The propeller island
The Propellerinsel (also The Island of Billionaires or The Propeller Island ) is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne . The original edition was published in two volumes in 1895 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house in Paris . The first volume appeared on May 16, 1895 and the second on November 14, 1895 - both under the French title L'Île à hélice . The first German-language edition appeared in the same year under the title Die Propeller-Insel . The English title is Propeller Island .
action
After an accident with their carriage on their journey from San Francisco to San Diego for a concert, the four French musicians Yvernes, Frascolin, Pinchinat and Zorn are looking for a night's accommodation. They meet Jeremias Fender, who takes them to a nearby town. Once there, the musicians are amazed at the elegant city layout that they had not expected in the wilderness. The next morning it turns out that the musicians are on an artificial island made of steel that was built by American billionaires. This standard Iceland called floating island is huge, ten million horsepower powerful engines over propeller driven and fully maneuverable. It was built within four years and consists of 270,000 components, each 16.70 meters high and 10 meters long and wide. The entire container has a surface of 27 km². The oval island is 7 kilometers long, 5 kilometers wide and has a circumference of 18 kilometers. When fully loaded, the island has a draft of ten meters and is seven meters above the waterline. The maximum speed is eight knots . The island has about 10,000 residents, all of whom are American citizens. The total volume of the island is 432 million cubic meters, the water displacement is 259 million cubic meters. The capital, Milliard City, has its own tram system. The musicians learn that they were brought to the island by Eucalistus Munbar to pass the time of the rich on their journeys across the oceans. They are offered an annual salary of one million francs each and they sign the contract.
In the further course it becomes clear that the island is divided. On the port side half live Yankees from the northern states, on the starboard half of the Dixie from the southern states . The two most powerful families - the Tankerdons on the port side and the Coverly on the starboard side - compete with one another. However, the son of the Tankerdon family and the daughter of the Coverly family fall in love. Since a visit to the Hawaiian Islands, the island has been followed by a ketch with Malays . The equator baptism is omitted because Coverly and Tankerdon cannot agree which one of them may fire the shot from a cannon.
The crew of the Malay ketch is taken in by the propeller island as castaways because their ship allegedly collided with a steamship. However, their captain Sarol is secretly planning a conspiracy against Propeller Island. The journey continues to Samoa via Tahiti and the New Hebrides . Suddenly the propeller island collides with a British freighter and sinks it. British warships then stop the island and demand compensation.
The journey continues to Tonga . On the voyage to the Fiji Islands, a mysterious steamship crosses its path, which apparently deposits a large number of predators on the propeller island. Tigers, lions, jaguars, panthers and crocodiles roam the island and spread fear and terror. The animals are all killed. Tankerdon Coverly saves the life in the hunt for the last tiger. The two families are initially reconciled. A wedding for their children seems possible. Pinchinat is captured by cannibals in the Fiji Islands but can be freed. Another steamship arrives on the island and brings the news of the bankruptcy of the owner company. Coverly and Tankerdon then buy the propeller island and set up a joint company. In the New Hebrides , there is an uprising led by the Malay captain Sarol, who attacks the islanders with several thousand islanders. French settlers and other islanders come to the aid of the inhabitants of Propeller Island. The uprising can be put down. The incumbent governor Bikerstaff of Propellerinsel is killed in the process. A new conflict arises between Coverly and Tankerdon about his successor. In the course of this conflict, Tankerdon on the port side and Coverly on the starboard side give contradicting orders to Commodore Simcoe, who does not carry them out. The machinists on both halves of the island then still have to carry out the commands. As a result of the attempts on both sides to determine the course, the propeller island is set in a rotational movement and is therefore unable to maneuver. A strong hurricane finally breaks it into several parts. A large part of the island's population can save themselves on the remaining fragments. You will eventually reach the north island of Te Ika-a-Māui from New Zealand . Coverly and Tankerdon's children can finally get married. The musicians embark from Auckland for San Diego, where they can give their planned concert.
background
In his novel, Jules Verne caricatures the social conditions of his time. For example, an unfair election to the Amiens City Council to portray the disputes between the Tankerdon and Coverly families encouraged him to use this Romeo and Juliet motif. Verne also clearly criticizes Great Britain in this work .
Criticism of the translations
The first English translations in particular were criticized, as almost all critical statements about the United States or Great Britain were censored in them. Passages that were cut, treated as an America that its territory by annexation of Canada and Central America doubled or England then refusing Metric system .
The 1968 edition of S. Fischer Verlag is criticized for having shortened the novel very much. The sometimes very crude language is also criticized.
filming
- The novel was produced in 1974 as an animated film in Germany on behalf of ZDF by Armin Lang in two parts. The two parts, called Breach of Contract and $ 1 Million and 10 Million Horsepower in the Wrong Hands, each took 25 minutes. The story was edited by Gerhard Reutter, Karl Wägele and H. Ludwig Enderle. The drawings were made by Karl Wägele. The recordings were by A. Lang, J. Ritzinger and A. Klemm. The script was from Wilfrid Grote . The speaker was Dieter Borsche .
expenditure
- Julius Verne: The Propeller Island . With 81 illustrations. In: Known and Unknown Worlds. Adventurous journeys by Julius Verne . tape 67 and 68. A. Hartleben's Verlag, Vienna. Pest. Leipzig. 1897 ( zeno.org ).
literature
- Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): Jules Verne manual . Deutscher Bücherbund / Bertelsmann, Stuttgart / Munich 1992.
- Volker Dehs and 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
- Text. (PDF; 11.8 MB) In: Arno Schmidt reference library
- The propeller island. In: Andreas Fehrmann's Collection Jules Verne
- Jules Verne - Die Propellerinsel radio broadcast about this utopian novel with a dramatization of excerpts from it - in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andreas Fehrmann: The Propeller Island. Retrieved April 28, 2010 .
- ^ Andreas Fehrmann: Die Propellerinsel : Filming BRD, 1974, animation . Retrieved August 18, 2011.