(58) La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor, 1908) (1 volume) 59K words


In the fifty-eight Extraordinary Voyage, the fourth one published posthumously, Verne returns to the science fiction genre. This book is the first to deal with astronomical events since "Off on a Comet" (I'm not counting "The Purchase of the North Pole" here because that one only involved Earth). This novel also includes a trip to Greenland, where, if I remember correctly, the series had only taken us for a short visit in "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras".


What is it about?: Two amateur astronomers in the same American town independently spot a new meteor and each attempts to claim the credit for the discovery. The bitter rivalry that results threatens the projected wedding between the daughter of one of the astronomers and the nephew of the other. This rivalry worsens when it's discovered that the meteor is made of gold and thus extremely valuable. Meanwhile, another amateur scientist, this time a very eccentric inventor, tries to create a device which will cause the meteor to fall on Earth.


On paper, the book is science fiction, but the focus is really on the social satire, with a humorous portrayal of how greed and vanity affects people and countries. I had expected Verne's posthumous novels to be somewhat glum, but that's not really the case, and the last two I have read ("The Thompson Travel Agency" and this one) are comedies.

Perhaps one element that differentiates these posthumous novels is the denunciation of greed. This message was somewhat lost in "The Golden Volcano" because of the modifications Michel Verne (Jules Verne's son) did before publication, but here the message is intact, and the author has fun depicting how greed makes people act like fools and how it threatens peace between countries.

Comparing the final product with Jules' original manuscript, we see that Michel's main contribution was introducing the character Zéphyrin Xirdal, the extremely eccentric but brilliant French inventor who tries to bring the meteor to Earth (in Jules' manuscript the meteor fell on its own).

It's in Xirdal's work that we find the science-fictional elements of the story. The device that the inventor produces is explained with technobabble, although it's interesting to see in it the influences of the contemporary research on radioactive materials and also, with a certain prescience, some musings on the equivalence of matter and energy.

But, as I said, this is not the real focus. Despite the speculative elementas and the journey to Greenland, the main pleasure is following the quirky set of characters as they are affected by the riches that may be about to fall from the sky.

The novel is quite short and moves at a decent pace, without the slower sections that some of Verne's longest novels have in their first half.


Enjoyment factor: I liked this one, although I did not find it as amusing as "The Thompson Travel Agency". It's short and a quick read, and the plot is entertaining, even if the science is dubious. Your enjoyment will depend on how much you appreciate the quirkiness of the characters. I can see them being a bit too much for some readers.


Next up: The Danube Pilot


See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/threads/reading-vernes-voyages-extraordinaires.58... ( )

Es la historia de un meteoro de oro puro que se precipita hacia la tierra y genera una codicia competitiva entre los astrónomos y el caos entre las naciones obsesionadas con la trayectoria del gran objeto dorado.

review of
Jules Verne's The Hunt for the Meteor
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 11, 2017

As w/ H.G. Wells, Verne is like an old friend from my childhood whose stories I'll never get tired of. &, again as w/ both of them, I pace my reading of them far enuf apart so that I'll probably never read them all. Here're the Verne's I've read, roughly in the order of their writing:

Paris in the Twentieth Century (1863)
A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)
20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1869-70)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)
The Begum's Fortune (1879)
The Demon of Cawnpore (1880)
Carpathian Castle (1892)
For the Flag (1896)
The Village in the Treetops (1901)
Master of the World (1904)
The Lighthouse at the end of the World (published posthumously 1905)
The Hunt for the Meteor (published posthumously 1908)
Yesterday and Tomorrow (published posthumously 1910)
Into the Niger Bend (published posthumously 1919)
The City in the Sahara (published posthumously 1919)

Now, I'm informed by the Wikipedia entry re Verne that the "posthumously published volumes in the Voyages Extraordinaires were extensively altered and in some cases entirely written by by Verne's son Michel." & that apparently applies to The Lighthouse at the end of the World AND The Hunt for the Meteor in the above list. However, some of the others aren't in the Wikipedia list at all so perhaps they're completely discredited.

"Until recent years, The Hunt for the Meteor (La Chasse au Méteore) was the only one of Jules Verne's posthumous works to be translated and published in English; it appeared, however, under a title which revealed its secret prematurely." - p 5

'I wonder what title that might've been.' you ask. But is that a question? Where's the question mark? Can it be 'answered' by The Chase of the Golden Shower? Close, but no question mark.

"Another of his attempts at humour breaks down in translation; neither the original translator or I as editor have been able to render the extraordinary malapropisms of the housekeeper Mitz." - p 6

Of course, I don't know what the original malapropisms were like en Français but I find the translations quite satisfactory.

""And My Crown?" she questioned, this being her pronunciation of Omicron's name.

""He's busy upstairs," replied Francis. "We'll manage without him this morning."

""All the better," grumbled Mitz. "I wish he'd stay and moon about in his absurdatory for good and all. We'd be better off here without that prize idiot."" - p 22

Mitz doesn't really get a fair deal & neither does Omicron. Omicron gets no credit for discovering the meteor b/c he's a servant. I cry 'FOUL!'

"Mitz, a model servant, and whose like it would be hard to find nowadays, belonged to that lost breed of domestic servants, resembling a dog in being attached to her masters and resembling a cat in being attached to the house." - p 16

Really, Verne?! That's disgustingly classist. I expect better from you. Of course, Mitz's 'master' is a person of more dollars than sense, Forsyth is a man of leisure, someone privileged enuf to be an amateur astronomer.

"And what was Forsyth's occupation? Medicine, law, literature, art, business? No, not at all. Sciences? Well, not sciences in the plural, but science in the singular, that sublime science which is called astronomy." - p 17

""It's quite possible," Omicron agreed. "It's very probable, even: for, a few days ago, when the sky was a little clearer, I thought I could see . . ."

""And I saw it too, Omicron."

""Both os us, then, both of us, and at the same time!"

""Omicron!" Forsyth protested.

""Yes! You first, no doubt," Omicron conceded, with a significant nod. "But when I thought I could see the thing in question, I thought it must be . . ."" - p 18

Much of the conflict in this bk centers around Forsyth & Dr. Hudelson, a neighbor astronomer, both trying to claim discovering the meteor to the exclusion of the other.

"Why didn't the two old friends share their shooting-star between them? There was no material advantage, no pecuniary profits to be hoped for. Even the honour was purely platonic. Why, therefore, grudge there being two names associated with the discovery? Why? Because they were both vain and touchy. And when these two foibles arise in question, how can reason prevail?" - p 44

"When Forsyth learnt the value of his meteor, he cried: "As I discovered it, and not that rascal in Morris Street, it belongs to me; and if it should fall on the earth, all this wealth would be mine!"

"On his side, Hudelson, as he shook his fist towards Elizabeth Street, declared: "It's my property, my children's inheritance, which is circling in space. If it should fall on our globe, nobody could take it from me, and I should be fabulously rich!"": - pp 70-71

The meteor, for reasons that will be revealed, is valued at 231,520 millions sterling - in other words for more than any human being has ever had to this day. Do I really believe that there are people so venal that they cdn't share that? Maybe.

Omicron's claim to the discovery is dismissed b/c he's a servant. Since Verne (or his son Michel) wrote that into the story one might think that there's critical commentary implicit but I'm not so sure. Verne seems to accept the status quo.

"The town in which this strange story begins is situated in Virginia, U.S.A.; it may be called Whaston, on the right bank of the river Potomac; it is useless to specify its exact whereabouts, for it does not appear even on the best maps." - p 7

Whaston, despite its obscurity & presumed small size, has at least 5 newspapers, something that cdn't be supported in hard copy in today's electronic age in any but the largest cities. There's the Daily Whaston, the Whaston News, the Whaston Morning, & the Whaston Evening, there's even a satirical one called the Whaston Punch. What? No Whaston Astronomer?

As w/ Whaston, try calculating how to get to Cross Village, MI, sometime on yr MapQuest or whatnot & you'll find it to be pretty obscure. There's at least one romance going on between here & there but there're 2 romances going on in Whaston.

"Seth Stanfort checked him: "Is it really necessary," he asked, "for Miss Arcadia and myself to dismount?"

"Mr. Proth reflected. "No," he decided. "The marriage can quite well be celebrated on horseback."" - p 13

Indeed, why not? I've never been married but when I got divorced from Laure Drougoul for all I know I was in a car at the time. Perhaps Verne shd've gotten divorced instead of married since he finds the qualities he likes in wives lacking in real life:

"Whenever he was preoccupied she respected his preoccupation. She even inquired after his work, and her kindly heart dictated encouraging language when the astronomer seemed to have lost his way in the infinity of space. She was a woman of the sort whom every husband could have wished to marry, and especially the astronomers. Unfortunately, her species is rarely met with outside novels." - p 26

I find this next type of detail to be the sort of thing that makes Verne particularly likable:

"Dr. Hudelson's house was comfortable, with a courtyard in front and a garden at the back. On its roof was a sort of square tower, thirty yards high, on the top of which was a terrace, and at one of the corners rose the mast on which, Sundays and holidays, there was hoisted the Star-spangled banner, the flag of the United States with its fifty-one stars."*

*"Verne was looking well ahead, for when he wrote, the flag had only forty-five Stars, and even now there are only fifty!" - p 28

Having been a Pittsburgher now for 21.5 yrs I'm always delighted when PGH gets mentioned in something I'm reading: "To the Head Astronomer of Pittsburgh Observatory, Pennsylvania." (p 33) I've been to that observatory, observatories are always very interesting to me.

The discovery of the meteor leads to people fearing that it'll crash into their town:

"As the said meteor had appeared in the zenith of Whaston, the town must be situated in its trajectory. And, if this were a closed orbit, it would again pass over the town. Suppose that the meteor should, for some reason or other, stop in its course just at this time. Whaston would then be hit, with results that could scarcely be conceived." - p 48

For one thing, one of the most literate towns in the United States might be destroyed. God's Wrath, people, doncha no yer serposed to be ign'rant?

The meteor is made of gold. Poo! I gave it away. Well, you'd probably figure it out by reading the bk's back jacket.

"Throughout the world this had become the one centre of interest. Unlike the Gauls, whose only fear was that the sky might fall on their heads, humanity at present unanimously desired that the meteor would stop in its course, and, yielding to the earth's attraction, would fall and enrich the globe with its wandering millions." - 68

Ok, here's where it gets confusing to me. Isn't the reason that gold is highly valued simply that it's rare? & wdn't the arrival on Earth of one large chunk of gold that's bigger than all the gold hitherto known simply devalue gold in general? & how exactly were people expecting to benefit from it? Ok, I cd understand all the excitement if the meteor were some sort of self-renewing source of food but gold? Whatever. & that's part of what Verne riffs off of here.

There are plenty of extraordinary characters in The Hunt for the Meteor but the one who's most remarkable has the best name. If I ever have a gerbil, I'll know what to name it:

"Speaking colloquially people were apt to say: "Zephyrin Xirdal? . . . What a man!" and indeed, in mind and in body alike, Zephyrin Xirdal was something out of the ordinary." - p 73

"For Zephyrin Xirdal, matter is only an appearance and has no real existence; this was shown by the complete impossibility of ascertaining its ultimate constitution. Whether matter be decomposed into molecules, atoms, or even more minute particles, there will still remain a last fraction insusceptible of any analysis, and this will always be so until a first principle which is not matter is admitted. This first immaterial principle is energy." - p 82

Xirdal is, of course, a genius whose inventive abilities will turn everything around. He's also presented as absent-minded enuf to stop doing something major b/c he simply forgets about it.

""Well, I'm just off by train. I'm on my way to the seaside, where I mean to spend a week revelling in the fresh air."

""You're in luck!"

""Why not come with me? We can talk quite comfortably in the train."

""That's so! . . ." began Zephyrin.

""Unless anything is keeping you in Paris just now."

""No!"

""Nothing in particular? . . . no experiment that you're making?"

"Xirdal tried in vain to remember.

""No, nothing," he replied." - p 88

[..]

"And, in the meantime, while Xirdal, mounted on his new hobby, was hurrying towards the train that should carry him far from the city, there, in the Rue Cassette, up in a room of the sixth storey, a dark harmless-looking box went on softly buzzing, a metallic reflector was still projecting its bluish light, and the cylinder of eddying dust articles still travelled, so slender but so rigid, into the unknown depths of space.

""Left to itself, the machine that Xirdal had neglected to stop, and whose very existence he had forgotten, proceeded blindly with its obscure mysterious task." - p 89

How many people use the word "milliards" any more? Why, just t'other day, I sd: "If I had a milliard for every time Zephyrin Xirdal left a box proceeding blindly with its obscure mysterious task, I'd be a milliardnaire!" & people looked at me as if I were tetched in the haid. It's sad living in a world of people w/ small vocabularies.

""And, yet, sir, if it's made of gold, it must be worth millions."

""Millions and milliards, Kate. Yes, there are milliards shooting round above our heads."" - p 95

My, how times have changed. Take, eg, the Earth's human population. 110 or so yrs ago:

""Admitting," he said, "that the earth contains fifteen hundred million inhabitants["]" - p 96

Now, that estimate probably wasn't very accurate. Still, today's estimate of human population is 7,500,000,000. That means the population has increased by 5 times in a mere 110 yrs. &, yet, I find people less worried about that now than they were 50 yrs ago. Watch out! This problem is going to come up & bite us on the ass! Not b/c it means to but b/c the person next to you won't be able to move away from where yr ass IS & it'll just look tooooooo tempting. Since constant murder doesn't really seem to be helping maybe we shd try something else? I don't recommend missionaries & their position on abstinence either.

"Thanks to the missionaries, the former fashion of tattooing has now disappeared from among these people" - p 142

Pooh. Let's put an image of a guy crucified on a cross everywhere instead.

"Although the meteor had been considerably flattened in its swift descent, its spherical shape was still perceptible. Its upper portion was fairly round, while the crushed base fitted into the anfractuosities of the ground." - p 160

While the plot of this bk doesn't necessarily follow the deepest intricate path or process of the mind, it lives up to ye olde Verne verve that we know & love.

"Verne had always been aware of the evil effects which the lust for gold can have on the human character: it suggested an episode, for example, in the first of his "Strange Journeys," Five Weeks in a Balloon, and it forms the theme of three of his posthumous stories. Though in the present work it is dealt with lightly, it is considered very seriously in The Golden Volcano and The Survivors of the "Jonathan"." - p 189

The reader is further referred to B. Traven's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. ( )

Dos científicos amigos descubren a la vez, cada uno por su lado, que un enorme meteorito pasará cerca de la tierra. Desde ese momento se enemistan en una disputa por quién pondrá su nombre al bólido. Pero la disputa aumentará cuando descubren que el motivo de su querella es, en realidad, una gigantesca pepita de oro...
Otra de las ingeniosas tramas de ese artista que se llamó Julio Verne. ( )

This was an adequete, though not extraordinary, Verne novel. I felt that this was definitely among Verne's lesser works and that the prose, characters, and plot-lines were leading a bit towards stale territory. Unless you're REALLY into Verne, I would suggest that you skip this one.

2.5 stars. ( )