Verne's use of real life Urban models - Milliard and Birkenhead.

[John Lamb]

Dear all, 

In reading Begum's Millions in trying to answer Quentin's request I found no real link between the town of Birkenhead and France-ville. Therefore France-ville became a 'control town'  to contrast the many specific links between Birkenhead and Milliard in Verne's 1895 novel The Floating Island. 

I list them below for comparison and attach my detailed analysis of the many specific links between Birkenhead and Milliard in Verne's Floating Island (1895). This is not coincidence and to those who say it is, I would point to Verne satirizing almost word for word Nathanial Hawthorne's disparaging description of Birkenhead Park from his own diaries published in 1870. 

The attached article deals with Birkenhead and The Floating Island in detail and explains the rationale about why Verne chose Birkenhead as his model for Milliard. 

Best wishes John Lamb

 

Franceville compared with Birkenhead as a model

1.      Grid iron pattern of streets (not uncommon in the 1860’s)

2.      Comparison with Damascus Syria

 

Milliard Compared to Birkenhead as a model.

1.     Grid iron pattern of streets

2.       A ferry connected to a pier head quay connecting a tram to a great park.

3.      A park gate fronted by a hotel.

4.      Park gate giving access a wide road

5.      A Serpentine river in the great park

6.      A ‘croc pond’ in the great park.

7.      The park described in detail by Verne as a witty retort to Nathanial Hawthorne’s disparaging description of Birkenhead Park.

8.      An English square with a town hall

9.      The Third Avenue in the grid iron is the entertainment avenue.

10.  A St Mary’s Church with slender pinnacles.

11.   St Mary’s Church has a public observation tower.

12.  A population divided into Protestant and Catholic

13.  Catholic Protestant riots

14.    A One O’clock Gun fired using a remote wire from an observatory

15.     An octagonal tower with a giant flag next to an observatory.

16.     An illustration of the tower next to the observatory matching Bidston Lighthouse, Birkenhead.

17.  A Vanderbiltian town linking the Vanderbilt connection to Birkenhead.

18.  An illustration of Fort Perch Rock and Lighthouse (mentioned by Verne in his 1859 travel notes and 1870 novel A Floating City).  

19.   An illustration of Birkenhead Woodside Station.

20.    Illustration of the Birkenhead Catholic Protestant riots copied from the Paris Gazette of 1850.