The Chase of the Golden Meteor
Encyclopedia
The Chase of the Golden Meteor is a novel by Jules Verne
. It was one of the last novels written by the prolific French hard science fiction
pioneer and was only published in 1908, three years after his death. It is one of seven such posthumous novels, many of which were extensively edited by his son. Verne himself first wrote "La Chasse au météore" in 1901 and then rewrote it before his death. Michel Verne
is known to have emphasised the romantic sub plot of this novel and expanded it from 17 to 21 chapters, among other changes. http://jv.gilead.org.il/taves/Meteor.html
It concerns the rivalry between two amateur astronomers in the same small American town who spot a new meteor and attempt to claim the credit for themselves. The meteor
turns out to be extremely valuable, as can be guessed from the title, and another eccentric amateur scientist, this time an inventor, creates a device which will cause it to fall where he chooses. This character was an invention of Michel, rather than Jules, Verne.
The book is seen as less an early example of hard science fiction than a social satire lampooning greed, monomania and vanity.
The future world depicted in the book includes two political predictions which failed to materialise in the century since its publication: firstly, the United States comes to be composed of 51 states
and accordingly, its flag has 51 stars, as opposed to the 45 states that existed in 1905 when Verne died; secondly, Greenland
becomes an independent, fully sovereign nation state.
In 1965 I.O. Evans published a condensed version in the Fitzroy Edition as The Hunt for the Meteor.
In 1986 the Société Jules Verne published the original French version.
In 1998 Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, republished The Chase of the Golden Meteor in a fully illustrated replica version of the Grant Richards version with an introduction by Gregory A. Benford.
In 2006 The Meteor Hunt was published by Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press translated by F. P. Walter and Walter James Miller from the original text by Jules Verne.
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
. It was one of the last novels written by the prolific French hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
pioneer and was only published in 1908, three years after his death. It is one of seven such posthumous novels, many of which were extensively edited by his son. Verne himself first wrote "La Chasse au météore" in 1901 and then rewrote it before his death. Michel Verne
Michel Verne
Michel Jean Pierre Verne was a writer and the son of Jules Verne.Because of his wayward behaviour, Michel was sent by his father to Mettray Penal Colony for six months in 1876. By the age of 19, he caused a scandal by eloping with an actress despite his famous father's objections...
is known to have emphasised the romantic sub plot of this novel and expanded it from 17 to 21 chapters, among other changes. http://jv.gilead.org.il/taves/Meteor.html
It concerns the rivalry between two amateur astronomers in the same small American town who spot a new meteor and attempt to claim the credit for themselves. The meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
turns out to be extremely valuable, as can be guessed from the title, and another eccentric amateur scientist, this time an inventor, creates a device which will cause it to fall where he chooses. This character was an invention of Michel, rather than Jules, Verne.
The book is seen as less an early example of hard science fiction than a social satire lampooning greed, monomania and vanity.
The future world depicted in the book includes two political predictions which failed to materialise in the century since its publication: firstly, the United States comes to be composed of 51 states
51st state
The 51st state, in United States political discourse, is a phrase that refers to areas either seriously or derisively considered candidates for addition to the 50 states already part of the United States. Before 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii joined the U.S., the term "the 49th state" was used...
and accordingly, its flag has 51 stars, as opposed to the 45 states that existed in 1905 when Verne died; secondly, Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
becomes an independent, fully sovereign nation state.
Publication history
In November, 1908 Grant Richards (London) published the first English translation as The Chase of the Golden Meteor from the version of Michel Verne, in a fully illustrated edition.In 1965 I.O. Evans published a condensed version in the Fitzroy Edition as The Hunt for the Meteor.
In 1986 the Société Jules Verne published the original French version.
In 1998 Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, republished The Chase of the Golden Meteor in a fully illustrated replica version of the Grant Richards version with an introduction by Gregory A. Benford.
In 2006 The Meteor Hunt was published by Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press translated by F. P. Walter and Walter James Miller from the original text by Jules Verne.
Full Text
- The full text of La Chausse au Météore (in French original) can be found on Wikisource.