A drama in the air

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"The madman had already disappeared in the depths" - illustration by Émile Bayard (1874)

A drama in the air is a short story by the French author Jules Verne . It appeared in August 1851 under the French title La science en famille. Un voyage en balloon. (Réponse à l'énigme de juillet.) And was in 1874 in a slightly revised form under the title Un drame dans les airs part of the volume of short stories An idea of ​​Dr. Ox ( Le Docteur Ox ). The story contains numerous motifs that Jules Verne took up again in his first novel Five Weeks in a Ballon .

content

The French first-person narrator waits in vain for three city ​​councilors who wanted to take part in his balloon ride on what was then Theaterplatz (today's Rathenauplatz) in Frankfurt am Main . Due to the disappointed spectators who are looking forward to the start, the balloon pilot decides to undertake the ascent alone. At the moment of the balloon launch a stranger jumps into the gondola to join him. The stowaway forces the balloonist to climb higher and higher and uses a series of copperplate engravings to tell him about the loss-making history of aviation . During the argument with the balloonist, the obviously confused passenger drafts an outline of the history of the balloon flight. It soon turns out that he was particularly fond of the unfortunate developments. With great clarity he describes with relish the catastrophes and failures of the courageous aeronauts. Obviously he's a suicide. The balloonist embroils him in more stories and opens the gas valve. The madman wants to prevent further gas loss and throws off the last ballast. He also wants to drop the gondola at high altitude. He tries to cut the ropes between the gondola and the net on the balloon. He can cut the ropes in a duel. At the last moment, the balloonist can hold on to the ropes of the net. The assassin crashes. The balloonist can reach the earth again with the remains of the balloon that burst due to the high altitude. Far from where he started, he wakes up in a farmhouse in the Dutch town of Harderwijk on the Zuidersee in Gelderland .

Factory history

Through a college friend, the French banker and publicist Charles Wallut (1829–1899), Jules Verne got in touch with the editor of the conservative monthly magazine Museé des Familles . After a drama in Mexico ( Un drame au Mexique ), which appeared first as Verne's story in July 1851 was followed a month later with five drawings by Alexandre de Bar illustrated short story science en famille La. Un voyage en balloon. (Réponse à l'énigme de juillet.) Published in Museé des Familles . In 1874 Jules Verne took it in a slightly revised form under the title Un drame dans les airs in the only volume of short stories published during his lifetime, An idea of ​​Dr. Ox ( Le Docteur Ox ). This time with six illustrations by Émile Bayard .

Film adaptations

On August 27, 1904, the ten-minute silent film Un drame dans les airs premiered in France . Directed by Gaston Velle (1872–1948), the screenplay was written by Z. Rollini. In 1973 there was a Soviet production under the title Slomannaya podkova . In the GDR, the dubbed version premiered on July 26, 1974 as The Adventure of the Balloon Pilot JA .

proof

literature

  • Volker Dehs : Jules Verne. A critical biography . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-538-07208-6 , pp. 65-68.
  • Thomas Ostwald: What happened on the travels . In: Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): Jules Verne manual . Verlagshaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1992, p. 93.
  • Jules Verne: A drama in the air . Translated by Erich Fivian, Diogenes Verlag Zurich 1990. pp. 73–101.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Un drame dans les airs. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Slomannaya podkova. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .

Web links

Commons : A drama in the air  - collection of images, videos and audio files