''Clovis Dardentor'' is an 1896 novel by French writer

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

, written partly as a travel narrative. The original illustrations were drawn by designer Léon Benett. It is one of Verne's least-known works.

Plot summary

Two cousins, Jean Taconnat and Marcel Lornans, travelling from Cette,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, to

Oran Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, with the purpose of enlisting in the 5th

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

of the ''Chasseurs D'Afrique''. Sailing to Oran aboard the ''Argelès'', they meet Clovis Dardentor, a wealthy

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

. Jean and Marcel, whose desire to travel to Africa arises from their pursuit of financial independence, find out that Clovis —an unmarried man, with no family— has left no heirs to his fortune. Yet Marcel, well-versed in the Law, knows that any person who were to save Clovis' life either from a fight, from drowning, or from a fire, would be able to be adopted by Clovis. The cousins come to a plan: They will find a way to save Clovis' life, so that he will indeed be legally allowed to adopt them. Clovis saves the cousins' lives: Marcel is saved from a fire, and Jean is saved from drowning. Eventually, while Jean continues to look for the opportunity to save Clovis' life, Marcel falls in love with Louise Elissane, the prospective daughter-in-law of one of Clovis' acquaintances, the unpleasant Desirandelle family. Louise becomes a key character in the novel, for it is she who saves Clovis Dardentor's life. In the end, Louise is adopted by Clovis, and marries Marcel.

Style

Common throughout ''Clovis Dardentor'' is Verne's usage of a comedic, slightly

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

tone in the narration and in the characters'

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

s (something which the

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

confirms at a certain point of the novel).

Publication history

''Clovis Dardentor'' was first published in France in 1896; and, in 1897, the first British edition, fully illustrated, was published by Sampson Low, Marston, and Company. The book was not published in the U.S. until 2008, when the Choptank Press of

Saint Michaels, Maryland Saint Michaels, also known as St. Michaels, is a town in Talbot County, Maryland, Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,094 at th2023 World Population Review Growing at a rate of 1.3% annually, its population hit a peak wi ...

, re-published the Sampson Low version in a fully illustrated

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

edition as a

Lulu Press Lulu Press, Inc., doing business under trade name Lulu, is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing, and distribution platform. By 2014, it had issued approximately two million titles. The company's founder is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young; ...

book.

Film adaptation

In 2013, three British film-makers were in the development stages of ''Killing Clovis Dardentor'', an adaptation of the book writren by Lizzie Hopley. Writer Lizzie Hopley had written the screenplay for the movie.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1896 French novels Novels by Jules Verne Novels set in France Novels set in Algeria