Original title La Maison à vapeur Country France Publication date 1880 | Originally published 1880 Genre Adventure fiction | |
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Series The Extraordinary Voyages #20 Similar Jules Verne books, Voyages extraordinaires books, Adventure fiction books | ||
The Steam House (French: La maison à vapeur) is an 1880 Jules Verne novel recounting the travels of a group of British colonists in the Raj in a wheeled house pulled by a steam-powered mechanical elephant. Verne uses the mechanical house as a plot device to have the reader travel in nineteenth century India. The descriptions are interspersed with historical information and social commentary.
The book takes place in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against British rule, with the passions and traumas aroused still very much alive among Indians and British alike. An alternate title by which the book was known - "The End of Nana Sahib" - refers to the appearance in the book of the historical figure—Rebel leader Nana Sahib—who disappeared after the crushing of the rebellion, his ultimate fate unknown. Verne offers a fictional explanation to his disappearance.