Michel Strogoff

By Victor Hugo

Michael Strogoff a novel written by Jules Verne in 1876. Critics, including Leonard S. Davidow, considered it to be one of Verne's best books. 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." Unlike some of Verne's other famous novels, it is not science fiction, but a scientific phenomenon.

Michael Strogoff, a 30-year-old native of Omsk, is a courier for Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The Tartar Khan, Feofar Khan, incites a rebellion and separates the Russian Far East from the mainland, severing telegraph lines. Rebels encircle Irkutsk, where the local governor, a brother of the Tsar, is making a last stand. Strogoff is sent to Irkutsk to warn the governor about the traitor Ivan Ogareff, a former colonel, who was once demoted and exiled and now seeks revenge against the imperial family. He intends to destroy Irkutsk by setting fire to the huge oil storage tanks on the banks of the Angara River.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473372610

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a French poet and novelist. Born in Besançon, Hugo was the son of a general who served in the Napoleonic army. Raised on the move, Hugo was taken with his family from one outpost to the next, eventually setting with his mother in Paris in 1803. In 1823, he published his first novel, launching a career that would earn him a reputation as a leading figure of French Romanticism. His Gothic novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) was a bestseller throughout Europe, inspiring the French government to restore the legendary cathedral to its former glory. During the reign of King Louis-Philippe, Hugo was elected to the National Assembly of the French Second Republic, where he spoke out against the death penalty and poverty while calling for public education and universal suffrage. Exiled during the rise of Napoleon III, Hugo lived in Guernsey from 1855 to 1870. During this time, he published his literary masterpiece Les Misérables (1862), a historical novel which has been adapted countless times for theater, film, and television. Towards the end of his life, he advocated for republicanism around Europe and across the globe, cementing his reputation as a defender of the people and earning a place at Paris’ Panthéon, where his remains were interred following his death from pneumonia. His final words, written on a note only days before his death, capture the depth of his belief in humanity: “To love is to act.”

Reviews for Michel Strogoff

[cglanovsky · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 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.

[danielstj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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!

[lulu89-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great adventure of Michel Strogoff travelling across Russia is not only a story of courage and sense of duty, it is also an interesting picture of three amazing cultures- russian, english and french and their stereotypes.