Robur the Conqueror

By: Jules Verne

Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld

Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

Robur the Conqueror is a science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story begins with strange lights and sounds, including blaring trumpet music, reported in the skies all over the world. The events are capped by the mysterious appearance of black flags with gold suns atop tall historic landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. These events are all the work of the mysterious Robur (Latin for "oak"), a brilliant inventor who intrudes on a meeting of a flight-enthusiast's club called the Weldon Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Public Domain (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Entertaining yarn of flight, predicting airplanes

1886 short novel taking us 20,000 leagues into the air. Who is Robur? Will his arrogant but inept antagonists destroy him? Find out!

Not enough literary merit to live with the racism

I loved Around the World in 80 Days, I enjoyed 20,000 Leagues, I enjoyed A Mysterious Island and Journey to the Center of the Earth, so I figured I’d enjoy this one. It started out OK - the description of the meeting in Philadelphia was fun, and the scientific debate. But quickly it became clear that Verne tried to reuse the idea of people being held captive on a vessel, like in 20,000 Leagues, except Robur was not as interesting a character as Nemo, and most of the book just ends up a travelogue (and needless to say, not accurate) with sparse plot. But the racism in this book is absolutely shameful. It seems that Frycollin serves no literary purpose other than to have someone to depict according to the most racist stereotype that, I would imagine, must have seemed like a “humorous” device to Verne and perhaps his readers. A lot of literature from that period shows bigotry (and misogyny), but if the book has literary merit, then we say that people at that time were like that, we know better now, we can criticize the bad and appreciate the good. But there just isn’t enough redeeming literary value here. Skip this one. I don’t think they ever should have bothered making an audiobook of this book. Some books should fade away, even if the author wrote some good ones.

Wherein We Meet Robur The Conquror

This is the first volume of the two featuring this character. I believe it to be the stronger volume with a better story. As I mentioned in my review of the other volume Master Of The World, if you have seen the Vincent Price movie, you have seen a melding of these two stories. Most of that was from this volume. The protagonists are weirdly vindictive in their beliefs and resort to kidnapping and attempted murder to make a point regarding the future of manned flight. If you can get past that, it is a decent adventure story, heavy on technical details that Verne excelled in fitting into all of his writings. Not bad and worth your time.

Note: The story is very much -Of It's Time- and thusly contains a lot of none too flattering representations of a black character throughout. Be aware if you are sensitive to such issues.

Great story

Nice and well told
An nice adventure of robur similar to captain nemo adventurers with the nautilus
Bud then in the air
It might be Jules Verne prehistory to is final work

Interesting

What did you like best about Robur the Conqueror? What did you like least?

It is classic Verne, though a little lacking in plot.

What was most disappointing about Jules Verne’s story?

Most of the middle is more of a global travelogue than story.

Do you think Robur the Conqueror needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

There was one. Check it out...

Any additional comments?

Not one to compare with Around the World in 80 Days, or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, this story is still rather interesting. Though the villain is a bit silly.