Ranking
Here are the results of the third Jules Verne rare entries contest.
| Rank | Score | Entrant | Q0 | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Q5 | Q6 | Q7 | Q8 | Q9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 288 | Ariel Perez | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 2. | 360 | David Vašek | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 3. | 480 | Christophe Caron | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 4. | 864 | Alain Braut | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 5. | 1296 | Bernhard Krauth | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 6. | 2304 | Stefan Marniok | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 7. | 3840 | David McCallister | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 8. | 8640 | Art Evans | 3 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | X | X |
| 9. | 15360 | Marko Obradovic | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 10. | 46080 | Marc Reymann | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
These are the answers given by the top 3 entrants:
| Ariel Perez | David Vašek | Christophe Caron | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Harry | William | John |
| 1 | Quesnay de Beaurépaire | Schuler | Roux |
| 2 | Palle Huld | Nellie Bly | Bertrand Piccard |
| 3 | Sword | Electric 2 | L’Epouvante |
| 4 | Saint-Michel I | Saint-Michel III | Great Eastern |
| 5 | Ostrich | Orang-outang | Dog |
| 6 | Le Chemin de France | Le Chancellor | Une Ville flottante |
| 7 | Krzysztof Czubaszek | Egon Cierny | Jean-Christophe Jeauffre |
| 8 | Gil Braltar | César Cascabel | Gil Braltar |
| 9 | Léon Delmas | Eugène Turpin | Eugène Turpin |
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 a first name shared by at least five characters from five different Voyages extraordinaires.
- 3 John (Bunsby, Mangles, Hatteras, Branican, Murray, Cort, Proth, Davis)
- 3 Nicolas (Palander, “le Pesce”, Pigassof, Starkos, Sagamore, Deck)
- 1 Harry (Grant, Drake, Blount, Ford, Markel, Gibson, Rhodes, Killer)
- 1 James (Weldon, Starr, Hilton, Wall, Burbank)
- 1 Jean (Cornbutte, Passepartout, Keller, Morgaz, Cascabel, Morénas)
- 1 William (Batulcar, Emery, Falsten, Bidulph, Kolderup, Guy)
Nicolas is also the pseudonym used by Michel Strogoff: Nicolas Korpanoff. It is debatable if fake names would count, but since there is already a real Nicolas in this novel (Pigassof), it doesn’t matter.
There are more Harry’s, Johns and Jeans to be found in the Voyages extraordinaires; the names above are just a random selection.
1. Name an artist who provided at least one illustration that was included in an illustrated Hetzel edition of a Voyage extraordinaire.
- 2 Jules Férat (e.g. Michel Strogoff)
- 1 Alfred Quesnay de Beaurépaire (Le Pays des fourrures)
- 1 Edouard Riou (e.g. Cinq Semaines en ballon)
- 1 Emile Bayard (Autour de la Lune, Un Drame dans les airs)
- 1 F. de Myrbach (Hier et demain)
- 1 George Roux (e.g. Sans dessus dessous)
- 1 Lorenz Frölich (Une Fantaisie du docteur Ox)
- 1 Léon Benett (e.g. Le Tour du monde en 80 jours)
- 1 Théophile Schuler (Maître Zacharius)
Plenty of choice for this question; two unlucky entrants both picked Férat. All the other illustrators, including the most famous ones (Riou, Roux en Benett) were picked only once.
An interesting article on the illustrators of the Voyages extraordinaires (by Art Evans, one of this contest’s entrants) can be found at: http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/illustr/.
2. Name a person who, inspired by Jules Verne’s Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours, made a trip around the world in 80 days or less, and published an account of the journey, saying that Jules Verne’s novel was the inspiration for it.
- 4 Nellie Bly (1890)
- 2 Palle Huld (1928)
- 1 Bertrand Piccard (1999)
- 1 Claude Mossé (1977?)
- 1 Jean Cocteau (1936)
- 1 Michael Palin (1988)
Nellie Bly and Palle Huld made the trip around the world with the purpose of beating Fogg’s record. Bly needed 72 days, Palle only 44. Cocteau, Mossé and Palin took their time: they used the full 80 days.
Piccard’s journey was a bit different: he circumnavigated the globe in a balloon. He did say that this trip was inspired by Jules Verne, and he published a book called Le Tour du Monde en 20 Jours, so I accept this answer.
3. Give the name of a submarine that is mentioned in a work by Jules Verne.
- 4 Nautilus (Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers)
- 2 Electric [= Electric 2] (Mathias Sandorf)
- 2 Sword (Face au drapeau)
- 1 L’Epouvante (Maître du Monde)
Wrong:
- 1 Tug (not the name of the submarine)
The tug used by Ker Karraje in Face au drapeau is unnamed, it is just referred to as “the tug”. Since the question asks for “the name of a submarine”, I can’t accept “Tug” as an answer.
In the novel Mathias Sandorf, Verne says that all of Antékirtt’s submarines have the same name, Electric, and that they also have a number. Since the question asked for a name, I treat “Electric” and “Electric 2” as equivalent answers.
4. Give the name of a ship that Jules Verne travelled on.
- 4 Great Eastern (From Liverpool to New York, 1867)
- 3 Saint-Michel III (Verne’s last and largest ship)
- 1 Hamburg (From Bordeaux to Liverpool, 1859)
- 1 Saint-John (From New York to Albany, 1867)
- 1 Saint-Michel I (Verne’s first ship)
The Saint-Michel was Verne’s first ship, on which he made frequent trips along the coast. It was succeeded by the Saint-Michel II and finally the Saint-Michel III. On this last yacht, he made several long cruises, to the Mediterranean, the North Sea and the British Isles.
In 1867, Jules Verne and his brother Paul travelled to the United States on board of the Great Eastern. They took the steamer Saint-John to reach Albany, from where they visited the Niagara Falls. Verne wrote about this trip in his novel Une Ville flottante (with an added fictional plot).
The Hamburg is the ship that took Jacques and Jonathan from Bordeaux to Liverpool in Voyage à reculons. We know that this story is an accurate description of the trip that Verne made with his friend Aristide Hignard in 1859. While this is not an irrefutable proof that Hamburg was the ship’s real name, I give the entrant the benefit of doubt. Interestingly, the ship’s captain in Voyage à reculons was called Speedy. Verne used this name in Le Tour du monde en 80 jours for the captain of a ship with destination Bordeaux, that is taken to Liverpool instead.
5. Name an animal species of which at least one individual representative, in a Voyage extraordinaire, has a proper name. That is, if a duck called Donald would appear in a Voyage extraordinaire, than “duck” would be a correct answer.
- 4 Dog (e.g. Top, L’Île mystérieuse)
- 3 Ostrich (Dada, L’Étoile du Sud)
- 1 Elephant (Kiouni, Le Tour du monde en 80 jours)
- 1 Horse (e.g. Thaouka, Les Enfants du capitaine Grant)
- 1 Orang-outang (Jup in L’Île mystérieuse)
Other animals with proper names are goats, parrots and monkeys. And of course, there are all the different incarnations of the rat family in La Famille Raton.
6. Name a Voyage extraordinaire that is completely written from a first-person perspective, i.e. the narrator is one of the characters in the story.
- 3 Le Chancellor (J.-R. Kazallon)
- 3 Le Chemin de France (Natalis Delpierre)
- 2 Voyage au centre de la Terre (Axel)
- 1 Le Sphinx des glaces [= An Antarctic Mystery] (Jeorling)
- 1 Une Ville flottante (?)
The name of the narrator in Une Ville flottante is not known. This gives the novel an especially autobiographical feeling.
7. Name someone who is currently the president of a Jules Verne Society, Jules Verne Club, or similar association.
- 3 Jean-Michel Margot (North American Jules Verne Society)
- 2 Gerard Voogt (Dutch Jules Verne Society)
- 1 Dieter Michaelis (Jules Verne Club Berlin)
- 1 Egon Cierny (Klub Julese Vernea, Prague)
- 1 Jean-Christophe Jeauffre (Jules Verne Aventures)
- 1 Krzysztof Czubaszek (Polish Jules Verne Society)
- 1 Mme Pia Daix (Centre International Jules Verne, Amiens)
8. Name a character from a work by Jules Verne whose full name is also the full title of the work he/she appears in (subtitles may be ignored for this question).
- 2 Gil Braltar
- 2 Hector Servadac
- 2 Martin Paz
- 1 César Cascabel
- 1 Don Galaor
- 1 Mathias Sandorf
Wrong:
- 1 Jean-Marie Cabidoulin (Not the full title)
The full title of the story that Cabidoulin appears in, is Les Histoires de Jean-Marie Cabidoulin.
9. Name someone who was Jules Verne’s opponent in a court of law.
- 5 Eugène Turpin (felt insulted by the character Thomas Roch)
- 4 Léon Delmas [= René de Pont-Jest] (accused Verne of plagiarism)
Wrong:
- 1 Edouard Cadol (there was no court of law)
Léon Delmas, who used the pseudonym René de Pont-Jest, accused Verne of plagiarising his short story La Tête de Mimer. The accusation, based on the use of the Sun’s shadow in Voyage au centre de la Terre (Delmas had used the Moon’s shadow in his short story) was really far-fetched, and Verne was declared innocent.
Edouard Cadol claimed to be the co-author of the play Le Tour du monde en 80 jours. In fact, Verne and Cadol had collaborated for a short time on a draft of a play, but without any success. Yet Cadol earned a significant portion of the rights to the play. It didn’t take a lawsuit to settle this matter, so the answer must be regarded as incorrect.
Eugène Turpin recognized himself in the character Thomas Roch, and sued Verne for using his personality in his novel. Verne was acquitted, but his correspondance with his brother Paul suggests that he did indeed base Roch on Turpin.