A Drama in Mexico

"A Drama in Mexico"
Short story by Jules Verne
Illustration by Jules Férat, 1876
Original title	Un drame au Mexique
Translator	W. H. G. Kingston (1876)
Country	France
Language	French
Genre(s)	historical short story
Publication
Published in	Musée des familles
Publication type	Periodical
Publication date	1851
Published in English	1876

"A Drama in Mexico" (French: Un drame au Mexique) is a historical short story by Jules Verne, first published in July 1851 under the title "L'Amérique du Nord, études historiques: Les Premiers Navires de la marine mexicaine."

In a letter to his father Verne wrote that it "is but a simple adventure-story in the style of [James Fenimore] Cooper which I am locating in Mexico."^[1]

Plot outline

In 1825, off the islands of Guam on a passage from Spain, Lieutenant Martinez, and his associates plot a mutiny on board of two Spanish warships. Conspirators murder Captain Don Orteva, take command of the ships, and plan to sell them to the republican government in Mexico. On arrival in Acapulco, Lieutenant Martinez and Jose embark on a cross-country trip to Mexico City to effect the sale. Martinez becomes increasingly fearful that he is being pursued by Ortega's loyal followers, and during a stormy night in the mountains murders Jose in a moment of madness and is then toppled to his death in a mountain torrent by the men he feared.

Publication history

The story was originally published in French in July 1851 as "L'Amérique du Nord, études historiques: Les Premiers Navires de la marine mexicaine" in Musée des familles^[2] with three illustrations by Eugène Forest and Alexandre de Bar. A renamed and revised version, "Un drame au Mexique," with six illustrations by Jules Férat, was published in 1876 together with the novel Michel Strogoff as a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series. The first English translation by W. H. G. Kingston was published in London in 1876.

English publication

as "The Mutineers: A Romance of Mexico" (translated by W. H. G. Kingston) in

• 1876 - Michael Strogoff, the Courier of the Czar; and The Mutineers: A Romance of Mexico, London: Sampson Low
• 1877 - New York: Scribners (translation "revised" by Julius Chambers)

as "The Mutineers, or A Tragedy of Mexico" in

• 1911 - Works of Jules Verne, Vol. 1, New York: Vincent Parke, ed. Charles F. Horne

as "A Drama in Mexico" in

• 1964 - Dr. Ox, and Other Stories, London: Arco/Westport, CT: Associated Booksellers: Fitzroy Edition, ed. I. O. Evans

as "The First Ships of the Mexican Navy" in

• 1999 - The Eternal Adam, and Other Stories, London: Phoenix, trans. I. O. Evans, ed. Peter Costello

References

1. Letter from Jules Verne to his father, dated March, 1851. Reprinted in "Jules Verne: 63 Letters," Bulletin de la Société Jules Verne 11-13 (1938): 64.
2. Costello, Peter (1999). The Eternal Adam and Other Stories. London: Phoenix Paperbacks. p. 245. ISBN 9780753808702.

External links

• Illustrations Archived 2015-05-30 at the Wayback Machine by Jules Férat (1876)
• Un drame au Mexique (1876) Archived 2006-09-06 at the Wayback Machine available at Jules Verne Collection Archived 2005-04-15 at the Wayback Machine (in French)