Jules Verne

The Green Ray Jules Verne

Most of the marvels or impossibilities in here are to be found in the picture there presented to us of Scottish names, manners and costumes. It will hardly be denied that such a Scotch family name as Ursiclos, and such clans as the clan McDouglas and the clan Melville, are sufficiently impossible; nor can it be counted as anything less than a marvel for a lowland gentleman's butler to wait at dinner and perform all his other duties clad in the 'garb of old Gaul!' But these and innumerable errors of the same kind are all due, apparently, to a fixed idea on the part of M. Verne that all Scotchmen are Highlanders. The story is a perfect setting for the admirable descriptions of Scotch scenery which are the best feature in the book.