February 21 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion in Keokuk, who had sent “random snatches” of a story he was writing. Sam judged the story to be “poaching upon [Jules] Verne’s peculiar preserve,” something Sam found distasteful and unwise. The story was about a descent into the middle of the earth. “Why don’t you find Verne himself down there?” Sam asked, thinking it a good idea to “let the reader discover that” the gorilla “is Verne in disguise.” “I think the world has suffered so much from that French idiot that they could enjoy seeing him burlesqued—but I doubt if they want to see him imitated” [MTLE 3: 17].
Entry Date
Links to Twain's Geography Entries
Editor Note
I was unaware of any animosity toward Verne, held by Twain, until I found this entry. But I found this bit:
'A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage'' contains one of Twain's most virulent cases of plot envy: a bizarre attack on Jules Verne. Twain's vendetta against Verne started in 1868, when the English version of Verne's story ''Five Weeks in a Balloon'' was published just as Twain was hammering out his own balloon story. ''He was furious that Verne had a good idea and beat him to the punch,'' Ms. Fishkin said.
So Twain has the hapless villain in his novelette blame Jules Verne for everything. The villain says he has been deranged because Verne sent him on too many dangerous research missions for his books. (Ms. Fishkin said she wasn't sure whether Verne ever really did this, but Twain, she notes, did. He sent a friend of his from San Francisco to do his research in a South African diamond mine. Twain never used the research.)
A Forgotten Twain Tale Finally Makes It Into Print, Sarah Boxer, The New York Times, June 23, 2001
'A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage'' contains one of Twain's most virulent cases of plot envy: a bizarre attack on Jules Verne. Twain's vendetta against Verne started in 1868, when the English version of Verne's story ''Five Weeks in a Balloon'' was published just as Twain was hammering out his own balloon story. ''He was furious that Verne had a good idea and beat him to the punch,'' Ms. Fishkin said.
So Twain has the hapless villain in his novelette blame Jules Verne for everything. The villain says he has been deranged because Verne sent him on too many dangerous research missions for his books. (Ms. Fishkin said she wasn't sure whether Verne ever really did this, but Twain, she notes, did. He sent a friend of his from San Francisco to do his research in a South African diamond mine. Twain never used the research.)
A Forgotten Twain Tale Finally Makes It Into Print, Sarah Boxer, The New York Times, June 23, 2001