Vice, Redemption and the Distant Colony

Literary fraud or filial devotion? This is the question at the heart of a firestorm that erupted when manuscripts and letters were discovered proving that Jules Verne’s son, Michel, significantly revised over a dozen of the stories published under his father’s name, and even originated some of them himself. It was a collaboration that had begun while both were still alive, and continued as Michel saw to posthumous publication many of his father’s stories. In this volume can be found one story as it was written by Jules (as Pierre-Jean), revised by his son (into The Somber Fate of Jean Morenas)—a story Michel even made as a movie in 1916! Also in these pages is the first English translation of a novel Jules began, Fact-Finding Mission, but which his son finished, and has hitherto only been available in the completed version by Michel. The English rendering and notes are by a leading authority on Verne translations, Kieran O’Driscoll. By Jules Verne and Michel Verne; Translated, with notes, by Kieran M. O’Driscoll