Work record

Off on a Comet

Name: Off on a Comet
Author: Jules Verne

Jules Verne

Also known as: Hector Servadac · Off on a Comet!

1877 · 19th Century · Novel · French

Public domainRead full text Download EPUB Five-minute digest

Abstract

Written: Published 1877
Setting: January 1 of a fictional year to two years later; Algeria, the Mediterranean, and the solar system
Author: Jules Verne; trans. Ellen E. Frewer (1877)
Country: Third French Republic (France)
Language: French
Genre: Science fantasy
Form: Novel in two parts
Recommended: Grades 6–12 (Ugly caricature of a Jewish trader; teachers should address it.)

Premise. An officer and his orderly wake on the North African coast after a violent shock to find shortened days, light gravity and a sun rising in the wrong place. Slowly they realize a fragment of the Earth has been carried off by a passing body.

Survivors. Russians, Spaniards, British soldiers, a child and a trader gather on the fragment. A cranky astronomer who discovered the body explains its path and predicts when it will return to strike the Earth.

Voyage. The castaways live in volcanic caves while the sea freezes and the sun shrinks. They pass the giant planets, and the author describes each in turn.

Return. As the comet approaches the Earth again, the survivors build a balloon and escape just in time, landing safely near their starting point.

For students. This is a fanciful tour of astronomy and a lesson in cooperation. Teachers should frame its caricature of a Jewish merchant historically and discuss it openly.

Translation. The library text reprints the 1877 English version by Ellen Frewer as revised for Charles Horne's 1911 collected edition. Verne himself admitted that the premise was scientifically impossible and used it as a vehicle for teaching about orbits, gravity and the planets.

Main characters

Hector Servadac: French officer
Ben Zoof: his orderly
Count Timascheff: Russian nobleman
Palmyrin Rosette: astronomer
Nina: orphan girl

Jules Verne, photographed by Nadar (c. 1878). Source · Public domain

Summary

Off on a Comet, or Hector Servadac, is one of Verne's most fanciful books. On the night of 31 December, Captain Hector Servadac, a French staff officer in Algeria, and his orderly Ben Zoof are knocked unconscious by a tremendous shock. When they awaken, everything has changed: the sun rises in the west, days are only twelve hours long, gravity is weaker so they can leap enormous distances, and the sea has become strangely calm. Exploring, Servadac discovers that a small part of North Africa and the Mediterranean, with Gibraltar and a few other islands, has been torn from the earth by a passing comet and carried off into space. The survivors gradually gather: a Russian count, Timascheff, with his yacht crew; a few British officers holding Gibraltar who stubbornly refuse to admit anything has changed; a group of Spaniards and a little Italian girl, Nina; and a miserly German-Jewish trader, Isac Hakkabut, whom Verne presents as a crude caricature. Finally they find the eccentric astronomer Professor Palmyrin Rosette, Servadac's former teacher, who discovered the comet, named it Gallia, and calculated its orbit. The comet will travel out past Jupiter and Saturn and return to strike the earth in exactly two years. The colonists survive the long journey by sheltering in the warm lava caves of a volcano, while the sea freezes around them. Verne takes his readers on a tour of the solar system, describing the planets as they pass. Finally, as the comet returns, Servadac and his companions build a hot-air balloon and lift off just before the comet touches the earth, landing safely in Algeria close to where they started. On earth, no one believes their story, and Servadac half suspects it was a dream. The novel combines astronomy lessons, comedy and adventure, though the science is fanciful and Verne admitted it. Its portrait of Hakkabut reflects the antisemitism of the time and should be discussed openly in class.

Virtues in this work

Fortitude: The survivors face an incredible crisis with courage.
Friendship: Servadac and Timascheff move from rivalry to friendship.

Plot or Argument

Part I: The shock
Servadac and Ben Zoof awake to a changed world, explore the strange Mediterranean, and gather survivors.
Part I: Gallia
Servadac learns from Professor Rosette that they are riding a comet through space.
Part II: The voyage
The colonists survive the cold of outer space in volcanic caves and pass Jupiter and Saturn.
Part II: The return
They escape by balloon as the comet touches the earth and land in Algeria.

Characters

Captain Hector Servadac, hero
Gallant French officer who leads the survivors.
Ben Zoof, orderly
Loyal, cheerful soldier.
Count Timascheff, Russian nobleman
Courteous ally with a yacht.
Professor Palmyrin Rosette, astronomer
Eccentric scientist who discovered the comet.
Nina, orphan
Brave little Italian girl.
Isac Hakkabut, trader
Miserly merchant drawn as a period caricature.

Lessons

Wonder at creation
The tour of the planets invites wonder at the vastness and order of the solar system.
- Which planets do they see?
- How does Verne describe them?
Related across the library
- Generation of Animals, Book II, Ch. 6 (743b)
  exactly as if Nature were a painter producing a work of art On the order of development: outlines come first, colour and hardness later.
- The Sacred Wood, Full Text
  theatrical and dramatic elaboration there is discovered a kind of power animating Volpone Busy Fitzdottrel the literary ladies of Epic ne even Bobadil which comes from below the intellect and for which no theory of humours will account And it is the same kind of power which vivifies Trimalchio and Panurge and some but not all of the comic characters of Dickens The fictive life of this kind is not to be circumscribed by a reference to comedy or to farce it is not exactly the kind of life which informs the charact...
- Cold Comfort Farm, Summary
  Cold Comfort Farm is a comic novel parodying the overwrought rural fiction of the early twentieth century, the 'loam and lovechild' school associated with writers such as Mary Webb and D. H. Lawrence. It is set in a slightly futuristic England of video-phones and air taxis. Flora Poste, nineteen, well educated and practical, is orphaned with a small income and decides to live with relatives rather than work. She chooses the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, near the village of Howling in Sussex, who have written...
- Eclogues and Georgics, Lesson: Toil conquered all: work after the golden age
  Toil conquered all: work after the golden age. In Georgic I Virgil explains that Jupiter ended the easy age of Saturn and hid fire and honey so that need would sharpen human skill: 'toil conquered all, / Remorseless toil'. The Georgics treat labour as hard, endless and yet ennobling, and the farmer's wisdom as a form of piety toward the gods and the land. Christian readers can compare this with Genesis 3, where toil follows the Fall, and with the dignity Scripture gives to faithful work.
- Cold Comfort Farm, Early chapters and passim
  Aunt Ada keeps to her room and controls her family through the memory of the woodshed.
Prejudice in a classic
Verne's portrait of Hakkabut repeats ugly stereotypes. Students should name it honestly and contrast it with the dignity Scripture gives every person.
- What stereotypes appear?
- How should we read classics that contain prejudice?
Related across the library
- Heidi, Summary
  Heidi, in Elisabeth P. Stork’s public-domain English translation, tells of a small orphan brought to live with her reclusive Alm-Uncle high in the Swiss Alps, then carried away to Frankfurt’s closed rooms before homesickness and providence return her to mountain air, goats, and fir trees. Johanna Spyri’s novel joins outdoor joy to serious care for the sick, the lonely, and the hard-hearted. Heidi’s delight in meadow and sky is not mere tourism; it becomes a school of gratitude and prayer that softens grandfather...
- The Nature of the Physical World, Summary
  The Nature of the Physical World is Arthur Eddington's account, for general readers, of what relativity, thermodynamics and quantum theory had done to the picture of the physical world, and of what that picture leaves room for in human experience. It is substantially the Gifford Lectures he gave at the University of Edinburgh from January to March 1927, published in 1928 by Cambridge University Press and Macmillan. The library stores no text of the book and gives no quotations: although the work is now in the pu...
- Elements of Chemistry, Summary
  Elements of Chemistry (Traité élémentaire de chimie, Paris, 1789) is Antoine Lavoisier's systematic textbook of the new chemistry he had built over the previous fifteen years. The library text is Robert Kerr's English translation, published at Edinburgh in 1790; Kerr, an Edinburgh surgeon, added Fahrenheit temperatures in brackets beside Lavoisier's Réaumur degrees and appended rules for converting French weights and measures, and the text describes the thirteen copperplates of apparatus drawn by Madame Lavoisie...
- Lectures on Clinical Psychiatry, Source
  l KS3 ll thrarg of llie tEoniiittT I LECTURES ON CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY LECTURES ON CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY BY DR EMIL KRAEPELIN l b-ie b PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH ButboriscD translation from tbe Second erman EDition REVISED AND EDITED BY THOMAS JOHNSTONE M D Edin M R C P Lond MEMBER OF THE MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND FELLOW OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY FELLOW OF THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH AND MEMBER OF THE LEEDS AND WEST RIDING MED...
- Elements of Chemistry, Lesson: Science as a common work
  Science as a common work. Lavoisier says that frequent conversation with Berthollet, Fourcroy, Laplace and Monge had created a community of opinions in which no one could always tell his own ideas from his friends'. The new chemistry was the work of a circle, and of a household, since Madame Lavoisier drew the plates.
Cooperation in crisis
People from many nations must work together to survive.
- Which characters cooperate best?
- Why do the British officers refuse to accept the facts?
Related across the library
- From the Earth to the Moon, Lesson: Reconciling enemies
  Reconciling enemies. Ardan turns two rivals into crewmates by appealing to a shared goal.
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Lesson: Marrying to reform
  Marrying to reform. Helen marries Huntingdon believing her love and goodness will change him, against her aunt's warnings. The diary traces how that hope fails and why: he has no wish to change, and she cannot choose for him. The novel treats judgment of character before marriage as a moral duty, not mere caution.
- The Nibelungenlied, Introductory Sketch
  See Adventure III note Paynim O F paienime late Latin paganismus heathen' gold for offerings This was the gold to be used as offering when masses were sung for Siegfried's soul ADVENTURE XXI How Kriemhild Journeyed To The Huns Let now the messengers ride We will do you to wit how the queen journeyed through the lands and where Giselher and Gernot parted from her They had served her as their fealty bade them Down to Vergen on the Danube they rode here they gan crave leave of the queen for they would ride again to...
- Uncle Vanya, Lesson: Idleness and beauty
  Idleness and beauty. Astroff says a human being should be beautiful in face, clothes, mind and thoughts, and that an idle life cannot be pure. Helena's boredom unsettles the whole house, and when work stops, drinking, gossip and longing fill the time. The play's last image is a return to the ledgers.
- Bliss and Other Stories, Lesson: A child's eye on adult life
  A child's eye on adult life. In Prelude and Sun and Moon children watch the adult world without fully understanding it, and their wonder and fear sharpen what adults overlook. Kezia's terror at the duck's death and her delight in the aloe give the story its moral center.

Context

Written during Verne's middle period, the novel was published in 1877 when comets and planetary astronomy were popular topics.

Composition

Hector Servadac was published by Hetzel in 1877; Ellen Frewer's English translation appeared the same year, and the Horne edition reprinted it in 1911 as Off on a Comet.

Reception

Less admired than Verne's major novels because of its fanciful science, but valued for its astronomy and humor.

Science / Knowledge Travel Journey Nature / Landscape Friendship Satire Folly Heroism

Comparisons

From the Earth to the Moon
Another Verne space voyage, more scientifically grounded.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
A scientific journey with an eccentric professor.
Gulliver's Travels
A satirical voyage in which travellers meet strange worlds.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The first signs that something has changed.
How Rosette explains the comet.
Descriptions of the planets.
How the survivors escape.

Key terms and names

Comet: An icy body orbiting the sun on a long elliptical path.
Gallia: Name given to the comet.
Gravity: The force that pulls bodies together; weaker on the comet.
Orbit: The path of a body around the sun.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension How do Servadac and Ben Zoof realize something has changed?
Comprehension How do the survivors return to earth?
Interpretation Why do the British officers refuse to acknowledge the facts?
Interpretation What is the role of Professor Rosette?
Interpretation How does Verne mix comedy and science?
Big Question How should we respond to prejudice in great books?

Faith Connections

Psalm 19:1 (Scripture)
The heavens declare the glory of God; Verne's tour of the planets invites wonder.
Galatians 3:28 (Scripture)
In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek; a corrective to the novel's caricature.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Survival in an overwhelming crisis depends on knowledge, cooperation and good humor.

Rhetorical device: fantastic premise. Verne asks readers to accept an impossible event in order to tour the solar system.

Debate: Resolved: that Off on a Comet should be taught despite its prejudiced portrait of Hakkabut.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Verne uses the comet voyage to teach astronomy.

Comparison with From the Earth to the Moon: Compare the science in Verne's two space voyages.

Creative Prompts

Fiction
Write Ben Zoof's diary for the first day on Gallia.
Essay
Is Off on a Comet more science or fantasy? Argue your case.
Classroom
Model the comet's orbit on a diagram with the sun and planets.