“Let me tell you then, Professor, that you will not regret the time passed on board my vessel. You are going to visit the land of marvConflicted Review
“Let me tell you then, Professor, that you will not regret the time passed on board my vessel. You are going to visit the land of marvels."
Another very difficult book for me to review. It is a well-established classic, and it is Jules Verne so it was never going to be a bad book. However, I have long since learnt that the generally accepted rule is not always compatible with my own reading experience.
In the midst of the glade, on a pedestal of rocks roughly piled up, stood a cross of coral that extended its long arms that one might have thought were made of petrified blood. Upon a sign from Captain Nemo one of the men advanced; and at some feet from the cross he began to dig a hole with a pickaxe that he took from his belt. I understood all! This glade was a cemetery, this hole a tomb, this oblong object the body of the man who had died in the night! The Captain and his men had come to bury their companion in this general resting-place, at the bottom of this inaccessible ocean!
There is obviously some magic to be had here, but it takes some mining to unearth, buried as it is under mountains of exposition. If ever a novel read like a textbook it is this one.
"Let us reflect," said I, "and take our time… I think a little hesitation in this case would not be ill-timed.”
The premise of the book is actually rather simple, following as it does the protagonist (Professor Aronnax) and the crew of the Nautilus (under Captain Nemo) as they travel around the world’s oceans, alternating between what can arguably be described as scientific sight-seeing and random adventure. (Read: travelogue with endless descriptions of oceans and marine fauna and flora, and interspersed with any number of history lessons).
There are lots of descriptions of aquatic lifeforms, of every conceivable size, colour and genus. I’m a bit of a compulsive reader (I don’t “skip”), so some of the detailed sequences almost drove me up the wall in their extensiveness.
And then, of course, at the heart of the story is the ambiguous nature of the enigmatic Captain Nemo, and his desire for independence (or is it vengeance?). It is also worth noting that the narrator, M. Aronnax, is a more complex character than first glance would suggest, given his own contemplations during the voyage. Juxtaposed against all the encyclopedic detail, however, I am afraid quite a bit of the essence of the novel has passed me by, insofar as the characters are concerned. It happens.
”Ah! sir, live--live in the bosom of the waters! There only is independence! There I recognise no masters! There I am free!"
Now, to be clear, there are some redeeming qualities. How could there not be? Some of the sequences are quite picturesque and taking into account that this novel was published (in serial format) circa 1870 it is actually quite an impressive feat. This last fact in itself accounts for the book’s classic status as a Science Fiction story. Towards the latter end of the novel, there is a sequence of suitable claustrophobic tension (the Nautilus is, after all, a submarine) that stands out, amongst others.
In the end, I suppose the fact that it took me five years to finish this is as telling as anything I might write in a review. It took too long to reel me in, and I found it just a tad dry.
Read as part of have-to-read agreement with my wife....more
Now began our real journey. Hitherto our toil had overcome all difficulties, now difficulties would spring up at every step. I had not yet ventured to Now began our real journey. Hitherto our toil had overcome all difficulties, now difficulties would spring up at every step. I had not yet ventured to look down the bottomless pit into which I was about to take a plunge. The supreme hour had come.
OK so if you’re a reader of Science Fiction, and especially the classics, you owe it to yourself to read some Jules Verne. Not only was he enormously influential in the genre, but he is responsible for stories that are still popular to this day.
What human power could restore me to the light of the sun by rending asunder the huge arches of rock which united over my head, buttressing each other with impregnable strength?
The story here is not unfamiliar. In fact, it’s been well covered by film and television, as well as the illustrated medium, a great many times. I will therefore not go into great detail around the plot, other than to say that it deals with a journey into the earth’s crust and below (much like the title states).
So, then, the dream in which I had had a vision of the prehistoric world, of the tertiary and post-tertiary periods, was now realised. And there we were alone, in the bowels of the earth, at the mercy of its wild inhabitants!
It’s an adventure novel, really, and not hard science fiction by modern standards. However, it would have been a very different story at the time of first publication (1864). The scientific discussions presented here must have been positively electrifying.
There are only a few characters and none are truly fleshed out. This, I think, is a symptom of the genre and the time it was written. Science Fiction has come a long way since 1864.
It is apparent that the author was aiming not only for a base to present his own scientific beliefs (the book does enter “lecture mode” on a few occasions) but also to press some “sense of wonder” buttons in his readers. I didn’t read the book in the original French but in English, alternating between the Penguin Classic translation and the Gutenberg Project translation (there are some interesting comparisons / differences between the two but that is a discussion for another time). Still: it is obvious, even in translated form, that Mister Verne had a flair for the dramatic and knew how to spin a yarn. Respect.
From that hour we had no further occasion for the exercise of reason, or judgment, or skill, or contrivance. We were henceforth to be hurled along, the playthings of the fierce elements of the deep.
3.5 – 4 stars
Read as part of annual “have to read” agreement with wife....more
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.
Other than being a rather creepy story, this noNot a review, really - just some thoughts.
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.
Other than being a rather creepy story, this novel is also a lament for the passage of time and the ending of things. Consider Jim Nightshade, who at the age of thirteen, has decided not to ever have children: ‘You don't know until you've had three children and lost all but one.' 'Never going to have any,' said Jim. 'You just say that.' 'I know it. I know everything.' She waited a moment. 'What do you know?' 'No use making more People. People die.' His voice was very calm and quiet and almost sad.
This passage resonated incredibly strongly with me.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is pretty melancholic and poignant, in its own fashion, and Bradbury’s lyrical writing style underlines that fact. It is also pretty creepy:
A bad thing happened at sunset.
Bad things do happen in this story. Perhaps not the same “bad things” as you would expect in a contemporary horror novel (there is, for example, no evisceration), but bad enough in its own way. Whether you can identify with the America of Bradbury’s youth or not (this should be considered a moot point, since we can’t identify with Dickens’s England or with Middle Earth either, and that’s never a problem), this novel succeeds on many levels; death and fear are, after all, universal and timeless.
How do you hear it, how are you warned? The ear, does it hear? No. But the hairs on the back of your neck, and the peach-fuzz in your ears, they do, and the hair along your arms sings like grasshopper legs frictioned and trembling with strange music.
Something Wicked is a very, very good story, and written beautifully. It’s a quick read, but it compensates for that in many other ways. The exact nature of the Carnival is somewhat obscure. It seems to be vested in mysticism and the occult, but it remains open to interpretation. The Autumn People theory is fantastic! Suffice to say, the whole thing remains suitably sinister…
The stuff of nightmare is their plain bread. They butter it with pain.
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