Les Secrets de M. Synthèse
Les Secrets de M. Synthèse is an adventure novel written in 1888 by the French writer Louis Boussenard (1847–1910) . It consists of four parts, the last one was also published under the title Dix mille ans dans un Bloc de Glace .
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Monsieur Synthèse is an internationally renowned Swedish scientist. He is monitored by the police chief of Le Havre, because he locks himself in his laboratory day and night and eats and does not sleep. His order of 500 diving suits is also suspect. After doing some research, he finds out that the only goal in life is Synthèses to establish a correspondence between the earth and the Martians, who, according to him, have already sent signals, which nobody but himself is said to have noticed. However, communication cannot work due to the lack of technical means of his time, so he wants to change the orbit of the earth in order to bring it closer to Mars. He wants to use 1.5 billion people on earth to move mountains in order to change the shape of the earth so that it deviates from its axis. In order to achieve this, he wants to buy all the countries in the world to become their owner. His two closest collaborators are Alexis Pharmaque, a former professor and currently a chemist in his laboratory, and Arthur Roger-Adams, biologist and zoologist.
Everything that is needed for life on the changed planet is artificially manufactured by Synthèse in its laboratory. In order not to have to sleep, he hypnotizes himself. This explains his uninterrupted stay in the laboratory. He needs the diving suits to create an untouched, artificial ground and to let it emerge from the seabed. The aim of Synthès is to reproduce a rapid version of the evolution on the new earth up to the currently existing human being. He wants to create an artificial human from an organic cell and marry him off to his granddaughter Anna. She is his only offspring, and the goal of his “Great Work” is therefore to create a perfect man for her, whom he wants to equip with the best mental qualities through hypnosis. M. Synthèse leaves Le Havre with his granddaughter, his co-workers and hundreds of workers. They are accompanied by four ships, each loaded differently: The Indus transports cement sacks , the Godavéri chemical products, the Gange tills and the Anna diving suits. Cannons and food are also carried.
In the coral sea between Australia and New Guinea, workers dive to pour magnesium salts into the atoll so that the corals produce lime and the coral reef can reach the surface of the sea in just 60 days. Soon the water level of the pool sinks and the reef is in the open. M. Synthèse levels it and creates an atmosphere that enables evolution.
M. Arthur dives with Synthèse 5,000 meters into the sea, where he wants to find the organic cell. When the crew tries to pull the two men up, they discover that the cable to which they were tied has been cut. Synthèse and Arthur can save themselves and continue the project. The water collected at the atoll is transferred and the scientists determine a development of the bacteria - the evolution has started.
Due to Anna's illness, she goes back to Europe with Christian, a trusted captain of Synthèses, on the ships Godavéri and Indus . On the way they want to drop 600 Chinese workers in their homeland. During a stopover on Booby Island, three shipwrecked men tell the captain that their ship, the Tagal , has sunk , whereupon he takes them on board the Indus .
One night the captain heard shots coming from the direction of the Indus . Then suddenly a fire breaks out on the Godavéri - mineral oil is burning. Since he hadn't loaded it, it must have been smuggled in during the stopover. Then a bullet from the cannon of the Indus smashed the chimney of the Godavéri . The following happened on the Indus : The former captain of the Tagal outwitted the leadership of the Indus. He and his accomplices now lead the 600 wage workers who are on the ship. The rebels kill the crew, fire a cannonball in the direction of the Godavéri and drive away.
In the atoll, however, everything is going according to plan. Christian is represented by the Dutch captain Cornelis Van Schouten. The development of life on earth corresponds exactly to natural processes. Gastrula, the first living thing with a primordial digestive organ and specialized cells, has already developed. Meanwhile, Christian manages to extinguish the flames and drive on towards Singapore when a typhoon approaches and the Godavéri gets stuck between two rocks. Christian and Anna save themselves at an estuary and only come back to the atoll three months later.
The first worms and more highly developed organisms have already appeared there. The zoologist Roger-Adams then decided to go on a geological expedition. Pharmaque, on the other hand, has to stay on the atoll. When he dives into it, he is attacked by a shark. He wonders whether such a rapid evolution in the atoll is even possible or whether the amphioxus and the shark were washed under the dome by a wave during the storm. Some time later he discovered amphibians of various kinds - the first inhabitants of the primordial earth M. Synthèses. Suddenly a volcano erupts on the sea floor under the ship Gange , so that the ship freezes in the oozing lava. After the eruption, a ring of rocks forms around the atoll, so that Anna , the only intact ship, is now stuck.
Among the members of the Synthèses team is incognito an impoverished Hindu prince who secretly accuses M. Synthèse for his failure. He wants revenge on Synthèse, but has fallen in love with Anna. He cut the cables of the Taupe Navy to kill Synthèse (which he failed), and now waits for Christian and Anna to kill Christian and take Anna's hand. He is on board for Roger-Adams and Captain Van Schouten's geological excursion. They negotiate the following plan: The Hindu should play the man created in the micro-world of Synthèse and then marry Anna. To do this, he has to get some of Synthèses riches for Roger-Adams and the captain.
M. Synthèse is threatened by several dangers: Anna and Christian have still not returned, their murder is planned, and the Indus is occupied by Chinese pirates, whose leader, the alleged captain of the Tagal, is Anna's uncle. He wants to seize the old man's wealth and thus hired a group of Chinese who mingled with the other wage workers. As captain of the lost Tagal, he entered the Indus , captured it, brought the Chinese wage laborers to San Francisco and hired experienced pirates.
With this crew and the masked Indus they then drive towards the Coral Sea. Once there, the clashing ships fight each other, while the “Great Work” is destroyed by a new volcanic eruption and flying bullets. Roger Adams, the Captain Van Schouten and the Hindu prince are killed by a grenade. The Indus is sunk.
Another eruption destroys everything but the artificial soil of the atoll, on which the survivors want to save themselves. M. Synthèse is also brought there. He is walking across the artificial island and looking at his destroyed work when he suddenly hears a child crying. He finds a small, dark-skinned child who for him is the last stage of his “Great Work” and collapses.
The surviving pirates and crew members of Gange and Anna sit between the rocks of the artificial island without food or drinking water. On the third day Christian reached the atoll and had all members of the Anna and the Gange brought on board. A tremor on the sea floor breaks the artificial atoll and lets the last pirates perish. M Synthèse sees this and assigns Anna Christian as her husband before falling into apathy.
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- Louis Boussenard: Les Secrets de M. Synthèse. Paris: C. Marpon / F. Flammarion, year unknown. Series: Les Grandes aventures, No. 9.