Jules Verne: A Literary Pilgrimage - Part 3

No. 44 Boulevard Longueville. Photo © C.W. Gross



Four days after his death, Verne's funeral was held around the corner and down the street at the church of Saint-Martin. Verne lived and died a Catholic, and his Catholic concern for people and Providence suffused his work. Verne was perhaps best served by being a Catholic, as it allowed him to balance his Romantic sensibilities with an appreciation for science and technological development. Rather than a conflict between science and religion, it was Catholicism's rigorous balancing of reason, experience, spiritual discipline, Divine revelation, and moral concerns for humanity that brokered the marriage between reason and romance.

It also preserved Verne from the apocalyptic nihilism of a radical atheist like H.G. Wells, who was content to destroy humanity over and over again in his novels. Even at his most cynical, Verne could not countenance such wholesale slaughter. Verne's isolated Romantic geniuses are redeemed by their willingness to reconcile with humanity, or doomed by their unwillingness.

The funeral procession brought out the entire city of Amiens, which Verne served as councillor and beloved adopted son as well as members of the French government, scientific and literary establishments. He warned against excesses of either extreme, either too much capitalism or too little, too much government or too little. He was on the side of revolutionaries - as in 1878 - until they went too far into violence and bloodshed, and then he was on the side of law. Above all he carried a respect for the person and their healthy emotional, spiritual, artistic, and economic development. "In social matters my taste is order;" he said, "in politics my hope is to create within the present government a reasonable party that balances respect for justice and religious belief with consideration for people, the arts, and life itself." His drive to merge disparate elements into a comprehensive, coherent whole affected every area of his life, making him universally loved and mourned.



Saint-Martin Church. Photo © C.W. Gross

Cirque Jules Verne, renamed in Verne's honour. Photo © C.W. Gross

After his death, Boulevard Longueville was renamed Boulevard Jules Verne. It is anchored at one end by La Maison de Jules Verne and at the other by the Cirque. Photo © C.W. Gross

The great chain of mourners went from the church, along the street and past the Cirque which both now bear his name, to the Cimetière de la Madeleine. Though listed on tourist brochures, the cemetery is silent, solemn and empty today, its Gothic crypts overgrown with vines and trees, rust and decay. Deep within lies the final resting place of the great author. Sculpted by Albert-Dominique Roze and entitled "Towards Immortaility and Eternal Youth," Verne's grave depicts him rising from the ground, overturning the stone holding down his spirit, soul and imagination. Though gone to this world, Jules Verne has achieved immortality both through his works and a Divine hope.

Contemplating mortality in the venerable Cimetière de la Madeleine. Photo © C.W. Gross

The last resting place of Jules Verne. Photo © C.W. Gross

Towards Immortaility and Eternal Youth. Photo © C.W. Gross

Not far from Amiens' railway station, there is another monument to the author decorating a lovely little green space. Once again carved by Albert-Dominique Roze, the monument was erected in 1909, four years after Verne's passing, funded by subscription from the children of the world. It alone would be a fitting monument to an author who inspired so many, had he not become a global icon honoured over and over again in film and media.

Roze's monument in Square Jules Verne, about halfway between La Maison de Jules Verne and the Amiens train station. Photo © C.W. Gross



Many great authors come to be better known as icons for what they represent, or are perceived to represent, than by who they were as people or what they actually wrote. It has happened to Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, and Mark Twain. Though one may write article after article clarifying the truth of a writer and their work, in reality this iconic status is a testament to these authors' endurance. They been immortalized beyond their words, having come to represent an answer to some deep human longing. Verne can mean many things to many people, whether technological prophesy or the quaintness of Victorian Scientific Romances, the greatness of French literature or the precursor to the modern documentary, the flight of imagination or the source material for theme park rides. Verne's imagination took him around the world and to this day he is beloved around the world, whether as the historic man and author or as the icon of optimistic futurism.




Jules Verne: A Literary Voyage is a three part series, written by C.W. Gross - click here for part one; click here for part two.