Jules Verne had some trouble getting published in the first part of his writing career, before his talent was “discovered” by editor and publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. What was their relationship like, and how did Hetzel influence Verne’s writings?
In the beginning, Verne (who had been rejected by the other publishers he had gone to) was very receptive to Hetzel’s dictation, which proved instrumental and important in his work. Hetzel was a very involved and hands-on editor. He guided Verne’s work and career and even served as a censor – Hetzel adhered Verne’s writing to the Magasins, which were conservative moral standards that targeted a certain Christian-influenced clientele. The many examples of this kind of intervention Hetzel was responsible for include replacing risque paintings with more “acceptable” ones and changing sentences that portrayed Christians in an unfavorable light. A highly significant, important and shocking intervention of Hetzel’s was the uncharacteristic repentance and sin confession of the proud Captain Nemo at the end of his life in The Mysterious Island. Hetzel even changed Captain Nemo’s last words to “God and Country” from Verne’s “Freedom”.
At first, Hetzel’s editorial instructions were blindly followed, but as Verne grew in fame and success he became more independent of his editor and told him as much, as can be seen from these individuals’ extensive private correspondences by mail. Hetzel’s relentless editorial intrusions got on Verne’s nerves and strained their previously easy relationship. While Hetzel’s influence was significant in Verne’s earlier works and especially the Voyages Extraordinaires, he was not as present later on in Verne’s career. While Verne did not always have the best relationship with his close collaborator Hetzel, who some see as severely compromising Verne’s creativity, he did depend on this heavy-handed interventionist, without whom Verne might never had “made” it.
In the second half of Verne's life, his writing style became increasingly experimental and pessimistic. Hetzel rejected Paris in the Twentieth Century, a work which was a significant departure than the idyllic predictability of the Voyages Extraordinaires.
