The village in the air

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Front cover of the French original edition with an illustration by the draftsman George Roux
Illustration by the draftsman George Roux from the novel

The village in the air is a short novel by the French writer Jules Verne . The novel was first published on July 11, 1901 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house in Paris under the French title Le Village aérien . The first German-language edition also appeared in 1901 under the title Das Dorf in den Lüften . The English title of the novel is The Village in the Treetops (also The Aerial Village ).

action

The American John Cort and the French Max Huber come across an impenetrable forest on an expedition in the interior of Africa . At the edge of the forest their equipment is trampled by a herd of wild elephants; they can only save themselves on foot with their servant Khamis and the black boy Llanga into the interior of the forest. The elephants can no longer follow them because the trees are too close together.

After crossing the forest, you come across a river at the edge of the forest. On the river bank, they first find a rotten raft , later a large iron cage. In the cage you will find objects that once belonged to the missing researcher Doctor Johausen. Doctor Johausen went to the jungle 13 years earlier to learn the language of the monkeys. His equipment also included a barrel organ , with which he wanted to find out whether the monkeys also knew something about music. Doctor Johausen never returned to civilization. John Cort and Max Huber find Doctor Johausen's diary, which shows that his research was crowned with success.

Travelers float on a raft on the river along the edge of the forest. They christen the river “Rio Johausen” in honor of Doctor Johausen. Llanga rescues a small monkey who is threatened with drowning in a rapids. The monkey wears a medallion with the portrait of Doctor Johausen around his neck. When the raft ran aground, Llanga and the little monkey suddenly disappeared.

As they continue their journey through the dark forest, John Cort, Max Huber and Khamis are suddenly captured by a horde of great apes. The monkeys take them up a staircase to their village, which is on a large platform in the tops of the trees.

There they also meet Llanga, who is being held captive in a hut, and the monkey who goes by the name of Li Mai. The monkeys can indeed speak. They have a chief whom they call Mselo Tala Tala. The travelers are allowed to move freely within the village, but cannot leave it.

During a festival day, the monkeys put on a concert with classical music played on a barrel organ. After the concert, the chief shows himself to his subjects. The chief who lets himself be carried around on a divan is Doctor Johausen.

In an unobserved moment, John Cort, Max Huber and Khamis visit the chief in his hut. In doing so, they discover that Doctor Johausen has regressed mentally to a monkey. The travelers flee with the help of Li Mai.

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

Commons : The Village in the Treetops  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Le Village aérien  - Sources and full texts