This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(September 2018) |
Author | Jules Verne |
---|---|
Original title | Le Testament d'un excentrique |
Illustrator | Georges Roux |
Language | French |
Series | The Extraordinary Voyages #46 |
Genre | Adventure novel |
Publisher | Pierre-Jules Hetzel |
Publication date | 1900 |
Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1900 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
OCLC | 40237480 |
Preceded by | The Mighty Orinoco |
Followed by | The Castaways of the Flag |
The Will of an Eccentric (French : Le Testament d'un excentrique) is a 1900 adventure novel written by Jules Verne based on the Game of the Goose.
William J. Hypperbone, an eccentric millionaire, living in Chicago, has left the sum of his fortune, $60,000,000, to the first person to reach the end of "The Noble Game of the United States of America." The game he devised is based upon the board game "The Noble Game of Goose"; however, in his version, the players are the tokens and the game board is the United States. The contestants are Max Réal, with his companion Tommy); Tom Crabbe, with his trainer John Milner; Hermann Titbury, with his wife Kate; Harris T. Kymbale (on his own); Lizzie Wag, with her friend Jovita Foley; Hodge Urrican, with his companion Turk; and the mysterious player only known as "XKZ." Who is this mysterious "XKZ" who was added to the game by a codicil to the will? Time and completion of the game will tell.
In 1897, the first Baedecker guidebook for the U.S. was published, and Verne used this as the source for his descriptions of the modes of transport, timetables, and geographic descriptions of the numerous places the twelve participants were required to visit in order to claim the prize.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is a science fiction adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne. It is often considered a classic within both its genres and world literature. The novel was originally serialised from March 1869 to June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's French fortnightly periodical, the Magasin d'éducation et de récréation. A deluxe octavo edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou.
The Game of the Goose, also known as the Royal Game of the Goose is one of the first board games to be commercially manufactured. It is a race game, relying only on dice throws to dictate progression of the players. The board is often arranged in the form of a spiral, with game pieces starting on the most outward part. All spaces on the game board are numbered, with some depicting an illustration of either a goose or a hazard indicating a specified action. The aim of the game is to reach the 63rd space before any of the other players, while avoiding hazards such as the Hotel, the Bridge, and Death.
Journey to the Center of the Earth, also translated with the variant titles A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey into the Interior of the Earth, is a classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne. It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Eventually the three explorers are spewed back to the surface by an active volcano, Stromboli, located in southern Italy.
Cyrus Smith is one of the protagonists of Jules Verne's 1875 novel The Mysterious Island. He is an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He is a very skilled man and a fine literary example of a 19th-century engineer.
The Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, serialised from August 1874 to September 1875 and then published in book form in November 1875. The first edition, published by Hetzel, contains illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and In Search of the Castaways (1867–68), though its themes are vastly different from those books. An early draft of the novel, rejected by Verne's publisher and wholly reconceived before publication, was titled Shipwrecked Family: Marooned with Uncle Robinson, indicating the influence of the novels Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. Verne developed a similar theme in his novel, Godfrey Morgan.
The Voyages extraordinaires is a collection or sequence of novels and short stories by the French writer Jules Verne.
Pierre-Jules Hetzel was a French editor and publisher celebrated for his extraordinarily lavishly illustrated editions of Jules Verne's novels, highly prized by collectors.
Clovis Dardentor is an 1896 fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne, written partly as a travel narrative. Compared to other Verne novels, it is a relatively unknown work.
Off on a Comet is an 1877 science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne. It recounts the journey of several people carried away by a comet contacting the Earth. The comet passes by various bodies in the Solar System before returning the travelers to the Earth.
Texar's Revenge, or, North Against South is the full title of the English translation of the novel written by the French science-fiction author Jules Verne, and centers on the story of James Burbank, an antislavery northerner living near Jacksonville, Florida, and Texar, a pro-slavery southerner who holds a vendetta against Burbank. Originally published in France in 1887, the book received a tepid reaction upon its release in the United States, partly because of Verne's inexpertise regarding some details of the American Civil War, and has since fallen into obscurity compared to many of Verne's other works.
Les Indes noires is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, serialized in Le Temps in March and April 1877 and published immediately afterward by Pierre-Jules Hetzel. The first UK edition was published in October 1877 by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington as The Child of the Cavern, or Strange Doings Underground. Other English titles for the novel include Black Diamonds and The Underground City.
Two Years' Vacation is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1888. The story tells of the fortunes of a group of schoolboys stranded on a deserted island in the South Pacific, and of their struggles to overcome adversity. In his preface to the book, Verne explains that his goals were to create a Robinson Crusoe-like environment for children, and to show the world what the intelligence and bravery of a child were capable of when put to the test.
Dr. Ox's Experiment is a humorous science fiction novella by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1872. It describes an experiment by one Dr. Ox, and is inspired by the real or alleged effects of oxygen on living things.
"A Drama in Mexico" is a historical short story by Jules Verne, first published in July 1851 under the title "L'Amérique du Nord, études historiques: Les Premiers Navires de la marine mexicaine."
Propeller Island is a science fiction novel by French author Jules Verne (1828–1905). It was first published in 1895 as part of the Voyages Extraordinaires. It relates the adventures of a French string quartet in Milliard City, a city on a massive ship in the Pacific Ocean, inhabited entirely by millionaires.
The Fur Country or Seventy Degrees North Latitude is an adventure novel by Jules Verne in The Extraordinary Voyages series, first published in 1873. The novel was serialized in Magasin d’Éducation et de Récréation from 20 September 1872 to 15 December 1873. The two-volume first original French edition and the first illustrated large-format edition were published in 1873 by Pierre-Jules Hetzel. The first English translation by N. D’Anvers was also published in 1873.
Invasion of the Sea is an adventure novel written by Jules Verne. It was published in 1905, the last to be published in the author's lifetime, and describes the exploits of Berber nomads and European travelers in Saharan Africa. The European characters arrive to study the feasibility of flooding a low-lying region of the Sahara desert to create an inland sea and open up the interior of Northern Africa to trade. In the end, however, the protagonists' pride in humanity's potential to control and reshape the world is humbled by a cataclysmic earthquake which results in the natural formation of just such a sea.
The Chase of the Golden Meteor is a novel by Jules Verne. It was one of the last novels written by the prolific French hard science fiction pioneer. The book, however, is seen as less an early example of hard science fiction than a social satire lampooning greed, monomania and vanity. Verne first wrote La Chasse au météore in 1901 and then rewrote it before his death, but it was only published in 1908, three years after the author's death, one of seven such posthumous novels.
"A Drama in the Air" is an adventure short story by Jules Verne. The story was first published in August 1851 under the title "Science for families. A Voyage in a Balloon" in Musée des familles with five illustrations by Alexandre de Bar. In 1874, with six illustrations by Émile-Antoine Bayard, it was included in Doctor Ox, the only collection of Jules Verne's short stories published during Verne's lifetime. An English translation by Anne T. Wilbur, published in May 1852 in Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature, marked the first time a work by Jules Verne was translated into the English language.
Jules Verne (1828–1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Most famous for his novel sequence, the Voyages Extraordinaires, Verne also wrote assorted short stories, plays, miscellaneous novels, essays, and poetry. His works are notable for their profound influence on science fiction and on surrealism, their innovative use of modernist literary techniques such as self-reflexivity, and their complex combination of positivist and romantic ideologies.