The hunt for the meteor

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
De Jacht op den Meteoor , Dutch edition around 1900
Cover illustration by George Roux from the original French edition

The hunt for the meteor ( French: La Chasse au météore ) is a novel by the French author Jules Verne , which was first published in 1908 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house . Jules Verne wrote the manuscript in 1901. It no longer appeared before his death. The publisher is said to have suggested to Michel Verne , his father's estate administrator , to rewrite the novel in a more optimistic and fluid manner. The preprint appeared in 1908 under the title La chasse au Météore in Le Journal in Paris . The German translation of the original version did not appear until 2005. The English title of the novel is The Chase of the Golden Meteor .

Plot based on the version by Michel Verne

Forsyth and Hudelson are struck by the heat of the golden meteor

In the town of Whaston on the right bank of the Potomac in the US state of Virginia , a man and a woman meet on horseback in front of Judge Proth's house and ask for the wedding. The judge trusts Miss Acadia Walker and Mister Seth Stanfort. The amateur astronomer Dean Forsyth lives in the same town with his nephew Francis Gordon and his housekeeper Mitz. Gordon is in love with Jenny Hudelson, the daughter of Doctor Sydney Hudelson and his wife.

One day Forsyth discovers a new meteor with his assistant Omikron . However, Hudelson also discovered the meteor. Forsyth wrote a letter about his discovery to the director of the Observatory in Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania ) and Hudelson a letter to the director of the observatory in Cincinnati ( Ohio ). The fear of the meteor falling to earth is spreading among the population through the press. Forsyth and Hudelson argue over who the discoverer is. Other astronomers discover that the meteor is made of pure gold.

The genius Zephyrin Xirdal, who lives in Paris on the fortune of his parents, learns about the meteor and plans with his uncle and banker Robert Lecœur to crash the meteor on a piece of land that the banker buys in Greenland near Upernavik . Xirdal constructs a mysterious device with which he diverts the orbit of the meteor from his apartment . Xirdal takes the train to the beach with a friend and leaves the machine behind. Astronomers around the world are disturbed when the meteor's orbit changes multiple times. The cause is the widow Thibaud, Xirdal's housekeeper, who changed the location and the settings of the device several times while cleaning.

In Whaston, the Stanfords are getting divorced as they both want to travel to different possible crash sites of the meteor. Xirdal has meanwhile returned from the beach and corrects the settings on his apparatus. His uncle teaches him about speculative deals he has made. In futures trading, he has bet that the gold price will fall due to the crash of the golden meteor. He urges Xirdal to crash the meteor. Both leave for Greenland. In the USA several steamers also leave for Greenland. There are many passengers on them who want to witness the crash of the meteor in Greenland. Ewald von Schnack, Denmark's representative in Greenland, wants to prevent strangers from taking possession of the meteor.

The meteor eventually crashes near Upernavik, right on the coast. The people who traveled with the ships set off for the crash site and are stopped first by a wire fence and then by Xirdal. They tear down the fence, Schnack wants to take possession of the meteor for the Danish government. American , British , French , German , Japanese , Italian , Spanish , Argentine and Dutch warships arrive with the aim of securing the meteor for their respective governments. Lecœur, meanwhile, speculates that the price of gold will rise again when the meteor sinks into the sea .

Xirdal finally lets the still glowing meteor slide into the sea with the help of his device. The porous, glowing body explodes into many small fragments due to the steam pressure of the penetrating water, all of which are completely lost. This solves many problems, the soldiers of many countries do not need to wage war, Forsyth and Hudelson are getting on again, Francis Gordon and Jenny Hudelson can marry, Lecœur has increased his wealth through insider trading , and also have Miss Acadia Walker and Mister Seth Stanfort found each other again. The two end up in Whaston with Judge Proth, who trusts them again and wonders when he will see them again ...

Bibliography (selection)

  • Jules Verne: The Hunt for the Meteor. The original version (translation: Gaby Wurster). Munich: Piper, 2005, ISBN 3-492-70105-1

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 Chase of the Golden Meteor  - collection of images, videos and audio files