Jules Vern's book “Claudius Bombarnac” was published in the French language in 1893. It was then translated into English:
 
October 1894, UK, London: Sampson Low. 279 pp., First UK edition
1894, US, New York: Lovell, Coryell and Co., 279 pp., First United States edition, (called: “The Special Correspondent”, or “The Adventures of Claudius Bombarnac”
 
The book is an adventure novel with its main character "Claudius Bombarnac", a reporter assigned to cover the travels of the Grand Transasiatic Railway.
 
The book on sale via the Fine Art Hut is the First Uk Edition. In 1894 the book was priced for sale at 6s (6 shillings). The front cover shows Bombarnac standing on a train car with two other passengers, as one of them fires his rifle at a panther about to leap on the train. Scarce book.
 
Claudius Bombarnac is a lesser-known but highly engaging late-period novel by Jules Verne, combining adventure, journalism, satire, and global travel. The story follows Claudius Bombarnac, a Parisian journalist assigned by his newspaper to travel aboard the newly completed Grand Transasiatic Railway, a vast rail line stretching from Europe deep into Asia. His mission: report sensational stories to captivate readers back home. However, Bombarnac quickly becomes frustrated. The journey begins too peacefully — no disasters, no crimes, no dramatic events worthy of headlines. As a reporter driven by ambition and the need for spectacle, he longs for something extraordinary to occur.
 
Verne cleverly uses this premise to satirise sensationalist journalism. Bombarnac’s internal conflict — wishing for calamity to justify his reporting — highlights the tension between truth, entertainment, and media ethics.
 
Eventually, danger does arrive in dramatic fashion. The train is attacked by bandits, and there are thrilling sequences involving gunfire, wildlife encounters (including the famous panther scene depicted on the cover), and frontier peril. Bombarnac finally gets his story — but not without confronting his own values and personal growth.
 
This title is scarcer than Verne’s major works such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea or Around the World in Eighty Days. First UK editions from Sampson Low in original cloth are increasingly difficult to source in solid condition.