ABSTRACT
Exotic literature is back in vogue. Perhaps it was the age of hippies and gurus which refocused attention on this vast stream in European literature which ran from de Quincey and Beckford at the end of the eighteenth century well into the hey-day of colonial literature. The ambiguity of the story emerges in the relationship between the island and France. The coexistence of conflicting structures is graphically illustrated in the popular adventure stories of Jules Verne. Just as interest in colonial fiction seems to have revived, as part of the reading of the secret mind of the Victorian period, so Verne, for many years cold-shouldered by literary critics, seems to be coming back into regard. Recent study has suggested the close connections between the theme of escape and travel and Verne's personal disillusionment with the political failure of the 1848 revolution. Ferdinand Kurnberger's novel gave a full picture of the abuses which flourished in America.
