Reading in the foreword to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that Verne originally envisioned Captain Nemo as a Polish noble on an underwater campaign of vengeance against the Russian Empire that'd killed his entire family, but that this version was pronounced unprintable by his publisher for political reasons. @bookstodon
@eivind@bookstodon Indeed. In the sequel "Mysterious Island" he decided that Nemo was Indian and his animus was toward the British Empire, which also works and has been used in some adaptations.
But there are a lot of discrepancies between the two books as well (the timelines don't match up), so you could regard that as an alternate continuity.
@albnelson@eivind@mattmcirvin Pretty much the epitome of then Polish emigrés' mindset - the Great Emigration is a half of the dialectical compound, defining Polish self-identification almost until now (and perhaps soon again).
Polish tradition is full of such figures, citizens of imagined, never-again-to-exist, homeland. Picture yourself, what a cultural shock was to see Polonia Rediviva - an ideal, unavoidably imperfectly embodied.
@mattmcirvin@eivind@bookstodon Nobody got worried about continuity back then. In Barchester Towers, Archdeacon Grantly has two daughters. Later there’s only one. In the Palliser books, Lady Glencora has two daughters. Later there’s only one. The Victorian era was not a good time to be a supernumerary daughter.
I may be wrong, but I also think it’s safe to say that a Polish crusader (with the implication of the liberation of oppressed people in Europe) would have been more controversial in France than an Indian one (because screw those Brits)
@patterfloof@eivind@bookstodon if you’re willing to suffer through this old long book review by me, the middle part explains why revolutionary Poles were regarded with such suspicion in Western Europe.
@patterfloof@albnelson@eivind Fascinating stuff. I just started it and will finish tomorrow. I almost forgot such things are still being written nowadays. Thank you.
@albnelson@patterfloof@eivind@bookstodon Captain Nemo is a really fascinating character in that he's explicitly pro-revolutionary and anti-imperialist--openly venerating French Republicans and John Brown, bankrolling rebels in Crete with shipwreck treasure. And in some ways he's a villain, basically a terrorist with no scruples about mass murder, but Verne also clearly likes him.
I remember trying to get a feel for the political situation Verne was writing "20,000 Leagues" under: It was during the Second Empire of Napoleon III. And there are moments when it kind of seems like he's trying to draw parallels with the Emperor's famous uncle.
There's a Behind the Bastards episode on Napoleon III, and I think the best summary of his character as described by that show is "Incompetent Buffoon". It's possible Verne had a similar opinion.
@albnelson@eivind@bookstodon neat. It's been years since I read 20,000 leagues, but I have recently been reading about the major politics of that period, from about Victoria's birth to the outbreak of WWI. All of the alliances coming out of the woodwork