Two years of vacation

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Cover picture of the French original edition published by Hetzel-Verlag with an illustration by the illustrator Léon Benett
Front page of the original edition by Hetzel-Verlag
"The boarding school chairman"
"Original map of the island"
"Briant was swimming, behind him the rope rolled off."

Two Years Vacation (also Adventures on Chairman or A Boarding School by Robinsons ) is an adventure novel by the French author Jules Verne . The novel was first published in 1888 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house under the French title Deux ans de vacances in the series "Extraordinary Travel" (Voyages Extraordinaires) . Volume I appeared on June 18, 1888 and Volume II on November 8, 1888. A preliminary publication took place in the Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation from January 1888. The first German-language edition appeared in 1889 under the title Zwei Jahre Ferien .

action

The book is about 14 boys from the New Zealand boarding school Chairman in Auckland , who in 1860 received a boat trip around New Zealand from their wealthy parents as an award for special achievements and were driven away from the harbor by ship .

On February 16, the children, along with a trained crew and captain, are to start their voyage with the schooner “ Sloughi ”. However, the students are already on board the night before departure while the crew is sleeping in the port. Due to unexplained circumstances, the ship's rope breaks and the schooner gets caught in a terrible storm. The boarding school students are horrified to see that besides them there is only the black cabin boy Moko on board.

The children travel across the Pacific for two weeks, but when they discover land, huge reefs stretch out in front of them. Fortunately, they are carried ashore by a large wave, but the Sloughi's hull is severely damaged in the process. When, after a long period of uncertainty, it turns out that it is an island, they try to settle down on it as well as possible. Fortunately, there is plenty of food on the ship, as well as warm clothing and firearms to help them. They find a cave that they use as a shelter and it turns out that another shipwrecked man was stranded on the island before them.

The shipwrecked French left a map of the island that made their lives a lot easier. You live there, discover one amenity after the other and make yourself comfortable. The older children try as much as possible to replace the school lessons for the younger ones by consulting the books rescued from the ship.

When the boys elect the American Gordon as president in a democratic vote, there is discontent in part of the group, the conceited Englishmen Doniphan, Webb, Cross and Wilcox. This is how two rival camps form, which noticeably cloud life together.

Surprisingly, a terrible band of robbers stranded on the island. The robbers killed a ship's crew and turned the ship into a pirate ship . They only left two of the crew, Evans, the helmsman, and a woman named Kate.

When the robbers land on the island, the children flee to the cave from which they defeat the robbers together with the two adults. After Evans informs the children that they are on Hanover Island just a short distance from the coast of Chile , the boat is repaired and the island is vacated. On the way they are picked up by a steamer going to Australia that brings the children home. Since their story is already known all over the world and everyone thought the children were dead, they become famous. The diary with her experiences is translated into all major languages ​​and printed.

people

The following children play the main roles in the story : Gordon (and his dog Phann), Briant, Jacques, Doniphan, Baxter, Cross, Webb, Wilcox, Garnett, Service, Jenkins, Iverson, Dole, Costar and Moko.

With the exception of Gordon, Briant and Jacques, all the boys from the boarding school are English.

  • Gordon is an American and, at 14, the oldest boy in history. He's an orphan , awkward and clumsy, but he has sharp judgment and common sense, which is useful on the island too. He also brought his clever dog Phann with him. Gordon is elected leader by the boys in the freshman year.
  • Briant , a 13-year-old Frenchman, plays a very important role, and in the second “legislative period” even plays a leading role on the island. He is the son of a famous engineer and, although not very hardworking, highly intelligent . Briant is very popular in general, but he can never get along with Doniphan. To complete the picture of a real French man, he is also enterprising and bold. This character is based on Jules Verne's friendship with the then 16-year-old Aristide Briand and is strongly based on his character.
  • Jacques is the 9 year old brother of Briant. He has changed noticeably since the ship left: Before he was the greatest prankster and joker, but then suddenly he is completely isolated, quiet and gives the impression that something is tormenting him. Only towards the end of the story does he admit to the others that he is responsible for their fate, as he had loosened the holding ropes in New Zealand, which allowed the schooner to drift away.
  • Doniphan , 13 years old, comes from a family of wealthy landowners. He is elegant, ambitious and develops an aristocratic pride , which earned him the nickname "Lord Doniphan" . The fact that he is still ambitious and always wants to play the leading role is the main reason that he has always fallen out with Briant . When Briant becomes leader, Doniphan does not want to recognize him and leaves the group with three others. Only when Briant saves his life is he ready to submit.
  • Baxter is 13 years old and the son of a businessman. He has an “amazing ingenuity and special dexterity” and is, so to speak, the carpenter among the boys.
  • Cross , Doniphan's cousin, is an average student of 13 and comes from a family of wealthy landowners. He's a nice boy. He exerts uncritical admiration for "everything that his cousin thinks, speaks, or does" .
  • Webb & Wilcox are 12 years old, sons of rich civil servant families, and both are quite contentious.
  • Garnett is 12 years old and the son of the fleet captain who should have steered the ship. He is indolent and good-natured, and also a big fan of service.
  • Service is 12 years old. He is the son of a wealthy farmer, exuberant and dreamy. His favorite books are Robinson Crusoe and Der Schweizerische Robinson , with which he compares them again and again.
  • Jenkins & Iverson are 9 years old. Jenkins is the son of the chairman of a large, famous company. Iverson is descended from a pastor.
  • At 8 years old, Dole & Costar are the youngest people in this history; they are sons of officers.
  • Moko is 12 years old. As a cabin boy and " black " he has a special position among boarding school students. He cooks for the whole group and takes care of the little ones more often. He is also the only one with a bit of nautical experience and is therefore part of every excursion with the dinghy on the Family Lake.

Film adaptations

  • The novel served as the basis for Karel Zeman's film The Stolen Airship (original title: Ukradená vzducholod ) in 1966 .
  • In 1974 the novel was filmed in a German-French co-production as part of the ZDF adventure four -part series, see Two Years of Vacation (1974) .
  • 1995 appeared under the title Kyōryū Bōken Jura Tripper (The Planet of the Dinosaurs) a Japanese cartoon series, which is loosely based on the plot of Two Years of Vacation .
  • In 2001 another anime series was released under the title “Mugen Wakusei SURVIVE!” (“SURVIVE, the uninhabited planet”). There the children - three boys, three girls and a small robot named Chako - come from a lunar colony that was thrown into space by a cosmic storm during a space excursion and finally crash-landed on the planet. For the most part, the series follows the storyline of the book, but also sprinkles an alien plot and carries a strong environmental message, as planet earth is chemically contaminated at this point and therefore uninhabitable.

Bibliography (selection)

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 : Two Years' Vacation  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files
Wikisource: Deux Ans de vacances  - Sources and full texts