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Something very strange is in the air of the harmonious town of Quiquendone. Unknown to its inhabitants, the mad genius Dr. Ox has unleashed a veil of oxyhydric gas over the town—his own living laboratory—in an attempt to spice things up. In his amusing portrait of an idyllic community suddenly overtaken by an appetite for aggression, Jules Verne points to the ease with which any society—and the modern resonance is unmissable—can be manipulated by its masters into hatred and war. Jules Verne was the originator of modern science fiction; among his works are Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Verne's 1874 novella finds the title character using the residents of a small town as unwitting subjects in an experiment to fuel aggression by use of an airborne gas. The story is a commentary on how easily the public can be manipulated into clamoring for war. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.