Mythmaker of the Machine Age. In the statue erected above his grave in Amiens, in Picardy,
Jules Verne, who died exactly 100 years ago, resembles God. He is, after all, the second-
most-translated author on earth, after Agatha Christie.
To celebrate the anniversary, there's a Verne exhibition at the
Maritime Museum in Paris, one of a series of events from Paris to the western city of
Nantes, where Verne was born on Feb. 8, 1828, to the northern town of
Amiens, where he died on March 24, 1905. His many fans,
some of them quite famous, will be treated to exhibits, concerts, films and shows in Verne's honor. “
Underground City”, a lost classic written by Verne and never before published unabridged in English,
emerges this month in not one but two new unique editions.
100 years later, questions remain about his life: Why did he have two homes in Amiens? Why did he burn all his private papers? Why was he shot in the foot by his nephew, Gaston, in 1886? Gaston was locked in an asylum for 54 years after his attack on L'Oncle Jules. Was Gaston, in fact, Verne's natural son? More inside.
posted by matteo
on Mar 23, 2005 -
8 comments
Browsing at my local library, I just came across a display of the
winners of this year's Canadian
Awards for Excellence in Book Design.
I was blown away by the design and content of
The Gryphons of Paris, a limited edition collection of black-and-white photos of surpassing beauty. This led me to the web page of the photographer,
Ronald Hurwitz, his city vignettes and remarkable portraits. A good reminder that not
everything of value can be found on the internet.
posted by louigi
on Aug 3, 2004 -
11 comments
You may not have heard of Jansenism. But on
May 1, 1727 one of its more prominent members, Francois de Paris, died. He was a popular fellow for his charitable works and lots of people visited his tomb. That's when things got weird. At first it was just a bunch of people claiming to have been cured of things like "cancerous tumors, paralysis, deafness, arthritis, rheumatism, ulcerous sores, persistent fevers, prolonged hemorrhaging, and blindness."
Then things started to get really
weird.
...The mourners also started to experience strange involuntary spasms or convulsions...the 'convulsionaires,' as they came to be called, displayed...the ability to endure without harm an almost unimaginable variety of physical tortures....
These events lasted years and were witnessed by thousands as well as commented on by the likes of David Hume and Voltaire. Louis-Basile Carre de Montgeron investigated it for the Paris Parliment and published
La Vérité des Miracles in three volumes detailing the events. The tortures were asked for by the convulsionaires. Montgeron details one time when while having an iron drill hammered into a convulsionaire's stomach he, "maintained an 'expression of perfect rapture,' crying, 'Oh, that does me good! Courage, brother; strike twice as hard, if you can!'"
posted by john
on Jul 23, 2004 -
11 comments
Insecula. As the
Wiki says:
Insecula: L'encyclopédie des arts et de l'architecture is a French language art website containing images and descriptions of thousands of works of art from major museums and collections in France and elsewhere, including the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Palace of Versailles, the Centre Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MOMA.
But it's not just museums and art. It's got
Mayan ruins,
Manhattan and
Brooklyn, and of course lots of
Paris streets.
I can't believe plep hasn't posted this already...
posted by languagehat
on Apr 10, 2004 -
12 comments
Paris is not actually in Paris according to French archaeologists last month. It appears that the ancient capital of Gaul, named after the Celtic tribe Parissi, is not buried under modern-day Paris but under its unremarkable neighbor
Nanterre. "It's an unprecedented attack on the French national identity and the greater glory of Paris by a group of dirty-fingernailed
parvenus." Spare the dirty archaeologists and blame it on Julius Caesar who gave inaccurate descriptions of the location, returning from the grave causing fresh Parisian identity consternations.
posted by stbalbach
on Mar 15, 2004 -
13 comments
French-fried cars for New Year In Detroit, it has been a custom to fire guns during New Year's celebrations. Perhaps we should put aside our current dislike of the French and borrow this fine way to usher in a brand new year. After all, it is the French who have given us taste, culture, refinement, and the liberty of self-expression.
posted by Postroad
on Jan 3, 2004 -
48 comments
The Vertically Inclined Photographer: Shooting Paris, Rome, the French Riviera and the Loire Valley from a low-flying plane is
Patrick Durand's photographic obsession. It's an interesting
flat alternative to
Horst Hamann's [
click on "Gallery" and go to "New Verticals"]
tall vertical New York. There's something very exciting about looking at familiar sights from an unfamiliar point of view. [
Both sites very, perhaps too Flash.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Jul 4, 2003 -
14 comments
An auction of books, paintings, and sculpture from the estate of seminal surrealist Andre Breton began today at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. Some estimates place the value of the collection at over US$30 million. At lot of
art lovers from all over the world don't think this is a very good idea.
posted by MrBaliHai
on Apr 1, 2003 -
4 comments
The catacombs of Paris are an immense maze of tunnels dug under the city. In 1786, all the bodies from Cimetiere des Innocents were exhumed and moved into the tunnels. A sign above the door reads: Stop! Here is the empire of the dead...
For a significantly less creepy (and infinitely cool) city under the city experience, check out the
Seattle Underground tour.
posted by jonson
on Jan 15, 2003 -
18 comments
You probably remember him best for his famous
green devil, tempting you with the esoteric delight of evil absinthe
*, or the familiar image of the jester pushing the pleasures of
Bitter Campari. Called by some the "father of the modern poster", and even the "
father of advertising", Italian-born
Leonetto Cappiello created over 1,000 memorable posters during his 40-year career in belle-epoque and fin-de-siecle Paris, and a quick look at a
collection of his work quickly reminds us how enduring both his images and his basic concepts have been.
(more...)
posted by taz
on Nov 4, 2002 -
15 comments
Why has the attack of Parisian Mayor Bertrand Delanoe been ignored ? You'd need a neutron microscope to find news stories or analysis regarding the attack of Parisian mayor Bertrand Delanoe by a Muslim who stated that he 'didn't like politicians and didn't like homosexuals'. What would have happened had the attacker been a white Christian or a skinhead ? A sad example of political correctness stifling any debate, a la Pim Fortuyn.
posted by Kaslo
on Oct 24, 2002 -
41 comments
Joyeux Noël from Paris ! I hope everyone around here is having a great time with their friends, families and/or relatives, wether you celebrate X-mas or not. Besides being a commercial outrage nowadays, it's a time for giving/sharing, spending time with the loved ones and feeling like a child again. So : "yay !"
posted by XiBe
on Dec 24, 2001 -
9 comments
paris is a mess this year and anyhow, everyone goes there, and all you meet are more americans. I recently discovered the
Allier region, and it's got wine, castles, beautiful scenery and hardly any tourists. What is your favorite "hidden" travel spot?
posted by christina
on Jul 27, 2001 -
15 comments
Adam Gopnik on NPR (NB: Requires Real Player) Gopnik wrote about Paris for the
New Yorker for some years. Susan Stamberg interviewed him for
Morning Edition today, and he says many things I agree with about what makes for a good city (just to tie into the discussion we've been having about cities).
posted by aurelian
on Feb 6, 2001 -
1 comment
