Meridiana: The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians In South Africa

"Meridiana: The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians" by Jules Verne is a novel written in the late 19th century. The story revolves around a scientific expedition led by an English astronomer, William Emery, along with a bushman named Mokoum, as they await the arrival of other members of an international commission on the banks of the Orange River in South Africa. Together, they embark on a journey filled with exploration, adventure, and the challenges of gathering precise measurements of the Earth's meridian. At the start of the story, William Emery and Mokoum are introduced as they wait at the Falls of Morgheda for the arrival of Colonel Everest and his companions from England. The opening chapters depict the stark beauty of the African landscape, the dynamic relationship between the eager bushman and the patient astronomer, and the suspense surrounding the delayed arrival of their fellow scientists. As the narrative unfolds, we see their preparations for the challenges ahead, including the logistics of their expedition and the significance of measuring the arc of the meridian, setting the stage for an adventure that melds science with thrilling exploration in an uncharted land. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well-researched according to the scientific knowledge then available, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.