The travel agency Thompson & Co.
The travel agency Thompson & Co. is a novel attributed to the French writer Jules Verne . The novel was first published in two volumes in 1907 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house under the French title L'Agence Thompson and Co .; the first German translation appeared in 1908.
The Thompson & Co. travel agency is one of Jules Verne's last works; the novel was only published posthumously . It is not known how much Jules Verne wrote himself before his death and what part his son Michel Verne , who finished the works not completed by Jules Verne before his death, played in the book; it is also possible that Michel Verne wrote the book entirely himself. According to the biographer Volker Dehs , both volumes were written by Jules Verne's son Michel Verne.
action
The impoverished language teacher Robert Morgan is hired by the travel agency Baker & Co. for a cruise from England to the Canary Islands . The travel agency Thompson & Co. offers the same trip, but cheaper than Baker & Co. The two competitors try to undercut each other in price. Thompson & Co. wins the price war, Baker & Co. has to cancel the trip; the managing director recommends Morgan to offer his services to the travel agency Thompson & Co.
So it is that Morgan takes up his duties as a linguistic guide on the steamship Seamew . Thompson has chartered a steamship with 70 cabins, which is also equipped with a sail rig. Along with more than 100 tourists, Mr. Thompson , the owner of the travel agency Thompson & Co., is on board. During the voyage, it turns out that Mr. Thompson did not organize either the cruise or the shore excursions. The food on board the Seamew gets worse the longer the voyage. The shore excursions must be arranged by Mr. Thompson with Morgan's assistance on site. The first volume describes the experiences of travelers in the Azores and Madeira as well as the beginning of the love story between Morgan and the 23-year-old passenger and widow Alice Lindsay . Their life is also threatened by their brother-in-law and rejected admirer Jack Lindsay. Morgan saves Alice Lindsay and thereby incurs the wrath of Jack Lindsay.
In the second volume, the journey leads to Gran Canaria and Tenerife , where travelers climb Mount Teide . On the way home to England that falls steam engine of Seamew out; the ship can only go on with the help of its sails. The decrepit Seamew sinks off the Cape Verde Islands , but travelers can save themselves on land. However, this is only the beginning of a series of adventures that the tour company will take to Africa . Morgan volunteers to get help from a nearby French office. He is struck down with a bullet on the way by Jack. At the same time, the traitor incites a nearby tribe of Bedouins who are hoping for high ransom money for the release of the shipwrecked people they kidnapped. The travelers kidnapped inland towards the city of Timbuktu are freed by French cavalry . This was alerted by Morgan, who, despite being seriously injured, was able to get help. During the liberation, Jack Lindsay is the only one to die, who is hit by a stray bullet. In the end, Morgan is united with Alice Lindsay, among others. It turns out that Baker also took part in the trip under an alias. Thompson, the tour operator, has his adversary Baker and other traveling lawyers hounding on the neck, but the shrewd Thompson can pull himself out of the affair by the bankruptcy of his company.
German language translations
- The travel agency Thompson and Comp. Known and Unknown Worlds - Abenteuerliche Reisen, Vol. 91 and 92. A. Hartleben's Verlag, Vienna and Leipzig 1909 - no translator given
- Travel agency Thompson & Co. Collection Jules Verne Vol. 92 and 93. Pawlak Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin and Herrsching 1984; ISBN 3-8224-1092-6 (volume 1) and ISBN 3-8224-1093-4 (volume 2) - unabridged, but edited reprint of the Hartleben edition without illustrations
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
- Jules Verne, Michel Verne: The travel agency Thompson & Co. (PDF; 12.1 MB); Illustrated revision in the Arno Schmidt Reference Library of the Society of Arno Schmidt Readers (PDF file; 11.51 MB)
- Travel agency Thompson & Co. in Andreas Fehrmann's Collection Jules Verne