Publisher Description
Jules Verne (1828-1905) was the first author to popularize the literary genre of science fiction. Written in 1898 and part of the author's famous series Voyages Extraordinaires, The Mighty Orinoco tells the story of a young man's search for his father along the then-uncharted Orinoco River of Venezuela. The text contains all the ingredients of a classic Verne scientific-adventure tale: exploration and discovery, humor and drama, dastardly villains and intrepid heroes, and a host of near-fatal encounters with crocodiles, jungle fever, Indians and outlaws — all set in a wonderfully exotic locale. The Mighty Orinoco also includes a unique twist that will appeal to feminists — readers will need to discover it for themselves. This Wesleyan edition features notes, and a critical introduction by renowned Verne scholar Walter James Miller.
CONTRIBUTORS: Walter James Miller, Stanford Luce, Arthur B. Evans.
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About the Authors
Jules Verne (1828–1905) is considered by many the father of science fiction. Born in Nantes, France, he studied law but turned to writing opera libretti until the 1863 publication of Five Weeks in a Balloon, the first of his Extraordinary Voyages series. Its success encouraged him to produce a number of classic and prophetic science fiction novels, including Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. His stories foresaw many scientific and technological developments, including the submarine, television, and space travel.
Walter James Miller (1918–2010) was an American literary critic, playwright, poet, professor, and translator. He worked on more than sixty books in his lifetime, including four landmark annotated translations of novels by Jules Verne. He taught at Hofstra University, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Colorado State University, and for over forty years at New York University. During his time at NYU, he created and taught a popular “Great Books” course and received the NYU Alumni Great Teacher Award in 1980. For fifteen years in the 1960s and 1970s, his Peabody Award–winning show Reader’s Almanac was a fixture on the New York public radio station WNYC. For his radio show, he interviewed many established and rising authors and poets, including Nadine Gordimer, Alan Ginsberg, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. His verse drama Joseph in the Pit was produced off-Broadway in 1993 and 2002.