Master of the World by Jules Verne audio book, Chapter Twelve

Just to juice things up a bit information wise, I've taken the following from the Wikipedia for your reading pleasure.

Enjoy

--John--

Master of the World (novel)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor other uses, see Master of the World (disambiguation).This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources.(January 2015)This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2015)Master of the WorldIllustration from the original publication. Drawing by Georges Roux.AuthorJules VerneOriginal titleMaître du mondeCover artistGeorges RouxCountryFranceLanguageFrenchSeriesThe Extraordinary VoyagesNo. 53GenreScience fiction, adventure novelPublisherPierre-Jules HetzelPublication date1904Published in English1911Media typePrint (hardback)Pages317ppISBNN/APreceded byA Drama in LivoniaFollowed byInvasion of the SeaMaster of the World (French: Maître du monde), published in 1904, is one of the last novels by French pioneer science fiction writer, Jules Verne. It is a sequel to Robur the Conqueror. At the time Verne wrote the novel, his health was failing. Master of the World is a "black novel," filled with foreboding and fear of the rise of tyrants such as the novel's villain, Robur, and totalitarianism.

Contents  [hide] 

• 1 Plot outline
• 2 Literary significance & criticism
• 3 Allusions/references
• 4 Reception
• 5 Adaptations
• 6 External links

Plot outline[edit]Set in the summer of 1903, a series of unexplained events occur across the eastern United States, caused by objects moving with such great speed that they are nearly invisible. The first-person narrator John Strock, 'Head inspector in the federal police department' in Washington, DC, travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to investigate. He discovers that all the phenomena are being caused by Robur, a brilliant inventor. (He was previously featured as a character in Verne's Robur the Conqueror.)

Robur has perfected a new machine, which he has dubbed the Terror. It is ten-meter long vehicle, capable of operating as a speedboat,submarine, automobile, or aircraft. It can travel at the (then) unheard of speed of 150 miles per hour on land and at more than 200 mph when flying.

Strock tries to capture the Terror but instead is captured himself. Robur drives the strange craft to elude his pursuers, heading to theCaribbean and into a thunderstorm. The Terror is struck by lightning, breaks apart, and falls into the ocean. Strock is rescued from the vehicle's wreckage, but Robur's body is never found. The reader is left to decide whether or not he has died.

Literary significance & criticism[edit]Master of the World contains a number of scientific ideas, current to Verne's time, which are now widely known to be errors. For example, traveling at high speed does not reduce a vehicle's weight.

Allusions/references[edit]The novel's events take place in the summer of 1903, as characters refer to events of the 1902 Mount Pelée eruption on Martinique. Verne took a few liberties with American geography in the novel. It is set in Morganton, North Carolina and refers to a mountain known as the Great Aerie. The name suggests Mount Airy, located elsewhere in North Carolina; its description as flat-topped is similar to the mountain nearby known as Table Rock. Another portion of the novel is described as taking place at a large deep natural lake in Kansas, but there is no such lake.

Reception[edit]This section is empty.You can help by adding to it.(December 2014)Adaptations[edit]

• The film Master of the World (1961) starred Vincent Price and Charles Bronson. The scriptwriter Richard Matheson combined elements of this book and its predecessor in the screenplay, as well as adding others of his own.
• A half-hour TV cartoon special by the same name was produced in the late 1970s.
• Robur is featured as a character in Kim Newman's alternate history novel, The Bloody Red Baron1995), serving as the chief airship engineer of the Central Powers. The chapter featuring him and his airship is entitled "Master of the World."
• The Terror appears in the game Pirates of the Mysterious Islands.
• Robur and his First Mate Tom Turner are featured as central characters in T.E. MacArthur's steampunk novels, "The Volcano Lady: Volume One and Volume Two." The "Terror" is suggested as part of the tie-in with Verne's original novels "Robur the Conqueror" and "Master of the World."

External links[edit]Wikimedia Commons has media related toMaster of the World.French Wikisourcehas original text related to this article:Maître du monde

•  Works related to The Master of the World at Wikisource
• Master of the World at Project Gutenberg
• (French) Maître du Monde, audio version