Master of the World (novel)

Master of the World (originally *Maître du monde*) came out in 1904 and ranks among the final works of French science fiction pioneer Jules Verne. Written while Verne’s health was declining, the novel belongs to his “black novel” phase, carrying a sense of dread and anxiety about the rise of tyrants and totalitarianism, embodied by its antagonist, Robur. The story picks up after Verne’s earlier 1886 book *Robur the Conqueror*.

The novel incorporates several scientific concepts that were current when Verne wrote but are now known to be incorrect—for instance, the idea that high-speed travel reduces a vehicle’s weight.

**Plot outline** The action takes place in the summer of 1903. Across the eastern United States, strange events occur, caused by objects moving so fast they are nearly invisible. The narrator, John Strock, a head inspector with the federal police in Washington, D.C., heads to North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains to investigate. There he learns that all the phenomena are the work of Robur, a brilliant inventor previously encountered in *Robur the Conqueror*.

Robur has built a new machine he calls the Terror: a ten-meter-long vehicle that can function as a speedboat, submarine, automobile, or aircraft. It reaches an astonishing 150 miles per hour on land and over 200 miles per hour in the air. Strock attempts to capture the Terror but is instead taken prisoner. Robur pilots the craft to evade his pursuers, heading toward the Caribbean and into a thunderstorm. Lightning strikes the Terror, breaking it apart and sending it into the ocean. Strock is rescued from the wreckage, but Robur’s body is never recovered, leaving his fate uncertain.

**Allusions and references** The story is set in the summer of 1903, with characters mentioning the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique. Verne took some liberties with American geography: the novel is set in Morganton, North Carolina, and refers to a flat-topped mountain called the Great Eyrie, which suggests Mount Airy (located elsewhere in the state) and resembles Table Rock. Another scene takes place at a large, deep natural lake in Kansas, though no such lake exists.

**Adaptations** A 1961 film adaptation, *Master of the World*, starred Vincent Price and Charles Bronson. Screenwriter Richard Matheson blended elements from both this book and its predecessor, adding his own material.