An Unexpected Connection Between Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne

Watching Mike Flanagan's 2023 series The Fall of the House of Usher made me curious about the stories it is based on. So, I went out and bought an edition of Edgar Allan Poe's collected works. The first story in that collection is The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, one of Poe's earlier works (published in 1835). While he is best known for his horror fiction, Poe wrote stories in a variety of different genres. This one is an adventure story. Let me provide a brief summary:

The story opens with the bewildered citizens of Rotterdam being visited by a strange dwarf in a hot air balloon who delivers a letter to two of them - burgomaster Superbus Von Underduk and an astronomy professor by the name of Rub-a-dub. The letter is written by Hans Pfaall, a former inhabitant of Rotterdam who after a streak of bad luck became interested in astronomy. He describes how he built a hot air balloon capable of reaching the moon. When he launches the balloon, he uses hidden explosives to murder his creditors. He had been indebted to said creditors even before building the balloon, and they had only supported his endeavor hoping to recover their earlier losses on Pfaall. On his journey, Pfaall has to deal with various crises from being thrown outside the basket by the aforementioned explosives to dealing with the thinning atmosphere. Finally, he arrives on the moon which he finds is inhabited by small humanoid creatures. Having stayed with them for a while, he wants to return to Earth and his family. He therefore sends the letter asking for a pardon for murdering his creditors. In return, he promises a more detailed description of his time on the moon.

The story ends by considering if Pfaall's account is to be trusted. The narrator mentions a number of arguments against its veracity, including that Pfaall and his creditors were supposedly seen alive around Rotterdam recently and a human with dwarfism fitting the "moon-man's" description went missing in a neighboring city. In short, the story itself explains that it is only fiction.

Parallels

Until the ending, this story reminded me strongly of Jules Verne's works. If you are unfamiliar, Verne was a French science-fiction writer in the 19th and early 20th century. Many of Verne's novels tell adventure stories that involve fantastic vehicles. For example, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea contains a big submarine that houses a large crew and remains at sea indefinitely. Similarly, Poe's story focuses on someone using somewhat futuristic technology to explore a hard-to-reach locale. This similar style made me wonder if there had been influence in either direction between Poe and Verne. My initial guess was that The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall was a parody of Verne's work. The structural similarities mixed with the twist ending certainly seemed to point this way.

When I was younger, I read a number of Jules Verne novels, and as it happens, I still have them in my bookshelf. I wanted to figure out if Poe and Verne had even lived at the same time, so I took out my copy of From the Earth to the Moon in the hope that it would contain an author's portrait that at least mentioned Verne's birth and death dates. I found something even better: It turns out that the edition I own contains some additional material including an excerpt from an essay by Verne titled Edgard Poe and his works.

Edgard Poe et ses œuvres

First things first: Poe lived from 1809 to 1849, whereas Verne lived from 1828 to 1905. So yes, they were contemporaries. But going even further, it seems that Poe's works greatly influenced Verne's. In his essay, Verne professes his admiration for Poe's fantastic stories. While Verne discusses Poe's biography and French translations of his works in the full essay, my copy of From the Earth to the Moon only contains an excerpt in which he reflects on some of Poe's stories. When it comes to The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, he enjoys the premise of travelling to the moon and what little Poe describes of the moon's surface and its inhabitants. However, he criticizes Poe's unrealistic (often already disproven) scientific ideas and the general unbelievability of the story - a somewhat intentional element, given the explicit arguments against its credibility at the end (something Verne also is unhappy with). He believes the story could have benefitted from a more extensive description of the moon and a less strong focus on the scientifically questionable trip there. While I understand Verne's view, I think Poe's story works because it is hard to believe. The science doesn't have to be watertight, because Hans Pfaall never actually went to the moon. He may have read some astronomy books, but he is just a common criminal using a tall tale to get a pardon - and therein lies the genius of this story.

It was fun to figure out that these two famous authors share a connection. In my opinion, discoveries like this one make learning about a story's historic context worthwhile. In the future, I will certainly do my best to pay attention to authors and their histories!

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