The invention of perdition
The invention of perdition (also The Flying Death , High the Flag of the Fatherland! Or Before the Flag of the Fatherland ) is a technical-scientific future novel by the French writer Jules Verne . The novel was first published in 1896 as a book by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house in Paris under the French title Face au Drapeau (German = Given the flag ) and in advance from January 1 to June 15, 1896 in the Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation published. The first German-language edition was published by Hartleben in 1897 under the title Before the flag of the fatherland in the series known and unrecognized worlds . The English title of the novel is Facing the Flag .
action
The French inventor Thomas Roch has developed a new type of explosive with enormous destructive power, which he has offered various states to buy in vain. Broken by this development, he is housed in the Healthful House nerve sanatorium in North Carolina . Here he is looked after by the French engineer Simon Hart, who also works under a false identity .
Since it is a showcase sanatorium, it is regularly visited by interested people, including a Count d'Artigas. However, he uses the visit to carry out the kidnapping of the inventor and his caretaker together with his assistants . In the further course of the plot, the developments are reproduced from the point of view of Simon Hart. He first has to solve the riddle for himself how the count's goélette is moved in spite of the sails not being set and the motor missing. The solution only becomes clear to him at the destination of the trip, the island of Back Cup in Bermuda , when he is brought into the interior of this island in a submarine .
The island is known to the first-person narrator , as he has already visited it due to rumors that it should be a reawakened volcano . During his stay, Hart found out that the alleged count was the pirate Ker Karraje. He chose the island as a refuge for his gang and faked the volcanic activities by means of targeted explosions. The goal of Karraje is to have the weapon developed by Roch in order to be finally unassailable. Karraje actually seems to find access to the inventor Roch, who develops the desired explosives and missiles for him .
Since Hart sees no other option, he sends a message in a bottle to the outside world with all the facts he has gained. This is actually found on the beach on the Bermuda island of Saint Georges . After an initially unsuccessful rescue attempt, carried out by a submarine of the British Navy , the island is attacked by five naval ships from different countries. After Roch first sank one of the ships (the German one), he obviously reacts to the setting of the French tricolor on one of the remaining ships and blows himself up and the entire island. Only Simon Hart survived.
Consequences of the publication
This novel brought Jules Verne a lawsuit against the chemist Eugène Turpin (1848–1927) ( portrayed as suspicious in the public at the time and at times suffering from paranoia), which he won. The chemist found himself slandered and ridiculed in the novel. But Verne must have presented it in his novel comparatively true to the original, as can be determined later on the basis of an exchange of letters.
Audio books, radio plays and films
- The book is available on radio play cassettes and radio play CDs.
- In 1975 a radio play adaptation "The Invention of Verderbens" was published by VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin ( Litera 865221, ISBN 3-89830-181-8 )
- The book was filmed in 1957/58 in the Czech Republic by Karel Zeman under the title The Invention of Perdition .
literature
- The invention of perdition . Diogenes, Zurich 1998 (paperback, 8th edition), ISBN 978-3-257-20406-3
- Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): Jules Verne manual. Known and Unknown Worlds. Adventurous journeys. Reprint Hartleben . Edition Stuttgart in the VS Verlagshaus Stuttgart, 1992. ISBN 3-568-79245-1
- Volker Dehs , Ralf Junkerjürgen: Jules Verne. Voices and interpretations of his work . Fantastic Library Wetzlar, Wetzlar 2005.
- Volker Dehs: Jules Verne. A critical biography . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-538-07208-6 .
Web links
- In front of the flag of the fatherland . zeno.org
- The invention of perdition in Andreas Fehrmann's Jules Verne Collection