The Mask of the Prophet: The Extraordinary Fictions of Jules Verne

by Andrew Martin

Overview

This provocative new study contends that Jules Verne was indeed more than just a writer of science fiction or harmless fantasies for children. Placing him squarely within the center of a strong literary tradition, Martin convincingly shows that a recurrent narrative, describing the strange destiny of a masked prophet who revolts against an empire, runs throughout Verne's Voyages extraordinaires. This theme, Martin argues, illuminates the paradoxes of realism and invention, repression and transgression, and imperialism and anarchy. Verne emerges not only as a key to the political and literary imagination of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but as a model for fiction in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198157984
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/16/1990
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.69(w) x 8.81(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

University of Cambridge

Editorial Reviews

"An important and imaginative addition to [the] understanding of the writings of Jules Verne....Fresh, stimulating, and graceful...Martin weaves together a rich knowledge of contemporary critical theory and of Vernian scholarship with a sensitive and evocative reading of the narratives."—Utopian Studies

"Easily read, but...insightful....Worthy and welcome addition to the growing corpus of English-language scholarship on Jules Verne and its efforts to both defamiliarize and refamiliarize (i.e., to "unmask") for the Anglo-American public thee multi-layered richness of Jules Verne's legendary novels."—Science-Fiction Studies

"A worthy and welcome addition to the growing English-language scholarship on Jules Verne and, perhaps more importantly, to its on-going efforts to both defamiliarize and refamiliarize...for the Anglo-American public the multi-layered richness of Verne's romans scientifiques."—Nineteenth-Century French Studies

"Martin...builds upon the serious French scholarship on Verne of the past several decades and presents a very provocative analysis of Verne's novels....Martin's book is an excellent contribution to scholarship on Jules Verne and should be included in any library collection that intends to support research on science fiction."—Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Annual 1991

"Well-written, dazzling."—Choice

From the Publisher