An eccentric's will
The Testament of an Eccentric (also The Testament of an Eccentric or The Testament of an Excentric ) is a novel by the French author Jules Verne . The novel was first published in 1899 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house under the French title Le Testament D'Un Excentrique . Volume I appeared on August 3 and Volume II on November 20, 1899. The first German-language edition appeared in 1900 under the title Das Testament eines Excentrischen . The English title of the novel is The Will of an Eccentric .
action
In 1897, an event in Chicago upset a large part of the city's residents. The late millionaire William J. Hypperbone celebrates his funeral on April 3rd. Hypperbone was a member of the Excentric Club , which includes the 50 most important members of the real estate, slaughterhouse and pickle industries, and Chicago railroad, oil and mining companies. They meet evening after evening in the rooms of the club to read the most important daily and weekly newspapers and to play, usually with high stakes. The only eccentric thing in the past was Hypperbones’s wedding plan, who wanted to marry the hundred-year-old Miss Anthonia Burgoyne when she was less than forty years old. The elderly bride died of a whooping cough attack before she could say yes to Hypperbone. Hypperbone was always in excellent health, but died suddenly without any prior sign of illness. Hypperbone introduced the noble goose game in the club , which was usually also played with high stakes. Moving across the playing fields, the game is reminiscent of the ladder game played by children in Germany .
Members of the club hope that the will of the deceased will compensate them for their high stakes in the past. The notary Tornbrock only explains to them that the Hypperbones hearse will be accompanied by six pallbearers, who will be determined by lot. The lot falls on the landscape painter Max Réal, the journalist Harris T. Kymbale, the professional boxer Tom Crabbe, the cashier of a fashion store Lissy Wag, the stingy pawnbroker Hermann Titbury and the retired officer of the Navy Commodore Hodge Urrican. The will should not be read out until twelve days after the funeral. Hypperbone leaves no heirs. He is buried full of pomp in his mausoleum , which was built during his lifetime . The public will finally be opened twelve days later. By then, the curiosity of all Americans about the contents of the will had grown immeasurably.
In the theater of a hotel, the notary Tornbrock reads the will in front of 16,000 spectators who were lucky enough to get a ticket. The deceased fully lives up to his reputation as a member of the Excentric Club. It has as a champion of the mainly in the UK and France known noble goose game set that this in an oversized manner with the drawn participants across the states of the United States is playing. The individual US states are the playing fields, and the playing pieces are the participants drawn by lots. Depending on how the die is cast, which is regularly determined by the notary Tornbrock, the participants have to move between the states. The United States at that time consisted of 48 states, 47 of which are each used as a playing field and the state of Illinois , in which Chicago is located, a total of fourteen. Federal states are also defined as special fields. New York serves as a "bridge" (pay a single bet and move on), Louisiana serves as a "tavern" (pay double bet, let partner roll twice), Nevada serves as a "shaft" (wait for the replacement and pay simple bet), Nebraska as " Labyrinth "(pay triple bet and withdraw), Missouri as" prison "(wait for the replacement and pay triple bet) and California as" skull "(back to the start of the game and pay single bet). At certain points "fines" have to be paid into the box office. The game is won by the participant who arrives first back in the sixty-third square (in Chicago). In his will, Hypperbone calls his game the "Noble United States Game". The winner of this game will be the sole heir to over sixty million dollars . The second of the participants should receive the money that has been deposited into the game box. A commotion ensues as the prospect of an inheritance of millions is the first prize in this gigantic game. That is to the taste of the Americans. In a codicil , which is also read out by Notary Tornbrock, it is also stipulated that an unknown person, known as XKZ, will take part in the game as the seventh participant. This means that there is no way that the six participants drawn from the drawing can agree among themselves and divide up the inheritance regardless of the outcome of the game.
During the game, the seven participants travel all over the United States. Jules Verne describes his extensive geographical knowledge. The game participants visit the most famous sights of the USA at the time. The travel route depends on the arbitrary results of the roll of the dice with the related dependencies of the course of the game. The protagonists experience various adventures during their respective journeys. Hermann Titbury is sentenced to a fine in the state of Maine for the offense against the prohibition valid there, because he ordered two whiskeys for himself and his wife in a pub. It turns out that he gave a wrong name. For this he is sentenced to a prison term. Near Salt Lake City , Utah , he and his wife are lured to a remote hotel by a stranger under an excuse and only released after paying a ransom of $ 2,000. Lissy Wag falls ill with bronchitis and is mistakenly declared dead. The distinguished Humphrey Weldon reports as a sponsor of Lissy Wag and lets her know that he is betting on her victory. Kymbale duels with Urrican as her two trains pass by. Both survived the incident unharmed. Together with her friend Jovita Foley and Max Réal, Lissy Wag is attacked by strangers who want to prevent Lissy Wag from continuing their journey by kidnapping. Max Réal is seriously wounded by one of the robbers with a knife in his back. Shortly afterwards, however, he is compensated for this event during a visit to Lissy's mother by becoming engaged to Lissy.
In the meantime, however, the still unknown XKZ has been declared the winner of the game, as it was the first to arrive on target field 63 in Illinois. A week later, the secret of his identity has still not been revealed. On July 15th, the bell rings on the Hypperbones mausoleum. The notary Tornbrock, the members of the Excentric Club and the six drawn game participants go to the mausoleum. The crowds are making their way to the cemetery. XKZ is still missing. The Hypperbones coffin opens and the supposedly deceased stands in front of them. Lissy and Jovita recognize him as Humphrey Weldon. He is also the mysterious XKZ. After the funeral ceremony in his mausoleum, Hypperbone had awakened from a cataleptic rigidity. With the help of his lawyer, he took the chance to take part in his own favorite game even as a great stranger. As a real player, he also ran the risk of losing all of his fortune to one of the other participants. Hypperbone eventually marries Jovita Foley, the friend of Lissy Wag, who was second in the game. She in turn marries her fiancé Max Réal.
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
- "The Testament of an Excentric" as an e-book in HTML on zeno.org
- The will of an eccentric in Andreas Fehrmann's Jules Verne Collection