An Ideal City

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"An Ideal City" (French Une ville idéale) is an 1875 short story by Jules Verne. It was first delivered as a public lecture in 1875. The story describes a dream vision of Amiens in the year 2000. Some elements described the completion of projects that were already planned in 1875, while others were highly speculative.

Synopsis

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Verne describes dreaming about Amiens in the year 2000, in which it has become the titular ideal city.[1] Some of his envisioned changes include reforms that the city had already planned, and which Verne himself oversaw when he later became a municipal councilor.[2] The streets have been re-paved, electric lights have replaced gas, and new omnibus and tram lines have improved the city's transportation.[3] A new technology allows music recitals to be heard all over the world after being transmitted from the wires connected to an artist's piano.[3] Schools no longer teach Latin or Greek, focusing on technical education.[3] Other changes include a bachelor tax which has led to a high marriage rate, and a new health system in which doctors are only paid while their patients are healthy.[3]

Publication history

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Verne moved to Amiens in 1871.[1] He first presented the story as a public lecture hosted by the Amiens Academy of Science, Literature, and the Arts, of which he was the Director.[2] The lecture was delivered December 12, 1875, and published the next day by the Journal d'Amiens, Moniteur de la Somme.[4] It was also published the next year in Sur terre et sur mer, journal illustré de voyages et d'aventures, the antecedent to the longer-lived Journal des voyages et des aventures de terre et de mer [fr].[3]

There have been two modern editions.[5][2] In 1973, the Office Culturel D'Amiens published a limited edition of 2000 copies.[5] The book also included the short story "Vingt-Quatre Minutes en ballon [fr]" and was annotated by Daniel Compere.[5] In 1999, the Centre de documentation Jules Verne published a commemorative edition illustrated by young designers local to Amiens.[2]

Analysis

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The literary scholar Nadia Minerva describes "An Ideal City" as "a recit d'anticipation [...] where the two traditional aspects of utopia -- the questioning of what exists and the project -- are very present, but in unequal measure and in the form of a joke." (French: un recit d'anticipation [...] où les deux volets traditionnels de l'utopie -- la mise en cause de l'existant et le projet -- son bien présent, mais en mesure inégale et sous forme de boutade.)[6]

Daniel Compère, the founder of the Centre de documentation Jules Verne, says: "This text is not science fiction, nor an anticipation, nor even a true utopia. More than a vision of the future, it is a criticism of the city as it exists in 1875." (French: Ce texte n’est pas de la science-fiction, ni une anticipation, ni même une véritable utopie. Bien plus qu’une vision de l’avenir, c’est une critique de la ville telle qu’elle existe en 1875.)[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b "La ville idéale selon Jules Verne". Amiens Tourisme. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Une Ville idéale". Centre international Jules Verne (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-19.
  3. ^ a b c d e Verne, Jules (1876). "Une ville idéale". Journal des voyages et des aventures de terre et de mer: 218–220.
  4. ^ “Une ville idéale. Lecture faite dans la seance publique annuelle du 12 decembre 1875, par M. Jules Verne, Directeur de l’Academie d’Amiens”, Journal d’Amiens, Moniteur de la Somme, 13-14 December 1875, pp. 1-2
  5. ^ a b c Verne, Jules (1973) [1875]. Une ville idéale (Amiens en l'an 2000) suivi de Vingt-Quatre Minutes en ballon. Office Culturel D'Amiens.
  6. ^ Minerva, Nadia (2001). Jules Verne aux confins de l'utopie (in French). L'Harmattan.