Gil Braltar
Gil Braltar is a short story by the French author Jules Verne . It was published in French on October 3, 1887 under the title Gil Braltar as an appendix to the novel The Road to France ( Le Chemin de France ) in the publishing house of Pierre-Jules Hetzel in Paris .
action
A huge horde of Barbary macaques is led by a strange leader near the fortress of Gibraltar . The alleged lead monkey, however, is different from the other monkeys. At the same time the barracks life on the English fortress is portrayed. The fortress dominates the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa with its cannons . The commandant of the fortress of Gibraltar is the ugly British General MacKackmale.
The monkey horde overrun the fortress on the Iberian Peninsula in one night . The Spaniard Gil Braltar used a ruse. Disguised in a monkey skin, he made himself the leader of the ape horde. However, Braltar can be overwhelmed. General MacKackmale, for his part, used the same ruse and, due to his ugly appearance, is indistinguishable from a real ape. With the monkey skin cape of Braltar he leads the monkeys out of the fortress.
background
The short story is a satirical swipe by Jules Verne on British colonialism . Verne's conclusion from history is that sending the ugliest generals to Gibraltar will continue to secure British property in the future.
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
