Paris in the Twentieth Century

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 27, 1997 | by Rex Roberts

Paris in the Twentieth Century is indeed a gloomy little book, though not lacking in humor. Set in the 1960s, the city is completely given over to business ... government-sponsored corporations that brook no individuality. The novel's hero, Michel (Verne would christen his son with the same name), has graduated from the Academic Credit Union, a profitable education factory specializing in the applied sciences (the arts and humanities have been jettisoned). The budding poet fails at his job as a data processor -- the book predicts the computer and lots of lesser inventions from the elevator to E-mail -- but finds a soul mate in Quinsonnas, keeper of the ledger at the vast and all-powerful Casmodage Bank. The two wax philosophical in Socratic dialogue, joined at points by other disaffected Parisians who secretly read and enjoy music. In the end (the book lacks dramatic tension, so this revelation won't ruin the story), Michel is broken, his romantic spirit crushed by modern Paris. Wandering the streets penniless, he swoons in the snow in the Pere Lachaise cemetery, anticipating Jim Morrison by a century

"Certainly Hetzel saw no place for such subversive thinking in a publishing program designed for family reading," writes Lottman. Hetzel was right, and Verne filed away the failed experiment. But Paris in the Twentieth Century proves that Verne recognized science and technology were no panaceas for human nature, which can be stupid and cruel no matter what century.

In this and other ways, Verne was a odd bird. He glorified the notion of progress but could be profoundly pessimistic (Hetzel constantly coaxing him to write upbeat endings). He vented anti-Semitic prejudices in his prose but was cordial in his dealings with Jews. He feigned indifference to awards and honors but lobbied heavily (and unsuccessfully) for admission to the French Academy. Lottman does not offer answers to these and other contradictions, nor should we expect him to. For more than most writers, Verne lived through his writing, and it is there, if anywhere, we will find the man.