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In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Verne developed a submarine which was not only double-hulled and propelled by electricity but was able to manufacture electricity from the sea. Simon Lake, father of the modern submarine, credits Verne with giving him virtually a blueprint for his invention.
在《海底兩萬里》中，凡爾納描述了一種潛水艇，它不僅是雙層外殼、由電推動，而且還能用海水發(fā)電。現代潛水艇之父西蒙·萊克認為凡爾納給他的發(fā)明提供了藍本。
Reading through Verne's books, one finds it hard to believe that they were written almost 100 years ago. The people of his fancy made diamonds synthetically, developed a convertible automobile-ship-helicopter-plane, and fired glass bullets containing an electric spark instantly fatal.
讀凡爾納的書，簡直不能相信它們幾乎是寫于100年前。他那些幻想故事里的人用合成法造鉆石，發(fā)明了一種在汽車、輪船和直升機之間自由轉換的交通工具，他們發(fā)射的玻璃子彈中含有立即致命的電火花。
The last years of Jules Verne were not happy ones. Intellectual circles sneered at him. He was not elected a member of the French Academy. Gossips said that there was no such man as Jules Verne. The Russians claimed him as a Slav, a Pole and former espionage agent who had taken to letters. Italian intellectuals said Jules Verne was the pen name of a group of French scientists and delegated a novelist to go to France to find the proof. The man examined the manuscripts and departed wholly convinced. To his colleagues he wired: "There is no Jules Verne and Company—there is only Jules."
儒勒·凡爾納的晚年過得并不幸福。學術界對他冷嘲熱諷。他沒能當選為法蘭西文學院院士。謠傳說沒有儒勒·凡爾納這個人。俄國人宣稱他是斯拉夫人、波蘭人，是以寫作為掩護的老牌間諜。意大利的知識分子們說儒勒·凡爾納是一伙法國科學家的筆名，且派了一個小說家去法國尋找證據。那個人檢查了手稿，離開的時候心悅誠服。他打電報告訴他的同事：“沒有什么儒勒·凡爾納團體——只有儒勒。”
Jules Verne died in 1905. The world attended his funeral, including all who had sneered and gossiped, the thirty members of the French Academy, the diplomatic corps, and special representatives of kings and presidents.
儒勒·凡爾納死于1905年。社會各界的人們都參加了他的葬禮，包括所有原來鄙視他和散布謠言詆毀他的人、法國文學院的30名成員、外交人員、國王和總統們的特使。
Of all the thousands of words of praise uttered at his death, Jules Verne would have liked best these two sentences from a Paris newspaper: "The old story teller is dead. It is like the passing of Santa Claus."
人們在他的葬禮上所說的那些溢美之詞中，儒勒·凡爾納也許最喜愛巴黎一家報紙上刊載的兩句話：“一位故事大師離開了我們，就像圣誕老人一樣地離去了。”
