Verniana — Jules Verne Studies / Etudes Jules Verne — Volume 5 (2012–2013) — 15–30
Hector Servadac, un vrai faux roman scientifique
Hector Servadac is one of those rare novels in which Jules Verne is almost constantly toying with the improbable and the impossible. Nevertheless, we sometimes find there demonstrations and explicit and detailed numerical calculations that seem a priori to suffer no challenge. The paper argues that these special cases are, after all, only decoys, sets, skilfully staged by the author. With Hector Servadac, Jules Verne relegates the so-called exact sciences to the background in order to focus on subjects far more essential to him, such as humor, poetry, philosophy or symbolism.
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