The Green Ray (French: Le Rayon vert) is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne published in 1882 and named after the optical phenomenon of the same name. It is referenced in a 1986 film of the same name by Eric Rohmer.
Contents
Plot summary
Brothers Samuel and Sebastian Melville want to marry their niece Helena Campbell off to the hilariously awful scientist Aristobulus Ursicles. Verne has fabricated the ancient Scottish legend of the Green Ray, a flash of green light that sometimes appears just as the sun is passing the horizon at sea when the sky is clear, and the viewer is enabled to see closely into his own heart and read the hearts of others. After reading a newspaper article about it, Helena refuses to marry until she sees this optical phenomenon. They all with their servants then travel to the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides. There they meet the artist Oliver Sinclair, with whom Helena falls in love. Many opportunities to see the Green Ray are thwarted at the last moment, usually inappropriately by Aristobulus. Eventually the Green Ray is seen by the brothers and servants. Helena and Oliver miss the phenomenon when they look into each other's eyes.
Main characters
Miss Helena Campbell - principal character, beautiful eighteen years old girl with blue eyes and fair hair
Elizabeth, aka Dame Bess - Melvill's housekeeper
Master MacFyne - proprietor of the hotel Caledonian in Oban
Samuel Melvill, aka uncle Sam
Sébastian Melvill, aka uncle Sib
Baillie Patrick Oldimer - Olivier's uncle
John Olduck - skipper of the yawl Clorinda
Partridge - servant
Olivier Sinclair - educated twenty years old artist
Aristobulus Ursiclos - scientist graduate of the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh
Publication history in English
1883, New York: Munro, translated by James Cotterell as The Green Ray
1883, London: Sampson Low, translated by Mary de Hautville as The Green Ray
1965, London: Arco/Westport, CT: Associated Booksellers, Fitzroy Edition, abridged and edited by I. O. Evans as Green Ray & The Blockade Runners
2003, Holicong, PA: Wildside Press as The Green Ray
2009, Edinburgh: Luath Press, ISBN 978-1-905222-12-4, translated by Karen Loukes as The Green Ray