the 500 million the Begum is a novel of Jules Verne, published in 1879 in the “Library of education and recreation” of Jules Hetzel, editor appointed of Verne.
The intrigue of the novel
A French, Doctor François Buckwheat, and a German, Professor Schultze are both heirs to a fortune of 525 franc million of a richissime Bégum. With its share, Sarrasin builds in America an ideal city, based on the most recent techniques of Urbanisme and Hygiène (technical strict with the utopian paces): Franceville . Schultze, chooses to him to build Stahlstadt - the city of steel, a gigantic gun factory.
Marcel, the courageous one promised in marriage of the Buckwheat girl, leaves espionner the city as a simple workman but its talents will make it climb the social scale of the city, until becoming the confidant of Schultze, which will explain its project to him to destroy Franceville with its gigantic gun.
List characters
- Arminius
- Mr. Bauer
- Mrs. Bauer
- Carl Bauer
- Mr. Billows
- Professor Binôme
- Blair-Athol
- Blunderbuss
- Marcel Bruckmann, known under the pseudonym of Johann Schwartz
- Doctor Cicogna
- Francine
- Lord Glandover
- Begum Gokool de Ragginahra
- Mr. Green
- Colonel Hendon
- Bénédict Langévol
- Jean-Jacques Langévol
- Julie Langévol
- Mr. Lentz
- Aristide Leroux
- Doctor Ovidius
- Doctor François Buckwheat, known under the title of Baronnet Bryah Jowahir Mothooranath
- Mrs. Sarrasin
- Isidore Buckwheat
- Jean Buckwheat
- Jeanne Buckwheat
- Octave Buckwheat
- Professor Schultze
- Martin Schultze
- Therese Schultze, born Therese Langévol
- Seligmann
- Mr. Sharp
- Sigimer
- Sohne
- Doctor Stevenson
- Stilbing
- Professor Turnbull
Topics approached
This novel one of is made a success of of the author, as well by the rate/rhythm of the action and the multiple bounces, as by the richness of descriptions. Among the topics which can be developed around this work:- the world of the coal mines, which point out another novel centered on this topic: the black Indies ;
- two visions of the utopian town planning: the theories hygienists of Dr. Sarrazin are opposed to the scientistic positivism of Dr. Schultze, and these two representations of the future concretize each one in the specific shape of habitat of mass;
- the Nationalism of the protagonists (which is explained by the context, cf hereafter)
- the technical training, either by the French system of the universities (outlined in the first chapters), or by professional training in factory such as it is practiced in Stahlstadt. Besides one finds this topic of the technical training, and his intrinsic value in the moral training of the individual, in another novel of Jules Verne, the Star of the south .
Context
- In 1871, the German Empire appendix the Alsace and part of the Lorraine . The hero, Marcel, are Alsacien.
See too
Related articles
- Quoted ideal
External bonds
- This book under several formats on Ebooks free and free
- original illustrations
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