The Eternal Adam and other stories (42 page)

BOOK: The Eternal Adam and other stories
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In the Twenty-Ninth Century

First published as ‘In the 29th Century:
The Day of An American Journalist in the year 2889’ by Michel Verne from an
idea by Jules Verne in the
Forum
(New York), vol. VI, February 1889, pp.
662-77; revised French language version by Jules Verne, Aux XXIXe siècle: La
Journée d’un journaliste américain en 2890’ in
M
é
moires de I’Acad
é
mie
d’Amiens,
1890, pp. 348-70, and in the
Suppl
é
ment illustr
é of
the
Petit Journal
(Paris), 29 août 1891; revised version reprinted in
Hier et demain
(Paris, 1910); this translation by I. O. Evans in
Yesterday and Tomorrow
(London, 1965).

 

An Express of the Future

First published in Russian in
Vokroug Svieta,
no. 31, 1890, pp.
494-9, and in French as ‘Un express de l’avenir’ in
Les Annales politiques
et litt
é
raires
(Paris), 27 août 1893, signed M. Jules Verne,
reprinted in
Jules Verne 1, La Revue des Lettres Modernes
(Paris), nos.
456-61, 1973 (3), pp. 131-6: and in English as ‘An Express of the Future’, from
‘the French of Jules Verne’ in the
Strand Magazine
(London), vol. 10.
December 1895, pp. 638-40, in an uncredited translation. With Michel Verne.

The Eternal Adam

First published as ‘L’Éternal Adam’ in
La Revue de Paris,
1 October, 1910 (revised by Michel Verne from an initial
draft by Jules Verne entitled ‘Edom’, eventually printed in the
Bulletin de
la soci
é
t
é
Jules Verne
(Paris), no. 100); reprinted in
Hier et demain
(Paris, 1910); this translation by I. O. Evans in
Yesterday and Tomorrow
(London, 1965). With Michel Verne.

Acknowledgements

For permission to use copyright translations, thanks are due to: Edward
Baxter, for ‘The Humbug’; © 1990 by Edward Baxter. This version was first
published in
The Jules Verne Encyclopedia
(Lanham, Maryland and London:
The Scarecrow Press, 1996), edited by Brian Taves and Stephen Michaluk.

The translations of ‘An Ideal City’, ‘Gil Braltar’, ‘In the 29th
Century. The Day of An American Journalist in the Year 2889’ and ‘The Eternal
Adam’ first appeared in
Yesterday and Tomorrow,
translated and edited by
I. O. Evans; © 1965 by Arco Publications.

The remainder of the translations are in the public domain and are
taken from editions in the editor’s and other collections, as detailed in the
sources. Though passages deleted by the translators have been restored in some
pieces, notably in Verne’s childhood recollections, his prolix geographical
excursions, which add little to the narratives, have not been. For their
assistance the editor wishes to thank the Central Catholic Library in Dublin,
Boston Public Library, the London Library. Edward Baxter, and Brian Taves. The
bibliographical information has been derived largely from Charles-No
ë
l Martin and Brian Taves, though other sources in French and English
have also been consulted.

 

 

Notes

[i]
The
former name of Paris.

[ii]
Poland was
then split - to all appearances irretrievably - between Russia, Germany and
Austria: and the hats of the period seemed to have been called 'polonnaises'.

[iii]
'A keeper of
gigantic cattle. '

[iv]
'He is
patient because he is eternal. '

[v]
From the
neighbourhood of Berlin to near Cape Horn.

[vi]
The
Andart'-Iten-Schu thus knew nothing of Neptune.

[vii]
It will be
seen that, at the time when Zartog Sofr-Ai-Sr was indulging in these
reflections, though the Andart'-Iten-Schu knew the telegraph, they were still
ignorant of the telephone and the electric light.

[viii]
From these
words it must be assumed that at the time when this journal
will be
written, the solar system
will include
more than eight planets,
and that
man
will have
discovered one or several
beyond Neptune.

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