romances of Literature: Michel Strogoff, Forward
- ^ "Theaterzettel: Der Courier des Czaren". www.theatermuseum.at (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-28.
- ^ a b Fuks, Matveychuk, pp. 371-373
- ^ Fuks, Matveychuk, pp. 374-375
- ^ Fuks, Matveychuk, p. 372
- ^ I. S. Turgenev, Polnoe sobranie sochineniy i pisem v 30 tomakh: Pis'ma, vol. 14 (1875) (Moscow, 2003), p. 136.
- ^ "Edison Feature Film for Next Week, Michael Strogoff", The Billboard, 2 April 1910, p. 31. Internet Archive (IA), San Francisco, California. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
- ^ "Michel Strogoff" British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Michel Strogoff", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Der Kurier des Zaren", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Michael Strogoff", IMDb, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Miguel Strogoff", IMDb, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Michel Strogoff", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Le triomphe de Michel Strogoff", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Strogoff", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ " Michel Strogoff", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Michele Strogoff, il corriere dello zar", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- ^ "Les aventures extraordinaires de Michel Strogoff ", British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014
- OCLC 1766223. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
- ^ [1] Michael Strogoff on BoardGameGeek
Sources
- Fuks, Igor; Matveychuk, Alexander (2008). Istoki rossiyskoy nefti (Истоки российской нефти) (in Russian). Moscow: Drevlekhranilische. ISBN 978-5-93646-137-8.
- Verne, Jules (1937). "Forward". Classic Romances of Literature: Michel Strogoff. Pennsylvania: Spencer Press.
External links
- Michael Strogoff at Standard Ebooks
- Michael Strogoff at Project Gutenberg [2]
- Michael Strogoff - A play in Five Acts and Sixteen Scenes from JV.Gilead.org.il
- Michael Strogoff public domain audiobook at LibriVox