Although it is not even known whether Jules Verne ever landed here, a little-known novel of his has re-emerged with its hero traversing 19th-century Ireland, writes Claire O'Connell
'The bay is one of the most beautiful along the entire seaboard of Ireland; its capes, promontories, and points are ranged like so many sharks' teeth which bite the incoming rollers." That's how Jules Verne's 1893 novel The Extraordinary Adventures of Foundling Mick describes Clew Bay in its opening chapter. It's not a bad attempt from an author who spent little or possibly even no time in Ireland, but who felt strongly enough about the country to base an entire book here.
Foundling Mick is one of Verne's lesser known works, a dark social commentary delivered through the story of an abandoned child who travels around Ireland and eventually makes his fortune.
"It's really a rediscovered title. Most academics in the area of travel writing and French studies are unaware of it," says Pauric Dempsey of the Royal Irish Academy, which will publish the only known English translation of the book this Monday.
Basing the entire novel in Ireland reflects Verne's attraction to things Celtic, according to Dr William Butcher, a Hong-Kong-based scholar who has written extensively about the French author. But Verne's actual contact with Ireland was fleeting, with some argument that he never set foot here at all.
He did, at the very least, view the coastline from the sea at Queenstown (now Cobh), according to Butcher.
"It's quite clear that he saw Ireland from the boat," he says. "Whether the boat put in at Queenstown, we don't know, and he also may have gone back to the Irish Sea." In addition to such glancing visits, Verne was strongly influenced by his own Celtic heritage, including his Scottish ancestry and the experience of growing up in Brittany hearing Gaelic tones, explains Butcher. "Verne considered himself a Celt through his mother and he writes very movingly about things like that, especially Scotland but also Ireland."
Verne's novels are peppered with Irish characters and references, he adds. "The Irish characters in Verne's novels are always the stereotypes, the dreamers, they are almost never engineers, they believe in superstition and legends. Verne himself loved going into legends so he would have been very sympathetic with the Irish character."
And the Irish coastline that so impressed Verne forms a backdrop for journeys in many of his novels, says Butcher. "Lots of them go through the north channel between Ireland and Scotland, and in The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Malin Head is the last land in Europe they see before they head up to the North Pole where many of them die, so it's quite an emotional moment." Ireland also hosts an important leg of Phileas Fogg's journey in Around the World in 80 Days, when he claws back time by taking a train from Cork to Dublin before going to England.
But Foundling Mick is the only Verne novel to be completely set in Ireland, and Mick's travels take in a sweep of the country, from Westport through Galway and Kerry around to Cork, through Wexford and Dublin back up to Belfast. So how did a Frenchman with only a smattering of English and virtually no personal experience of the land or culture nail down his descriptions? From first-hand accounts of others written in French, according to Butcher.
The result is a dark and Dickensian story, written during a difficult period in Verne's life. "He had family problems, he was ill and tired and he died a few years later," says Butcher. "He had been shot in the leg by his nephew in 1886 and he was still lame from it, he couldn't travel. Previously his life had revolved around getting away from his wife and travelling, but after that he hardly left home, he could hardly walk."
Foundling Mick is a departure from his earlier novels, agrees Kieran O'Driscoll, who examines Verne translations at Dublin City University's Centre for Translational and Textual Studies. "It was very different to his other works, which were very much to do with the scientific anticipation," he says. "This is different, there's no element of science in it and it's much darker. There's criticism of the Irish situation, the colonial oppressor, the terrible poverty."
The current translation of Foundling Mick, which was rendered by an uncredited translator in 1895, is the only one known, according to O'Driscoll. And, as was normal at the time, the translator took a few liberties. "In a lot of the late 19th-century translations of Verne novels there tended to be omissions and embellishments," says O'Driscoll. "Overall, the translation of Foundling Mick is very accurate but the translator left some of the facts about Ireland out and was more specific about certain facts, changing some details about Ireland's population or geographical features." But while this edition is reasonably faithful to the original, Verne's reputation suffered badly at the hands of other translators, who sometimes undermined the accuracy of the scientific information he had so painstakingly researched in his original books, explains O'Driscoll.
"For example, in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea there's a huge amount of facts about marine biology and distances in nautical miles, but there was a lot of hasty mistranslation, so people read it and said Verne's scientific facts were totally wrong. But the reality is that he had done a huge amount of research." In addition, a dose of snobbery in literary circles, and the Catholic church being suspicious of the scientific content, led to Verne being widely disregarded in Europe, which caused him much pain, according to O'Driscoll.
"Verne was just generally shunned and regarded as children's literature and unimportant, and he wasn't regarded as a great classic writer for a long time aferwards. His writings were ignored . . . he is known to have said in a letter to one of his friends that he was never going to be regarded as a great writer in his lifetime." However, since around 1950 the push has been on to rehabilitate Verne's reputation. "This translation of Foundling Mick will help to promote some of his lesser known work," says O'Driscoll. "So I think it's a welcome arrival in that sense."
The Extraordinary Adventures of Foundling Mick by Jules Verne is published on Monday March 24th - the 103rd anniversary of Verne's death - by the Royal Irish Academy in association with the National Library of Ireland. It includes critiques by Dr William Butcher and Kieran O'Driscoll. Price €15.