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Among so many effective and artistic tales, it is difficult to give a
preference to one over all the rest. Yet, certainly, even amid Verne’s
remarkable works, his “Off on a Comet” must be given high rank.
Perhaps this story will be remembered when even “Round the World in
Eighty Days” and “Michael Strogoff” have been obliterated by
centuries of time. At least, of the many books since written upon the same
theme as Verne’s, no one has yet succeeded in equaling or even
approaching it.
In one way “Off on a Comet” shows a marked contrast to
Verne’s earlier books. Not only does it invade a region more remote than
even the “Trip to the Moon,” but the author here abandons his usual
scrupulously scientific attitude. In order that he may escort us through the
depths of immeasurable space, show us what astronomy really knows of conditions
there and upon the other planets, Verne asks us to accept a situation frankly
impossible. The earth and a comet are brought twice into collision without
mankind in general, or even our astronomers, becoming conscious of the fact.
Moreover several people from widely scattered places are carried off by the
comet and returned uninjured. Yet further, the comet snatches for the
convenience of its travelers, both air and water. Little, useful tracts of
earth are picked up and, as it were, turned over and clapped down right side up
again upon the comet’s surface. Even ships pass uninjured through this
remarkable somersault. These events all belong frankly to the realm of
fairyland.
If the situation were reproduced in actuality, if ever a comet should
come into collision with the earth, we can conceive two scientifically possible
results. If the comet were of such attenuation, such almost infinitesimal mass
as some of these celestial wanderers seem to be, we can imagine our earth
self-protective and possibly unharmed. If, on the other hand, the comet had
even a hundredth part of the size and solidity and weight which Verne confers
upon his monster so as to give his travelers a home— in that case the
collision would be unspeakably disastrous— especially to the unlucky
individuals who occupied the exact point of contact.
But once granted the initial and the closing extravagance, the departure
and return of his characters, the alpha and omega of his tale, how closely the
author clings to facts between! How closely he follows, and imparts to his
readers, the scientific probabilities of the universe beyond our earth, the
actual knowledge so hard won by our astronomers! Other authors who, since
Verne, have told of trips through the planetary and stellar universe have given
free rein to fancy, to dreams of what might be found. Verne has endeavored to
impart only what is known to exist.
In the same year with “Off on a Comet,” 1877, was published
also the tale variously named and translated as “The Black Indies,”
“The Underground City,” and “The Child of the Cavern.”
This story, like “Round the World in Eighty Days” was first issued
in “feuilleton” by the noted Paris newspaper “Le
Temps.” Its success did not equal that of its predecessor in this style.
Some critics indeed have pointed to this work as marking the beginning of a
decline in the author’s power of awaking interest. Many of his best works
were, however, still to follow. And, as regards imagination and the elements of
mystery and awe, surely in the “Underground City” with its cavern
world, its secret, undiscoverable, unrelenting foe, the “Harfang,”
bird of evil omen, and the “fire maidens” of the ruined castle,
surely with all these “imagination” is anything but lacking.
From the realistic side, the work is painstaking and exact as all the
author’s works. The sketches of mines and miners, their courage and their
dangers, their lives and their hopes, are carefully studied. So also is the
emotional aspect of the deeps under ground, the blackness, the endless
wandering passages, the silence, and the awe.
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