The Begum's Millions

Jules Verne

jun 2014 · Wesleyan University Press

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Verne's first cautionary tale about the dangers of science — first modern and corrected English translation.

When two European scientists unexpectedly inherit an Indian rajah's fortune, each builds an experimental city of his dreams in the wilds of the American Northwest. France-Ville is a harmonious urban community devoted to health and hygiene, the specialty of its French founder, Dr. François Sarrasin. Stahlstadt, or City of Steel, is a fortress-like factory town devoted to the manufacture of high-tech weapons of war. Its German creator, the fanatically pro-Aryan Herr Schultze, is Verne's first truly evil scientist. In his quest for world domination and racial supremacy, Schultze decides to showcase his deadly wares by destroying France-Ville and all its inhabitants. Both prescient and cautionary, The Begum's Millions is a masterpiece of scientific and political speculation and constitutes one of the earliest technological utopia/dystopias in Western literature. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices, and a critical introduction as well as all the illustrations from the original French edition.

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JULES VERNE (1828-1905) was the first author to popularize the literary genre that has come to be known at science fiction.

ARTHUR B. EVANS is Professor of French at DePauw University and series editor for Wesleyan's Early Classics of Science Fiction series.

STANFORD L. LUCE is Professor Emeritus of French at Miami University in Ohio.

PETER SCHULMAN is Associate Professor of French and International Studies at Old Dominion University.