What do you think?
Rate this book
The Startling Exploits of Dr. J.B. Quies
Humorous imaginary voyage novel (mostly the African interior) in imitation of Verne's voyages extraordinaires, the illustrations in the caricaturist tradition of Daumier.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1887
17 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 23, 2022
Nothing and nobody. Nothing of interest and nobody should read it.
So i read the copiously illustrated edition of this made available by the Merril Collection.
While the drawings are nice the frontispiece probably didn’t do the book any favours. It has Quies dreaming of all sorts of strange creatures and i thought maybe this was going to be an enjoyable Gulliver’s Travels style satire but no.
This is a comedy about the worlds most sedate professor. This guy absolutely hates to travel and so the joke is that he ends up having to travel around through a series of accidents.
There was some hope that it at least would rise to the level of a satire of Around the World in 80 Days or similar fare, but no.
One of ongoing jokes is that travel makes Quies so ill he’s too indisposed to actually pay attention to anything when he’s on the move. So we get little to no information on any of the places he passes through, so none of the elements of interest you’d find in a Verne book.
Its like in the Big Bang Theory when sheldon travels all across the country but never leaves the train station. In that show the joke plays for maybe 1min, this uses the same joke for over 300 pages.
There also isn’t a single cause for Quies’ travels, but rather the author has to keep inventing new ones, most of which involve him getting lost or falling unconscious at the wrong time, it gets tiresome.
There’s also no jeopardy or character growth with Quies constantly pampered no matter where he ends up.
In total we have a couple of mildly funny bits, one briefly interesting bit when Quies runs into some slave traders... and that's it, that's the extent of the positives in this entire work.
New words
mamelons
phthisical
acidulated water
odalisques
withes
So i read the copiously illustrated edition of this made available by the Merril Collection.
While the drawings are nice the frontispiece probably didn’t do the book any favours. It has Quies dreaming of all sorts of strange creatures and i thought maybe this was going to be an enjoyable Gulliver’s Travels style satire but no.
This is a comedy about the worlds most sedate professor. This guy absolutely hates to travel and so the joke is that he ends up having to travel around through a series of accidents.
There was some hope that it at least would rise to the level of a satire of Around the World in 80 Days or similar fare, but no.
One of ongoing jokes is that travel makes Quies so ill he’s too indisposed to actually pay attention to anything when he’s on the move. So we get little to no information on any of the places he passes through, so none of the elements of interest you’d find in a Verne book.
Its like in the Big Bang Theory when sheldon travels all across the country but never leaves the train station. In that show the joke plays for maybe 1min, this uses the same joke for over 300 pages.
There also isn’t a single cause for Quies’ travels, but rather the author has to keep inventing new ones, most of which involve him getting lost or falling unconscious at the wrong time, it gets tiresome.
There’s also no jeopardy or character growth with Quies constantly pampered no matter where he ends up.
In total we have a couple of mildly funny bits, one briefly interesting bit when Quies runs into some slave traders... and that's it, that's the extent of the positives in this entire work.
New words
mamelons
phthisical
acidulated water
odalisques
withes
March 7, 2012
I am currently (spring 2012) selling a first-edition copy of this book through my arts center's rare-book service [cclapcenter.com/rarebooks], so I thought I'd post my description of it here for online researchers who are seeking more information about the title:
There seems to exist almost no information online about Victorian author Paul Celiere, although the database at Google Books at least confirms that he was real and that he put out numerous titles in his native France, this being one of the only ones ever translated into English (1886 for the British version, a year later for this American edition). A sort of "anti-Jules Verne" tale, it tells the humorous story of an obese, grouchy scientist whose greatest hope is to simply be left alone to live his sedentary, quiet provincial life; but through random accidents he ends up on a series of dangerous globetrotting adventures instead, including a big-game safari, being kidnapped by African natives, hurricanes, shipwrecks, a chaotic chase on the back of an ostrich, and the hot-air balloon ride depicted so wonderfully on the front cover. Translated by Cashel Honey and John Lillie, it features 120 delightful etch-style illustrations by Frederic Theodore Lix, the bigger reason to own this than the only so-so actual story. Also includes a fascinating eight-page "Interesting Books for Boys" advertising supplement in the back, showing off the latest titles by what was already the 70-year-old Harper publishing company; the unending list of exotic, forgotten adventure tales ("The Cruise of the Canoe Club!" "Ten Weeks with a Circus!") is almost worth the price of purchase alone.
There seems to exist almost no information online about Victorian author Paul Celiere, although the database at Google Books at least confirms that he was real and that he put out numerous titles in his native France, this being one of the only ones ever translated into English (1886 for the British version, a year later for this American edition). A sort of "anti-Jules Verne" tale, it tells the humorous story of an obese, grouchy scientist whose greatest hope is to simply be left alone to live his sedentary, quiet provincial life; but through random accidents he ends up on a series of dangerous globetrotting adventures instead, including a big-game safari, being kidnapped by African natives, hurricanes, shipwrecks, a chaotic chase on the back of an ostrich, and the hot-air balloon ride depicted so wonderfully on the front cover. Translated by Cashel Honey and John Lillie, it features 120 delightful etch-style illustrations by Frederic Theodore Lix, the bigger reason to own this than the only so-so actual story. Also includes a fascinating eight-page "Interesting Books for Boys" advertising supplement in the back, showing off the latest titles by what was already the 70-year-old Harper publishing company; the unending list of exotic, forgotten adventure tales ("The Cruise of the Canoe Club!" "Ten Weeks with a Circus!") is almost worth the price of purchase alone.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews