In English-speaking countries, Jules
Verne is mainly remembered for his pioneering
science-fiction novels: Twenty Thousand Leagues
under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth,
From the Earth to the Moon, and of course his
‘science-flavoured’ great romp, Around the World in
Eighty Days. But Verne also wrote dozens of
adventure stories of a more classic kind, set in all
sorts of exotic locales, such as Australia and the
Pacific (Captain Grant’s Children, Mistress
Branican), Alaska, China, South America … And, in
the 1876 novel, which is reckoned in France to be his
very best, the biggest country in the world, Russia.
That novel’s simply called, in French (in which
language I read it) by the name of its central
character, Michel Strogoff (Michael Strogoff, Courier
of the Czar, it was titled when translated into
English.) And it’s the book that amongst all the many
favourites of my voracious childhood reading, I’d like
to highlight, because it’s had such a big impact on me
and set me off on a life-long fascination with the
extraordinary culture of an extraordinary land.
When I first read it, aged about eleven or twelve,
I already had a few images of Russia, drawn from
fairytales I’d loved, such as the Tale of Prince Ivan,
Grey Wolf and the Firebird, Fenist the Falcon, The
Frog Princess and so on; drawn, too, from my French
father’s great interest in Russian music and Russian
icons. But Michel Strogoff, with its passionate, vivid
characters, marvellous settings, romance, mystery,
danger and adventure — and also a welcome touch of
humour — simply bowled me over.
Basically, the story is that Michel (or Mikhail, in
Russian) Strogoff, a young Siberian-born soldier in
the service of Tsar Alexander II, is sent by the
monarch to take a vital, urgent message to the Tsar’s
brother, who commands the army in Siberia. He has
to take the message by hand because a rebel Tartar
army under Khan Feofar has cut all telegraph
communications with Siberia, prior to taking over
towns in the far east. And they’re being helped by a
Russian traitor called Ivan Ogareff. They plan to lay
siege to the Siberian towns and destroy the Tsar’s rule
there, but Ogareff is in disguise and cannot be found,
and the army must be warned. So Michel sets off, by
road and river, on a mission which becomes
increasingly dangerous as his enemies come to hear
of his presence. Meanwhile, his mother is looking for
her son—and a young Latvian woman named Nadia
is on her way to rejoin her political prisoner father in
Siberian exile; and soon enough they meet. Then
there’s Englishman Harry Blount and Frenchman
Alcide Jolivet, rival war correspondents reporting on
the upheaval in the empire, who are ready to brave
any dangers to get first scoop!
When Michel, his mother and Nadia are captured
by the khan’s forces, and something terrible happens,
all it seems, is lost … But Michel won’t give up, not
for a moment, and neither will the others who all
become his allies.
I read the novel I don’t know how many times,
swept away by the grandeur of the story, the fantastic
adventure, with its wolves, bears, bandits, iced-up
rivers, cruel torturers and traitors. I thrilled to the love
I could see developing between Nadia and Michel,
both equally brave, each in their own way, and I was
swept away too by the description of the journey,
which starts in Moscow and ends in Siberia — a