Topsy Turvy by Jules Verne

[Redactor’s Note: Topsy Turvy (Number V035 in the T&M numerical listing of Verne’s works) is a translation of Sans dessus dessous (1889) . This anonymous translation was first published by J. G. Ogilvie (New York, 1890). We meet our old friends Barbicane and J.T. Maston from “Earth to the Moon” who now give us their own approach to the topic of “global warming”. Although they are searching for coal and not oil, readers will find that the auction of the Arctic energy reserves has a definite 21st century ring. We are indebted to Mr. Mark Eccles of Columbia, MD for loaning his rare and disintegrating copy of this 1890 work.The text was reprinted in an Ace paperback (D-434) in the late 1950’s with the title “The Purchase of the North Pole”. There is another edition published by Sampson & Low (U.K.,1890) also entitled “The Purchase of the North Pole”. The Ogilvie book is more faithful to the structure of the french—the S&L has 20 chapters instead of 21 and omits part of 21, but the sense may be sometimes incorrect—the last sentence of 20 reads “But now, after having read the article and being unable to understand it without any help, he began to feel sorry and feel better” where the word able might be supposed. Both editions leave out some parts of sentences and paragraphs, the Ogilvie probably worse in this regard. There is one equation in the book which is represented as a graphic. A Table of Contents has been added for user convenience. This text contains 42,000 words. (NMW)]

TOPSY TURVY

CHAPTER I.

IN WHICH THE NORTH POLAR PRACTICAL ASSOCIATION RUSHES A DOCUMENT ACROSS TWO WORLDS

“Then Mr Maston, you pretend that a woman has never been able to make mathematical or experimental-science progress?”

“To my extreme regret, I am obliged to, Mrs. Scorbitt,” answered J.T. Maston.

“That there have been some very remarkable women in mathematics, especially in Russia, I fully and willingly agree with you. But, with her cerebral conformation, she cannot become an Archimedes, much less a Newton.”

“Oh, Mr. Maston, allow me to protest in the name of my sex.”

“A sex, Mrs. Scorbitt, much too charming to give itself up to the higher studies.”

“Well then, according to your opinion, no woman seeing an apple fall could have discovered the law of universal gravitation, so that it would have made her the most illustrious scientific person of the seventeenth century?”

“In seeing an apple fall, Mrs. Scorbitt, a woman would have but the single idea—to eat it—for example, our mother Eve.”

“Pshaw, I see very well that you deny us all aptitude for high speculations.”

“All aptitude? No, Mrs. Scorbitt, and in the meanwhile I would like to prove to you that since there are inhabitants on earth, and consequently women, there has not one feminine brain been found yet to which we owe any discoveries like those of Aristotle, Euclid, Kepler, Laplace, etc.”

“Is this a reason? And does the past always prove the future?”

“Well, a person who has done nothing in a thousand years, without a doubt, never will do anything.”

“I see now that I have to take our part, Mr. Maston, and that we are not worth much.”

“In regard to being worth something”—began Mr. Maston, with as much politeness as he could command.

But Mrs. Evangelina Scorbitt, who was perfectly willing to be satisfied, answered promptly: “Each one has his or her lot in this world. You may remain the extraordinary calculator which you are, give yourself up entirely to the immense work to which your friends and yourself will devote their existence. I will be the woman in the case and bring to it my pecuniary assistance.”

“And we will owe you an