A Lottery Ticket

Name: A Lottery Ticket
ISBN: 9787543082717

Jules VerneWuhan Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

3.6

Word count: 92K words
Chapters: 23
ISBN: 9787543082717

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Summary

In the small Norwegian town of Dal, the Hansen family anxiously awaits the return of Ole, who has gone to fish off Newfoundland to raise the money for his marriage to Ilna, promising to come back after a year. But the year passes and Ole does not return; in his last letter he mentioned a secret but never revealed it. When Ilna and her brother rescue a guest named Hogg from the rapids, Hogg repays their kindness by inquiring after Ole — only to bring grim news, followed by a letter from the Admiralty containing a lottery ticket on which Ole has written his farewell to Ilna. The ticket's extraordinary story spreads and its value soars; a usurer, wielding an old debt, shamefully seizes it, yet in his hands it becomes worthless, and Hogg later buys it. At the prize drawing, the ticket unexpectedly wins 100,000 marks — and the one who claims the prize is Ole himself. In this wholly unexpected ending, Ole and Ilna are married. The novel passionately praises the noble sentiments of ordinary Norwegian people — loyalty in love and in friendship — while lashing out at the greed and deceit of the usurer.

Editor's review

A Lottery Ticket is a relatively little-discussed but socially insightful work by the French science fiction master Jules Verne. First published in 1886, it is not a typical grand adventure in the style of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea but focuses on a seemingly minor social event—the chain reaction set off by one winning lottery ticket. With his usual meticulous touch, Verne depicts life in a fishing community in the Bergen region of nineteenth-century Norway and, through the modern financial tool of the lottery, keenly dissects human greed, hope, calculation, and moral dilemma in the face of great wealth.

As an editor, I believe the value of this novel lies in its "small but deep" narrative structure. It has no aliens or journeys to the center of the Earth, yet it completes a brilliant experiment in human nature. The story revolves around the fisherman Silver Cock and his companions, whose jointly purchased lottery ticket unexpectedly wins first prize, but ownership of the ticket is blurred by an accident. The peaceful community relations, firm friendships, and even family bonds are severely tested. Verne here shows the keenness of a social observer; his portrayal of psychology is subtle, and his depiction of how money alienates human relations remains relevant today.

Reading this book not only reveals another side of Verne's literary talent beyond science fiction but also prompts lasting thought about wealth, luck, and happiness. It is a profound social allegory in the guise of a novel, long underestimated in literary value and intellectual depth, and deserving of rediscovery by contemporary readers.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Jules Verne's non-science-fiction works
Deep readers who like novels that explore human nature and social issues
Readers who appreciate classical realist narrative style and subtle psychological description
Those with research interest in nineteenth-century European society and cultural detail

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking the grand science-fiction adventures and spectacles of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Readers of modern genre fiction expecting fast pace and strong plot conflict

Reading tips

Read it as a social-psychological novel rather than an adventure novel, and pay attention to subtle changes in relationships
Understand characters' motives in light of nineteenth-century Nordic social and economic conditions
As you read, ask yourself: if I were a character in the story, what choice would I make?

About the publisher

Wuhan Publishing House China · Founded in 1986

Wuhan Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher known for works in history, the humanities, and popular science. Judging from its titles in our catalog, its publishing spans history, biography, foreign literature, applied psychology, and popular science, while also covering practical exam-preparation books. Representative titles include Lü Simian's China: A Macro History, the two volumes of the Xinbian Guowen Duben ( Jiazhong Ben) edited by Ye Shengtao and others, and foreign classics of thought and literature such as Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human, Freud's Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, and Rousseau's The Social Contract (bilingual edition); in popular science, there is Yakov Perelman's Physics for Entertainment. Its authors include both Chinese and foreign figures such as Lü Simian, Ye Shengtao, Jung, Osamu Dazai, Freud, and Rousseau. Overall, the press emphasizes a combination of classic texts and general reading, balancing scholarship with readability. Public information is limited; the above is based only on the titles in our catalog.

版权信息
译者前言
主要人物介绍
第一章一封让人充满希望的信
第二章与众不同的客店
第三章一家三口
第四章对情人的思念
第五章为婚礼做准备
第六章陌生客人的来访
第七章兄妹的担忧
第八章救了一个可爱的客人
第九章被救的游客
第十章大家成为朋友
第十一章寻找奥勒之旅
第十二章被赋予神奇色彩的彩票
第十三章进一步搜寻遇难船只的残骸
第十四章彩票被迫转给卑鄙之徒
第十五章关于彩票的谈话
第十六章走在开奖的路上
第十七章彩票开奖前
第十八章挑选漂亮的礼物
第十九章开奖现场出现失踪的青年
第二十章有情人终成眷属

FAQ

Is this book science fiction?

Strictly speaking, it is not a typical Verne science fiction novel. It involves no future technology or geographical exploration; the core plot revolves around the human drama triggered by a lottery ticket. It leans more toward social realism and psychological analysis, showing another important side of Verne's literary creation.

What is the main conflict in the story?

The main conflict is not external adventure but inner moral and interpersonal conflict. When a huge winning lottery ticket with disputed ownership appears, friendship, honesty, greed, and community values collide violently, driving the whole story.

What is the literary value of this book?

This is a work of considerable depth in Verne's oeuvre. It abandons his signature spectacle narrative and instead dissects human nature in a specific social situation with a cool, subtle touch. It has a strong realist character and the nature of a moral allegory, and occupies a unique and important place in Verne's body of work.

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About the author

Jules Verne Author · France · 1828–1905

Jules Verne (1828–1905) was a French novelist and playwright, regarded as one of the founders of modern science fiction. A prolific writer, he is represented on this site by 153 works spanning fine fiction, world classics, foreign literature, science fiction, and inspirational coming-of-age reading. His best-known books include Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Mysterious Island, and Journey to the Center of the Earth; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is especially widely read and appears here in an English original edition, an illustrated collector's edition, and several curriculum-oriented versions. Verne excelled at fusing scientific imagination with adventure narrative, grounding his voyages across the oceans, through the skies, and into the earth's core in solid scientific knowledge, with tightly plotted stories full of intellectual appeal. This style has deeply influenced later science fiction and has made him one of the most widely read classic authors in the world.