6 h 23 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 23 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a rejected inventor puts a devastating weapon within reach of pirates?
Thomas Roch believes his fulgurator will change warfare. Its explosive power promises more destruction than any weapon governments possess. But rejection leaves the gifted French inventor bitter. In Jules Verne’s Facing the Flag, wounded pride threatens to turn scientific genius into a danger far beyond Roch himself.
Roch’s attendant, known as Gaydon, hides a purpose of his own. He is Simon Hart, a French engineer determined to protect the invention’s secret. When a wealthy visitor takes an interest in Roch, the danger draws Hart toward Back Cup, a concealed island base where pirates seek the weapon and observation becomes his chief resource.
What you’ll discover
- Genius with a dangerous edge Follow Roch as bitterness leaves his extraordinary invention open to criminal use.
- An attendant with a secret Watch Simon Hart balance his hidden purpose with the need to protect Roch’s knowledge.
- A concealed island prison Enter Back Cup, where a pirate base leaves Hart searching for ways to warn outsiders.
- Science in ruthless hands Explore how the fulgurator makes discovery a source of both promise and danger.
- Choices under mounting pressure Face the moral stakes when an inventor’s pride meets pirates eager for destructive power.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like adventure with inventions, hidden lairs and submarines, a secret diary, and a duel of wits between an engineer and a smiling pirate.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A broken genius guards a weapon in Pavilion Seventeen
- The visitor studies the wall and the night raid follows
- The schooner passes a full search with nothing found
- Simon Hart writes his notes from darkness and sea
- A smoking mountain conceals a hollow lair
- The Count is the pirate Ker Karraje
- Roch recovers, and the pirates buy his secret
- A small keg carries a message to the world
- Genius, grievance and the price of vengeance
- Voices, logs and signs shape the telling
Who’s who
- Thomas RochA French inventor, half mad and wholly brilliant, who holds the secret of the fulgurator and wants his millions and his revenge.
- Simon HartA French engineer who poses as the keeper Gaydon, keeps the secret diary, and wants to protect Roch's invention for France.
- Count d'Artigas, alias Ker KarrajeA haughty, silent yachtsman who is really a Pacific pirate, and who wants Roch's weapon to keep himself beyond the law.
- Engineer SerkoThe pirate's ironic, learned lieutenant, who designed the submarine tug and tries to win over or use Hart and Roch.
- Captain SpadeThe blunt commander of the Ebba, who plans the kidnapping and obeys the chief without question.
- Lieutenant DavonA calm British naval officer who dares to enter the cavern by submarine and rescue Hart and Roch.
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Ante la bandera
by Julio Verne · 1896
A gentleman yachtsman, a mad inventor and a hollow island hide a weapon that could rule the seas.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEspañol
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In short
What would you do if the most dangerous weapon in the world were locked inside the head of a man whose mind has failed? That is the problem at Healthful House, a sanitarium in North Carolina, where a French inventor named Thomas Roch builds sand fortresses in the garden.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A broken genius guards a weapon in Pavilion Seventeen
On June 15 a visiting card arrives at Healthful House, near New Bern in North Carolina. It carries only a name, Count d'Artigas, and a note that his schooner Ebba lies in Pamlico Sound. The director is flattered and grants the visit at once.
Its most famous patient is Thomas Roch, a Frenchman of forty-five who lives in Pavilion Number Seventeen. In ordinary matters his mind has failed. He forgets, he rambles, and he must be watched like a child. Yet on the subject of his inventions his reason stays whole.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1896
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 4 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Verne, Jules. Facing the Flag. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/facing-the-flag.
Verne, J. (2026). Facing the flag. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/facing-the-flag (Original work published 1896)
Verne, Jules. Facing the Flag. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/facing-the-flag.
@book{verne2026facing,
author = {Verne, Jules},
title = {Facing the Flag},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/facing-the-flag},
note = {First published 1896}
}
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What is Facing the Flag about?
It tells how pirates kidnap a mad French inventor, Thomas Roch, and his secret keeper, Simon Hart, to get a weapon of huge power. The story moves from a North Carolina sanitarium to a hidden cavern near Bermuda.
Who is Ker Karraje?
Ker Karraje is a Pacific pirate who hides behind the name of the wealthy Count d'Artigas. He commands a band of about a hundred men and uses a submarine tug to attack merchant ships.
What is the fulgurator in Facing the Flag?
The fulgurator is Roch's self-propelled shell. It carries a new explosive, set off by a special liquid deflagrator, and is said to destroy everything within a large zone around the point of explosion.
The author
Jules Verne
1828–1905 · French adventure novelist
Jules Verne was a French writer born in Nantes in 1828. He lived in Paris and later in Amiens, where he died in 1905. His novels include Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).
More by Julio Verne
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