[HN Gopher] The Begum's Fortune
___________________________________________________________________
The Begum's Fortune
Author : baybal2
Score : 26 points
Date : 2021-08-25 14:33 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| boffinism wrote:
| > It is noteworthy as the first published book in which Verne was
| cautionary, and somewhat pessimistic about the development of
| science and technology.
|
| The only other book in which Verne was similarly pessimistic that
| I'm aware of is 'Paris in the Twentieth Century', which was
| originally considered too negative for publication.
| zwieback wrote:
| I did a book report on this in 9th grade in Germany. I was
| fascinated by how Jules Verne painted the French guy in
| exaggeratedly positive and the German guy in negative terms. Even
| for highly self-critical Germans the caricature in this book is a
| bit much, not one of his best.
| bsedlm wrote:
| "intends to use them [new weapons] first against Ville-France,
| then establish Germany's worldwide rule."
|
| from a novel written in 1879!
|
| Also interesting, that the main protagonists originate from an
| inherited fortune of a lost hindu prince
| yumraj wrote:
| Who do you think had funded Britain's fight against Germany in
| WW-1 and WW-2?
| gerikson wrote:
| Apart from Britain and its empire itself, loans and leases on
| generous terms from the United States.
| handrous wrote:
| The Franco-Prussian/Franco-German war ended about eight years
| earlier, in which France lost territory to Germany (Alsace-
| Lorraine). Germany was very much ascendant at the time, unified
| and having recently besieged Paris itself, so that's not
| exactly a crystal-ball prediction Verne was making.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-08-25 23:02 UTC)