Jules Verne's Works “Around the World”: an Analysis of the International Performance of Editors Pierre-Jules Hetzel and Baptiste-Louis Garnier

Abstract

Belonging to the club of world literature is not necessarily the result of the quality of a work’s or author’s literary writing. What it really denotes is the high point of a trajectory involving multiple agents who enable a work to gain popularity and recognition not just in countries considered to be central for literary consecration, but around the world, too, since world literature can only acquire that designation when it is known in different national fields that make up the international literary space. This article aims to follow the international impact of Jules Verne, a major author in world literature, by analyzing the work of two editors: Pierre-Jules Hetzel, in charge of Verne’s publications in France, and Baptiste-Louis Garnier, the agent behind Verne’s translations in Brazil. I will thus consider Hetzel’s strategies, which made Verne’s novels international successes, and Garnier’s actions, which made it possible for Verne’s work in translation to spread in Brazil. I will also confirm aspects of Verne’s critical reception in France and Brazil in order to identify the status the author acquired in these countries as a result of the initiative of these publishers.

Keywords:
novel; criticism; translation; Verne; Hetzel; Garnier