Michael Strogoff

The 14th novel of the Voyages Extraordinaries is an old favorite from my childhood. This one is also a straightforward adventure story, with no science fiction elements, but a good and dramatic one. I'm not alone in my appreciation: Literary critic Leonard S. Davidow wrote, "Jules Verne has written no better book than this, in fact it is deservedly ranked as one of the most thrilling tales ever written." Perhaps a bit hyperbolic, but it has always seemed to me that, because of his eye-catching role as a SF precursor, people tend to overlook that Verne was also an excellent adventure writer, in his 19th-century style.

It's worth mentioning again that the science lectures that we got in some of his first novels, the ones that were part of show more the flavor of his writing but could also interrupt the pace of the story, have been absent for a while at this point. Maybe it's because we have had several adventure stories with no speculative elements. The next novel after this one will be a good opportunity to test whether this change in style is permanent, because Off on a Comet is 100% science fiction.

We'll see, but for the moment let's come back to Michael Strogoff's adventures in Siberia. I'm reading this in 2022, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, so perhaps cheering for a Russian hero is bad timing, but I figure that 19th century Russians are not to blame for Putin's crimes.


What is it about?: Tartars invaders led by the Emir of Bokhara, with the encouragement and help of Russian traitor Ivan Ogareff, are overrunning Siberia. The Russian garrisons and cities in their path do not have the strength to stop them. In Moscow, the Czar is marshalling the forces of the vast empire for a counter-attack. However, he must get a message of vital importance to his brother the Arch Duke who is currently in Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, warning him of a plot to assassinate him and betray the city into the invaders' hands. Since telegraph communications are cut, the Czar calls upon his best courier, Captain Michael Strogoff, to secretly get the message pass the Siberian frontier and across thousands of miles filled with natural obstacles and fierce invaders.


After a novel told in first person, we go back to Verne's normal third person narration. This is a 2-volume novel and, even though the start of the story is comparatively sedate, it has a good pace. We'll follow Michael Strogoff as he is entrusted with his mission and travels through the European part of Russia while the country prepares for a war. The real dangers, however, will start once he reaches the Ural Mountains that mark the border with Siberia. Despite the setting, do not expect a snow-filled tale like Captain Hatteras or The Fur Country. This one takes place in the summer.

I think Verne finds a good balance here between the travelogue and the menace of enemy agents. Verne did not know Siberia in person, but for background descriptions he documented himself by reading travellers' accounts and he even sent a copy of the manuscript to the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, for comments about the accuracy. The maps provided with the novel are very useful to follow the characters' progress.

Apart from Michael Strogoff, who is relentless in his fulfilment of his mission, we get some strong female characters, which is not always the case in Verne's novels. Not strong physically, but strong in spirit. We have Nadia, Michael's traveling companion, who is trying to get to Irkutsk to reunite with his exiled father. She looks like a damsel in distress but proves to have an iron will. There's Marfa, Michael's mother, exemplary in her determination not to betray his son's mission. On the villain's side, we have Sangarre, the Bohemian spy working for Ivan Ogareff.

For comic relief, we have the two Western journalists who are also traveling through Siberia, covering the invasion: Harry Blount, the English journalist for the Daily Telegraph, and Alcide Jolivet, French correspondent for his "cousin Madeleine" (the jocular term he uses so as not to reveal the name of the newspaper with which he corresponds). The contrasting personalities of the two journalists, their rivalry (although they'll eventually become friends) and their sometimes wildly divergent perspectives provide the humor.

As I said, there's no speculative element here, but Verne is Verne. He does have one of his usual dramatic twists, and a scientific phenomenon (the Leidenfrost effect) plays a role. As is often the case with Verne's novels, there's a climactic ending.


Enjoyment factor: Very high. Pacing is good, and the suffering and determination of the title character makes for a dramatic adventure.


See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/threads/reading-vernes-voyages-extraordinaires.58...

Merged review:

The 14th novel of the Voyages Extraordinaries is an old favorite from my childhood. This one is also a straightforward adventure story, with no science fiction elements, but a good and dramatic one. I'm not alone in my appreciation: Literary critic Leonard S. Davidow wrote, "Jules Verne has written no better book than this, in fact it is deservedly ranked as one of the most thrilling tales ever written." Perhaps a bit hyperbolic, but it has always seemed to me that, because of his eye-catching role as a SF precursor, people tend to overlook that Verne was also an excellent adventure writer, in his 19th-century style.

It's worth mentioning again that the science lectures that we got in some of his first novels, the ones that were part of the flavor of his writing but could also interrupt the pace of the story, have been absent for a while at this point. Maybe it's because we have had several adventure stories with no speculative elements. The next novel after this one will be a good opportunity to test whether this change in style is permanent, because Off on a Comet is 100% science fiction.

We'll see, but for the moment let's come back to Michael Strogoff's adventures in Siberia. I'm reading this in 2022, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, so perhaps cheering for a Russian hero is bad timing, but I figure that 19th century Russians are not to blame for Putin's crimes.


What is it about?: Tartars invaders led by the Emir of Bokhara, with the encouragement and help of Russian traitor Ivan Ogareff, are overrunning Siberia. The Russian garrisons and cities in their path do not have the strength to stop them. In Moscow, the Czar is marshalling the forces of the vast empire for a counter-attack. However, he must get a message of vital importance to his brother the Arch Duke who is currently in Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, warning him of a plot to assassinate him and betray the city into the invaders' hands. Since telegraph communications are cut, the Czar calls upon his best courier, Captain Michael Strogoff, to secretly get the message pass the Siberian frontier and across thousands of miles filled with natural obstacles and fierce invaders.


After a novel told in first person, we go back to Verne's normal third person narration. This is a 2-volume novel and, even though the start of the story is comparatively sedate, it has a good pace. We'll follow Michael Strogoff as he is entrusted with his mission and travels through the European part of Russia while the country prepares for a war. The real dangers, however, will start once he reaches the Ural Mountains that mark the border with Siberia. Despite the setting, do not expect a snow-filled tale like Captain Hatteras or The Fur Country. This one takes place in the summer.

I think Verne finds a good balance here between the travelogue and the menace of enemy agents. Verne did not know Siberia in person, but for background descriptions he documented himself by reading travellers' accounts and he even sent a copy of the manuscript to the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, for comments about the accuracy. The maps provided with the novel are very useful to follow the characters' progress.

Apart from Michael Strogoff, who is relentless in his fulfilment of his mission, we get some strong female characters, which is not always the case in Verne's novels. Not strong physically, but strong in spirit. We have Nadia, Michael's traveling companion, who is trying to get to Irkutsk to reunite with his exiled father. She looks like a damsel in distress but proves to have an iron will. There's Marfa, Michael's mother, exemplary in her determination not to betray his son's mission. On the villain's side, we have Sangarre, the Bohemian spy working for Ivan Ogareff.

For comic relief, we have the two Western journalists who are also traveling through Siberia, covering the invasion: Harry Blount, the English journalist for the Daily Telegraph, and Alcide Jolivet, French correspondent for his "cousin Madeleine" (the jocular term he uses so as not to reveal the name of the newspaper with which he corresponds). The contrasting personalities of the two journalists, their rivalry (although they'll eventually become friends) and their sometimes wildly divergent perspectives provide the humor.

As I said, there's no speculative element here, but Verne is Verne. He does have one of his usual dramatic twists, and a scientific phenomenon (the Leidenfrost effect) plays a role. As is often the case with Verne's novels, there's a climactic ending.


Enjoyment factor: Very high. Pacing is good, and the suffering and determination of the title character makes for a dramatic adventure.


See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/threads/reading-vernes-voyages-extraordinaires.58... show less

"Y no volverá a ver las cosas de la tierra". Era el versículo del Corán que Miguel Strogoff oyó antes de que la hoja incandescente de un sable al rojo vivo pasara delante de sus ojos. Desde ese momento culminante, el lector, ya irremesiblemente atrapado, acompaña al correo del zar por las estepas siberianas, compartiendo su tesón, sus dudas, tal vez la superstición de aquella liebre de mal agüero que se cruzó en el camino, y acaso su secreto. Novela de aventuras en estado puro, donde el viaje argumental del protagonista se convierte en viaje iniciático del joven, añade la virtud de aliviar la tensión narrativa con las ocurrencias humorísticas de los periodistas Blount y Jolivet.

What I like most about Verne's books is the way in which they may be read simultaneously as pure adventure fiction and as curious historical artifacts. The most famous examples of the second type are his science fictions works for both their astounding clairvoyance and fascinating misjudgments (like cities powered by compressed air), but in Michael Strogoff there is a perfect example of a different sort. Here we see a story whose setting is a giant stereotype. With the benefit of retrospect it's interesting to see Verne glorifying the Czarist state as one worthy of the protagonist's single-minded devotion, rather than as the brutal, regressive autocracy it is now well-known to have been. Verne's version of Imperial Russia is as a show more bulwark against a faceless horde of murderous, half-savage "Tartars". Again, with historical perspective a present-day reader almost can't help but envision this same story flipped to the alternate point of view, with the villains recast as a subjugated indigenous people struggling to regain self-determination from a distant overlord.

Worth a read for its typically compelling Jules Vernian episodes as well as for its portrait of--not simply one man's, but an entire era's--ethnic prejudices. show less

This was an amazing book by Jules Verne. Not only was I taken along for the wild ride across Russia with all of the things it had to offer, but the twist I did not see coming and it managed to propel me towards the climax of the story and imbue the ending with so much grandeur. This is a darker Verne book, yet one that will surely be remembered and that I felt had a very strong plot-line, characters, and descriptions. Overall, a great novel!

4.5 stars!

This is rather a different Jules Verne novel from any others of his I have read, being set entirely within Russia and featuring mostly Russian characters (with the exception of an English and a French journalist who are there merely for comic relief). The title character is a courier for Tsar Alexander II (the Tsar who liberated the serfs in 1861), who must make a desperate journey into a Siberia which has been invaded by the Tartars, aided by a Russian traitor. While the novel starts a bit slowly, the second half is exciting with a number of dramatic and some quite shocking episodes. The ending felt a bit rushed and was as cliched as might be expected. Overall, a good read.

It is the 19th century. Michael Strogoff is a courier for the Czar, and is tasked with bringing a letter to the Czar's brother in Siberia. This is a very long journey, and there is peril, as there have been uprisings along the way. Michael is travelling under a pseudonym.

It was ok. I found sections more interesting that included the women characters in the book: Nadia, who Micheal meets part-way; she is also travelling to Siberia; and his mother, who he is supposed to avoid, so as not to reveal who he really is.

Utazás távoli tájakon, különleges körülmények között, titokzatos társaságban - ennek Verne a mestere! Kaland a jeges Ázsia kellős közepén!