Ranking

Here are the results of the second Jules Verne rare entries contest.

Results of this rare entries contest. X denotes a wrong answer.
Rank Score Entrant Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
1.1500Marko Obradovic5113125521
2.2400Françoise Schiltz5612215221
3.3240Ariel Perez163111353X
4.3600Alain Braut5611223X11
5.6600Jean-Luc Pruvost5X11265211
6.9000Stefan Marniok5632215511
7.48600Bernhard Krauth5631163532
8.59400David McCallister5X13261532
9.475200Ralf Tauchmann5X31262X3X
10.972000Christian Sánchez5633265X32
11.1425600David Vašek5X3X262X32

These are the answers given by the top 3 entrants:

Marko Obradovic Françoise Schiltz Ariel Pérez
0 Anna Anna Marie
1 Leo XIII Raymond Poincaré Raymond Poincaré
2 Cyrus Smith Harbert Nab
3 Jules Verne De Rotterdam à Copenhague Zigzags à travers la science
4 Sicily Stromboli Formentera
5 Pierce Brosnan William Desmond Conrad Veidt
6 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Der Schweizerische Robinson
7 L’Étoile du Sud Les cinq cents millions de la Bégum L’Étoile du Sud
8 Budapest Budapest Zürich
9 Len and William Guy Marc and Henry Vidal Natalis and Irma Delpierre

Answers given

Here are the answers given to each question, ranked from most to least popular, i.e. worst to best, for each question:

0. Give the name of a brother or sister of Jules Verne.

While it is understandable that people avoided the “obvious” answer Paul, I can’t explain why Marie was mentioned only once and her sisters five times each.

1. Name a person who, at some moment in his life, was the head of state of a European country, and with whom Jules Verne corresponded, or talked in person. The correspondence or conversation does not have to have taken place at the time when the person was head of state.

Wrong:

The entrant who said Adolphe Thiers couldn’t find his source anymore. I have searched a couple of sources, but could not find any indication that Verne and Thiers ever met or corresponded.

Verne did meet Aristide Briand in the 1870s, but Briand was never head of state of France. He was prime minister many times, but the French head of state is the president, a position Briand never achieved.

Another answer I would have accepted as correct is Leopold II, who was king of Belgium from 1865 to 1909. It seems Jules Verne was received by Leopold II during his tour through Belgium and the Netherlands in 1887, although there is no clear evidence that this meeting did in fact take place.

2. Name a character who lived on the island Lincoln in the novel L’Île mystérieuse.

Although Top is a dog, I accept him as a character.

A correct answer that wasn’t given is of course Nemo. Also, nobody seems to have thought of the pirates who roamed Lincoln Island for a while.

3. Name a work by a relative of Jules Verne, which was published under the author’s own name.

Wrong:

The text La Navigation à voiles et à vapeur was discovered only recently by Volker Dehs. It was published by Editeur Henri Gautier in Paris, in “Bibliothèque Scientifique des Ecoles & des familles”, the year of publication is unknown (probably 1900–1920).

4. Name an island in the Mediterranean that is described in a work by Jules Verne in more than one paragraph.

5. Name an actor who played Phileas Fogg in an adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours.

There have been many adaptations of this novel, on the big screen, on television, and on stage, from Verne’s own theatre version (first staged in 1874) to the movie with Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan that will premiere in a few weeks. Dozens, if not hundreds, of actors have played Phileas Fogg, and even though most of them are completely unknown today, I was amazed to see so many entrants mention the most famous Fogg, David Niven.

6. Name a novel that Jules Verne wrote a sequel to.

There are two novels by other authors (both highly admired by Jules Verne) that he wrote a sequel to; both of these were mentioned. Verne also wrote sequels to some of his own novels. The correct answers that weren’t given are De la Terre à la Lune, Autour de la Lune and Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. One could argue that Voyage à travers l’impossible is a sequel to Voyages et Aventures du capitaine Hatteras, so I would have accepted that answer as well.

7. Name a Voyage extraordinaire that was written in collaboration with André Laurie.

Wrong:

L’Épave du Cynthia was not part of the Voyages extraordinaires, and since the question asked for a “Voyage extraordinaire” rather than a “work” in general, this answer is wrong.

One of the entrants who answered “L’Étoile du Sud” remarked that that was never a “real” collaboration with André Laurie. Indeed, Verne and Laurie didn’t work together like Verne did with D’Ennery to write some of his plays, but since both Laurie and Verne worked on this novel, I consider this a collaboration.

8. Name a city where a restaurant or bar called ‘Jules Verne’ can be found.

… to name but a few!

9. Name two brothers who are both characters in a work by Jules Verne.

Wrong: