Text Analysis

1.Theme

Jules Verne, as father of science fiction, presented to us in his works the imagined worlds of man: the unknown frontiers of mind, physical world and outer space, the detailed description of which has inspired scientists and inventors to make discoveries and create technologies.

2.Structure

1)Part 1 (Paras. 1-5 ): Jules Verne the writer vs Jules Verne the man

2)Part 2 (Paras. 6-8 ): Jules Verne, father of science fiction

3)Part 3 (Paras. 9-22 ): His early years and life in Paris

4)Part 4 (Paras.23-31): His major works

5)Part 4 (Paras.32-34): His last years and his death

3.Further Discussion

Questions:

1) How does the biographical story begin?

To draw readers’ attention, it begins with an interesting anecdote about Jules Verne instead of the commonly-adopted chronological description.

2) Why does the author make a contrast between Jules Verne as a man and Jules Verne as a writer?

He tries to highlight that Jules Verne’s fantastic science fictions are great works of imagination.

3) Why was Verne regarded as father of science fiction?

He was years ahead of H. G. Wells, Conan Doyle, and the other great visualizers of things to come. There were, in fact, few twentieth-century wonders that this man did not foresee.

4) How does the essay end?

The essay concludes with a comparison of Jules Verne to Santa Claus, an imaginary figure who is said to bring presents to the children.

5) What do you think have made a great science fiction writer of Jules Verne?

6) Phileas Fogg thought that he had lost his bet when he arrived to London. Then, why did he win his bet?

●Writing Device

Contrast

Sharp contrast of Jules Verne as a man and a writer.

He had voyaged 60,000 miles under the sea, whizzed around the moon, hitchhiked on comets, explored the center of the earth, chatted with cannibals in Africa and Bushmen in Australia. There was very little of the world’s geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited.

Onomatopoeia

Then he raised his gun and—poof!—shot the red ribbon off the hat of a game warden.

Bah, No one in Paris can make one!

Adding vividness use of a word from a sound associated with what is named .

Pun

The only fish he ever caught was on a plate at the end of a fork.

a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings

Allusion

Alluding to Verne’s book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

He had voyaged 60,000 miles under the sea, ….

There was very little of the world’s geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited.

Allusion:

A brief or implicit reference to something outside the text.

●Sentence Paraphrase

1. “Monsieur Verne,” he said reverently, “pray be seated.” (para. 1)

2. He had voyaged 60,000 miles under the sea, whizzed around the moon, hitchhiked on comets, explored the center of the earth, chatted with cannibals in Africa and Bushmen in Australia. (para. 2)

3. There was very little of the world’s geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited. (para. 2)

4. For forty years, he sat in a small room of the red brick tower of his home, in Amiens, turning out, year in, year out, one book every six months—more than 100 altogether. (para. 3)

5. He wrote about the marvels of tomorrow with such precise, indisputable detail that he was taken seriously. (para. 7)

6. Verne, who lived to see many of his fancies come true, was matter-of-fact about it all. “What one man can imagine,” he said, “another man can do.” (para. 8)

7. At the bottom he slipped off and landed squarely on a stout gentleman about to ascend the stairs. (para. 11)

8. You could have knocked Jules over with a breadstick. (para. 17)

9. Jules, urged on by the older man, made up his mind he would do for geography what Dumas had done for history. (para. 18)

10. “My stockings,” he told a friend, “are like a spider-web in which a hippopotamus has been sleeping.” (para. 19)

11. … he was attacked by Red Indians, and arrived in New York to see the ship that was to take him to England only a small speck on the horizon. (para. 28)

12. The Russians claimed him as a Slav, a Pole and former espionage agent who had taken to letters. (para. 32)

13. To his colleagues he wired: “There is no Jules Verne and Company—there is only Jules.” (para. 32)

14. It is like the passing of Santa Claus. (para. 34)