Jules Verne - Hetzel's Influence

Hetzel's Influence

Hetzel substantially influenced the writings of Verne, who was so happy to finally find a willing publisher that he agreed to almost all changes that Hetzel suggested. Hetzel rejected at least one novel (Paris in the Twentieth Century) and asked Verne to significantly change his other drafts. One of the most important changes Hetzel enforced on Verne was the adoption of optimism in his novels. Verne was in fact not an enthusiast of technological and human progress, as can be seen in his works created before he met Hetzel and after Hetzel's death. Hetzel's demand for optimistic texts proved correct. For example, The Mysterious Island originally ended with all the survivors returning to the mainland but then always feeling nostalgic about their island.

Hetzel decided that these men should live happily ever after, so in the revised novel, they use their fortunes to build a replica of the island. Also, to not offend France's military ally of the time, the Russian Empire, the origins and past of the submariner Captain Nemo were widely changed from those of a Polish refugee avenging the partitions of Poland, and the death of his family during the repressions of the January Uprising, to those of an Indian prince fighting from beneath the seas against the British Empire following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.