The Begum's Fortune

Lore & Background

Two men inherit a vast fortune as descendants of a French soldier who married the immensely rich widow of a native prince, the begum. One heir, French physician Doctor Sarrasin, builds the utopian city Ville-France on the western side of the Cascade Range, prioritizing public health. The other, German scientist Professor Schultze, constructs Stahlstadt on the east side, a militarist industrial complex devoted to producing ever more powerful weapons. Schultze, a racist and dictator, vows to destroy Sarrasin's city.

Most action occurs in Stahlstadt, where an Alsatian named Marcel Bruckmann infiltrates the hierarchy, gains Schultze's confidence, and discovers plans for a super-cannon and freezing gas shells. Schultze intends to use these weapons against Ville-France and then establish German worldwide rule. The super-cannon's projectile misses Ville-France and lands in the Pacific Ocean, rendering the cannon unusable. Schultze is killed when a gas shell he fires at a portrait of Dr. Sarrasin ricochets and bursts in his own room.

After Schultze's death, Stahlstadt collapses, goes bankrupt, and becomes a ghost town. Bruckmann and Dr. Sarrasin's son take over the city, redirecting its arms production to defend Ville-France. Schultze remains forever in his self-made tomb, on display as he had planned for his foes.

Reader's Guide

The Begum's Fortune is significant as an early premonition of the rise of Nazi Germany, with its main villain described by critics as 'a proto-Hitler'. It reflects the mindset prevailing in France after its defeat in the Franco-German War of 1870–1871, displaying a bitter anti-German bias absent from Verne's pre-1871 works. Reviewer Walter A. McDougall noted that after the Franco-Prussian War, Verne began to invent mad scientists and evil geniuses. The book repeatedly ridicules Schultze's racist ideas, though reviewer Paul Kincaid observed that this ridiculing can itself be seen as part of an ethnic stereotyping in the opposite direction. Researcher George Klein linked the novel's theme of French patriotism facing futuristic super-weapons to Verne's later work Facing the Flag. The novel also acknowledges the liberal subscriptions made by San Francisco citizens to a relief fund for French soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War, which led to a French government donation of art to the San Francisco Art Association.

Did You Know?

• The novel was published in 1879, after the Franco-German War of 1870–1871.
• The villain Professor Schultze is described by critics as 'a proto-Hitler'.
• Schultze's gas was designed to both suffocate and freeze its victims.
• A 1979 film adaptation, Tajemství Ocelového města, was made in Czechoslovakia.