“Journey through the impossible” by Jules Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery: “The motion backwards”

Verne’s playwriting, along with his poetic heritage, is rooted in the least known part of the French classic’s creative work. Meanwhile, in his youth he used to work for a theater and staged his own novels later in life. The author of the article examines the extravaganza of Verne’s “Journey Through the Impossible” (premiered at theatre “Porte-Saint-Martin” on November 15, 1882), which contains the storylines of a few Verne’s writings - the plots of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1864), “From the Earth to the Moon” (1865), “The Adventures of Captain Hatteras” (1866), and “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas” (1871), also the narrative of “Doctor Ox” humorous story (1872). “Journey Through the Impossible” is an example of the author’s aberration from Hetzel’s editing strategies - destined to join both the educational and the entertaining part; and of the immersion in the element of rampant imagination. This spectacular musical play appears as the motion backwards in relation to the development of “merveilleux scientifique” (scientifically marvellous) in the French “Belle Epoque” literature. To the more and more noticeable trend of a modern understanding of the fantasy (as a fascinating play of scientific hypotheses) Verne juxtaposes the revivification of the cheerful tale-like fiction, getting back to the then popular genre of theatrical extravaganza. However, one cannot say that the “Journey Through the Impossible” looks like a step back in the author’s creative work. The play foreshadows the complex conjunction of rational and irrational (without taking any side), which is typical for his latest novels. “Journey Through the Impossible”, in this sense, can be called “Journey backwards” - similar to the publishing name of another unknown Verne’s work “Backwards to Britain”, 1859 (published in 1989).