href="#litres_trial_promo">III. This implies that Part I of MS2 was written before Parts II and III of MS1. Guermonprez (“Notes,” 60) says that in MS2 Verne rubbed out Hetzel’s pencil comments; and that from fo 33 onwards the publisher’s comments are in ink, with Verne crossing them carefully out but also attaching pieces of paper to cover them up, although this practice has never been mentioned by other commentators.
Many dialogues are deleted from the first chapter of MS2, which ends: “Off we go, my friends: let’s save our leader.” In MS1 the reporter is initially a stuffy and rigid Unionist officer, perhaps Smith’s adjutant, unlike the cheerful Spilett; and he is called “Captain Robur”! Robur, meaning “oak” in Late Latin (cf. “Verne” which means “alder”), is of course the hero’s name in Verne’s The Clipper of the Clouds (1886) and Master of the World (1904). In MS2 Spilett, whose earlier name is “Nol,” “Not,” or “Nat,” admits he does not know how to swim well (fo 19); and “Smyth Smith”10 (fo 10–12) has “a thick clump of beard” (fo 8bis) but no moustache, and “does not smile very often” (fo 8bis). Given that he is “lean, bony, and lanky,” he may be modeled on Lincoln (although the illustrator does not see him like that).
On fo 51 in MS2, Verne adds a variant: “Gédéon Spilett, in turn but calmly, kneeled down near Cyrus … Then he got up again, saying: / ‘I see full well that I will have to change my article.’” The reason that it is deleted again must be the poor taste of the joke that he had thought Smith dead. On fo 70 we read “Neb, on a piece of paper which he found in the pockets of his master, wrote the word ‘Come’ with his blood and attached it to the collar of the dog.” This sentence was perhaps removed because Neb cannot easily draw his own blood.
In MS1 a couple of jaguars reluctantly retreat from the settlers. In MS2 Hetzel adds a cryptic comment that the Island has not always been uninhabited (Guermonprez, “Notes,” 60). In the inventory of items found in the chest is included “a history of British domination in India.”11 On fo 34, Verne crosses out a long section of Hetzel’s comments, but does not seem to have changed the text as a result.
The portrait of the settlers’ qualities (I, 13) is added in the margin of fo 90, presumably under Hetzel’s pressure. “Divine Providence” (fo 95) is replaced by “the Author of all things” (I, 4). The publisher comments that Verne has not left enough time for the settlers to complete their various tasks; Verne accordingly replaces “The third week in December” (MS2) with “The first week in January” (II, 8). Hetzel also suggests that the settlers entrust a message to a bottle or a bird, but Verne pointedly replies: “Gideon Spilett had already thought several times … of throwing into the sea a message enclosed in a bottle … But how could they seriously hope that pigeons or bottles could cross … 1200 miles …? It was pure folly.” (II, 11)
When Jup is captured, Hetzel says “why don’t you make him an ape tamed by Nemo … Very comical … things could follow on from this, like for example during their first meal … / Cyrus is flabbergasted, goes pale, and does not say another word for the rest of the meal.”
Hetzel suggests “Balloon Harbor” to replace Verne’s “Secret Harbor”; and where Verne had written in English “North Mandible Cape” and “South Mandible Cape,” he scrawls “Hell, these names are incapable of striking French ears. If they mean anything, why not translate them?” (fo 158). Guermonprez (“Notes,” 17 and 73) states that most of the place names of Lincoln Island started off with French names but have (pseudo-)English names throughout MS2: the French names published must have been re-inserted at proof stage.12
Guermonprez (“Notes,” 60–61) reports that, after the words “The envelope, except for the tear, was in good condition, and only its lower portion was ripped.” (fo 52—II, 5), Hetzel adds:
Nevertheless, Cyrus Smith appeared to be plunged in a deep meditation contemplating a gap in the envelope. A piece was missing which had not [been] torn away and which seemed to have been cut out by someone. The material was cleanly cut, as if a tailor’s scissors had been at work. / “It’s unbelievable,” he exclaimed, using his eyes to direct the reporter’s attention to this strange detail.
Once again Verne crosses out the addition and leaves his text unaltered, presumably since there is no reason for any sane person to perform such an action. The incident therefore illuminates the Verne-Hetzel relationship, implying that many of Nemo’s most pointless actions may have been suggested by Hetzel. One central scene in Twenty Thousand Leagues is very similar, and again is never explained: “The engineers then carried out an inspection of the Scotia, which was in dry dock. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Two and a half meters below the water-line appeared a neat hole in the form of an isosceles triangle.” (I, 1) Without going into Freudian interpretations, the neat cutting by Nemo in both novels parallels Hetzel’s cutting to a remarkable degree.
Porcq (165) quotes an important scene included only in MS1, involving Smith’s hypnotism of Ayrton:
“My friend,” he said in a firmer voice, “look at me, I want you to.”
It seemed that the eyes of the poor creature slowly fixed on him.
“Listen to me! I want you to!” the engineer then said.
The savage was apparently listening. He seemed to be under the influence of Cyrus Smith as a hypnotized person is in the power of his hypnotizer.
Everyone was breathing heavily.
“Understand me,” Cyrus Smith said at last.
He held the two hands of the savage. He was squeezing them with force. It looked as though he was transfusing his soul and his intelligence into him, and the other looked at him now, he listened to him, he wanted to understand him. His lips moved, they began to stutter …
“Speak, speak!” exclaimed Cyrus Smith.
Several moments passed. The savage’s lips were little by little re-finding that faculty of articulating words to which they were no longer accustomed, and finally these words escaped:
“Tabor, Tabor!”
His first words were for that deserted island [where] his reason had disappeared. (II, 16)
The reason this powerful and dramatic scene was cut might be the echo of Christ’s healing but also the sexual undertones between the two men, including the transfer of fluid implied by the “transfusing.”
In MS2, a personal description of Dakkar in Stendhalian terms appears, and we may again very much regret its deletion:
Eghiet Anardill, who was intelligent … / had traveled to all the courts of Europe. His birth and fortune made him sought after, but the temptations of the world, so pretentious and at the same time so empty, never had any attraction for him. Young at that time and handsome, with all the charm adorning Byron’s immortal characters, he remained serious and gloomy, devoured by an implacable hatred riveted to his heart. / Eghiet Anardill hated. He hated the only country where he had never wished to set foot, the only people whose overtures he refused. He hated Britain.13 (quoted by Martin, 148)
In a series of articles, Dumas has emphasized the variants of the ending visible in the manuscripts of MI, although presenting only disappointingly brief extracts, and omitting to indicate whether he is citing MS1 or MS2:
A single souvenir will
