The Mask of the Prophet The Extraordinary Fictions of Jules Verne [Hardcover]

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'sVoyages 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.

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. --UtopianStudies

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'sromans scientifiques. --Nineteenth-CenturyFrench 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 col°