In the Weekly Standard, Algis Valiunas debates the literary legacy of Jules Verne.
“William Butcher, the foremost English Verne scholar, boasts that his man is “the world’s most translated writer, the best-seller of all time, the only popular writer to have increased in popularity over more than a century.” Yet in the next breath the enthusiast bleats that too few know that Verne, in fact, reigns supreme in worldwide popularity and that all too few serious persons realize how serious Verne really is. The raging scandal is that he “remains the opposite of a classic: a household name from Taipo to Tucson, but absent from the school curricula and histories of literature.” Simply to read Verne is not enough. His greatness demands that he be studied.”
