Jules Verne: On the Issue of “De-Hetzelization”

The published texts of Jules Verne’s works, issued by the renowned publisher and literary figure Pierre-Jules Hetzel, do not always align with the au- thor’s original intentions. The most regrettable case is that of the novel “Paris in the 20th Century” (“Paris au XXe siècle”), which was decisively rejected by Hetzel and only published in 1994. Other novels by Verne were also subject to significant revisions. This article examines certain aspects of the so-called “de-hetzelization” (a term proposed by prominent Verne scholar W. Butcher), which refers to the process of restoring Verne’s works to their original versions. By comparing the published versions of the novels “The Adventures of Captain Hatteras” (“Les Aventures du capitaine Hatteras”), “The Mysterious Island” (“L’Île mystérieuse”), and “The Chancellor” (“Chancellor”) with their original manuscripts (preserved in the National Library of France and the Media Library of Nantes), one can partially grasp the interaction between the strategies of the publisher and the writer, and trace Hetzel’s interventions into the texts at various levels. However, the practical implementation of “de-hetzelization” proves to be a highly challenging task. For contemporary publishers in Russia, these difficulties are further compounded by errors and inaccuracies in translations.