Jules Verne's rejected Paris novel stayed unpublished until 1994
Original title: Jules Verne's Lost Novel
Hetzel refused Paris in the Twentieth Century in 1863; the manuscript sat in a family safe for 131 years.
An essay by John Steele, published October 28, 2026, recounts Jules Verne's 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, set in a imagined 1960. Publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel refused it as implausible and too bleak, and Verne set the manuscript aside. It was recovered from a family safe and published in France in 1994 after 131 years unpublished.
- Verne wrote the book in 1863 and imagined Paris in 1960.
- Hetzel judged the prophecy implausible and the tone too bleak.
- The manuscript was recovered from a family safe and appeared in France in 1994.
- Countries
- France
From the original article
1 min read at blue-continuum.com
In 1863, Jules Verne did something he would almost never do again. He looked not toward an undiscovered island, the bottom of the sea, the interior of the Earth or the far side of the Moon, but directly into the future.
By dnetesn · blue-continuum.com
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