Two in one...
Jules Verne was such a prolific writer...he is one of the few that can pull off two unrelated stories contained in one book. Michael Strogoff is not my favorite...but A Drama In Mexico, well, it's so unusual and so unlike Verne, you just have to love the randomness of the story. Jules Verne never visited Mexico, yet he wrote about one it's most obscure historical topics ever...the Mexican Navy. Who knew Mexico even had a navy? They did, and Verne was able to draw from this obscure little topic, creating an early work of historical fiction. In 1851 Jules published this story of intrigue around the period of Mexican Independence in the early 1820's. It's not a book, simply a story originally published in the magazine Musée des Familles under The First Ships of the Mexican Navy. Later, it was published as an extra in Verne's book Michael Strogoff under the title A Drama In Mexico...in French of course. Given Verne's popularity in the English speaking world as well, the story once again changed it's title with the language translation to The Mutineers: A Romance of Mexico. Same story, with all the intrigue, now packaged with another story of the same genre, double the intrigue and spycraft in one neat package, half a World away...in Russia.
Michael Strogoff...Along with The Mutineers, First English Edition, 1877
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