Claudius Bombarnac
Claudius Bombarnac is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne . The novel was first published as a book on November 21, 1892 by the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel under the French title Claudius Bombarnac , after an advance publication from October 10 to December 7, 1892 in the magazine Le Soleil took place. The first German-language edition appeared in 1893 under the title Claudius Bombarnac with the subtitle Notebook of a Reporter . The English title of the novel is Claudius Bombarnac .
action
The reporter Claudius Bombarnac reports on behalf of the French magazine XX. Century about his impressions of life in Georgia and the capital Tbilisi . In Tbilisi he received the order by telegram to take the newly opened Greater Trans-Asian Railway from Uzan-Ada on the east bank of the Caspian Sea to Beijing and take the XX. Century to report about his travel experiences.
Claudius Bombarnac takes the train to Baku and crosses the Caspian Sea by steamship. On his trip he met the American Fulk Ephrinell , a salesman for third teeth, and the British Horatia Bluett , a saleswoman for wigs, who wanted to do business in the Chinese Empire . During the crossing of the Caspian Sea, Claudius Bombarnac notices a large box on the ship that is destined for a Miss Zinka Klork in Beijing. A snore comes from the box; A stowaway sits in the box.
In Uzun-Ada, Claudius Bombarnac met the Russian train driver Popov and other travelers who were also traveling to Beijing. There are the Russian Major Noltitz , the arrogant Sir Francis Trevellyan , the French couple Caterna - both actors - and the fat Baron Weißschnitzerdörfer from Munich, who wants to circle the world in 39 days and is therefore always in a hurry.
Another wagon is later attached to the train. Claudius Bombarnac discovers that there is a sarcophagus with the body of the mandarin Yen-Lu in the car and telegraphs the news to his editorial office. In addition, two more passengers board , the mysterious Seigneur Faruskiar Effendi , who after crossing the Chinese border turns out to be a senior official of the Chinese railway administration at passport control, and his assistant Gangir .
During the crossing of the Pamir , the car with the corpse separates from the rest of the train, the train has to drive back and hitch the car again.
While the train was crossing Turkestan , Claudius Bombarnac received a telegram from his editorial office. The train does not carry a corpse, but the imperial treasure, which is to be guarded by Seigneur Faruskiar.
Claudius Bombarnac finds the box in which the stowaway is in the baggage car. He visits the stowaway, the Romanian Kinko , at night and can win his trust. Kinko travels to Beijing to marry Miss Zinca Klork, to whom the box is to be delivered. Claudius Bombarnac supports Kinko during the rest of the journey, he provides him with food and promises to make sure that Kinko reaches his destination undetected.
Fulk Ephrinell and Horatia Bluett, who have grown closer during the journey, also want to marry. The wedding ceremony, which takes place in the saloon car during the trip, is suddenly interrupted when the train stops on the open road. The travelers get off, the rails have been removed over a length of 400 meters. Suddenly the train is attacked by bandits led by the notorious Ki Tsang . The travelers defend themselves, but only when Seigneur Faruskiar kills the leader in a duel do the robbers flee. The passengers repair the route together, the train reaches the next station 30 hours late.
A short time later, the wedding of Fulk Ephrinell and Horatia Bluett is repeated. After the wedding, the couple already discuss business matters, their feelings cool down, in Beijing they get a divorce and then go their separate ways. On the last evening of the trip, Claudius Bombarnac visits Kinko again in his hiding place. By chance they overhear a conversation between Ghangir and Seigneur Faruskiar, who has been celebrated as a hero after his duel with Ki Tsang. Seigneur Faruskiar wants to steal the treasure. He plans to murder the engine driver and the stoker, divert the train onto a branch line and let it tumble down a half-finished viaduct . Claudius Bombarnac and Kinko cannot prevent the crew of the locomotive from being murdered and the train being diverted, but they bring the locomotive to a stop shortly before it reaches the viaduct. Seigneur Faruskiar and Ghangir have disappeared.
Rating
Claudius Bombarnac is a travel story that thrives on its bizarre supporting characters. Sir Francis Trevellyan is the typical Brit who keeps aloof from everything. The Caterna couple are - like the narrator Claudius Bombarnac - the typical French, always ready to joke, with a weakness for romance. The Baron Weißschnitzerdörfer is a typical German for Jules Verne, a rather ridiculous rather than unsympathetic minor figure. He wants - in allusion to Jules Verne Around the World in 80 Days - to circle the earth. He urges you to hurry, which leaves the other people rather cold, while the travelers in Around the World in 80 Days are almost always supported during their world tour. Weißschnitzerdörfer is portrayed as a clumsy man who always comes too late. Due to a streak of bad luck, he can complete his journey in 147 days.
In the first part of the novel, the narrator describes his visits to cities like Bukhara , Samarkand or Kashgar , where the railway line passes. The train often stops for several hours - much to the annoyance of the baron, so that Claudius Bombarnac has plenty of time for his tours, during which he is accompanied by Major Noltitz or the Caterna couple. The reader is informed a little too extensively about the history of the cities, buildings worth seeing and the population. Real tension only arises in the second part of the book, so that the reporter can finally write the exciting report desired by his editorial team. The novel ends in Beijing with the wedding of Zinca Klork and Kinko, at which all travelers are once again present. Baron Weißschnitzerdörfer is also there because he missed his connection, the ship to Tien Tsin by a few hours.
expenditure
- Jules Verne: Claudius Bombarnac . Édition L'Ormeraie, Paris 1976 (reprint of the Paris edition 1892).
- Jules Verne: Claudius Bombarnac . Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-355-01294-7 .
literature
- Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): Jules Verne manual . Deutscher Bücherbund / Bertelsmann, Stuttgart and Munich 1992.
- Volker Dehs and Ralf Junkerjürgen: Jules Verne . Voices and interpretations of his work. Fantastic Library Wetzlar, Wetzlar 2005.
- Volker Dehs: Jules Verne . Jules Verne. A critical biography. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2005. ISBN 3-538-07208-6
Web links
- Claudius Bombarnac (French original version)
- "Claudius Bombarnac" as an e-book in HTML on zeno.org
- Claudius Bombarnac in Andreas Fehrmann's Jules Verne Collection
- Claudius Bombarnac on Project Gutenberg (engl.)