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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the same fortune could build a city of freedom—and a city bent on making weapons?
A strange inheritance gives Doctor Sarrasin and Professor Schultze the means to build rival worlds. Sarrasin founds France-Ville, where health, light and freedom guide every plan. Schultze creates Stahlstadt, a steel city of weapons and obedience. Their shared fortune becomes a contest over what knowledge and industry should serve.
Young engineer Marcel Bruckmann enters Stahlstadt under a false name to discover what Schultze is planning. His loyalty to Sarrasin's family—and his love for Jeanne Sarrasin—give the danger a personal edge. Behind the factory walls, strict control and a weapon of terrifying size turn rival ideas into an urgent threat.
What you’ll discover
- Two visions of progress Explore the clash between knowledge that serves ordinary people and industry built for control.
- A spy among steelworks Follow Marcel into Stahlstadt, where he must conceal his identity while seeking Schultze's plans.
- A city built for health Discover Sarrasin's dream of a town planned by doctors and engineers to keep people well.
- An inheritance with consequences Begin with Sharp's strange legal case, then watch a vast fortune take two opposing shapes.
- Suspense with human stakes Feel how Marcel's love and loyalty sharpen his determination to protect France-Ville from danger.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love inventive adventure, clever engineering, and rival visions of society. If you enjoy daring spies, bold gadgets and a hero who solves problems with a pencil, you will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fortune tests the doctor's character
- Public wealth needs a public purpose
- The inheritance creates two opposing missions
- Marcel enters the city of secrets
- A child's death makes danger personal
- Schultze's pride opens a weak point
- A hidden weapon reveals the threat
- Healthy cities still need to defend themselves
- Science takes its direction from people
Who’s who
- Dr. François SarrasinA kind French physician who inherits a vast fortune and wants to spend it on a model city for health and well-being.
- Marcel BruckmannA strong, clever Alsatian engineer who enters the enemy city in disguise to learn what its owner plans against France-Ville.
- Octave SarrasinThe doctor's easily led son, who dreams of luxury and must learn to stand on his own.
- Jeanne SarrasinThe doctor's clear-minded daughter, who trusts Marcel's judgment and follows the defense of the city with keen interest.
- Herr SchultzeA proud German professor and heir who becomes the world's great cannon maker and hates France and the doctor's dream.
- Mr. SharpA thin, shrewd London solicitor who finds the heir and then profits from the rival claim.
- Colonel HendonA one-armed veteran of the American Civil War who trains the citizens of France-Ville to defend their city.
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The Begum's Fortune
by Jules Verne · 1879
A French doctor receives a quarter of a billion francs and funds a model city, while a rival builds a city of cannons.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“We are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne.”
In short
What would you do with half a billion francs? In 1871, Dr. François Sarrasin of Douai sits in a Brighton hotel room, happily reading English newspapers about his own scientific paper.
The Begum's Fortune at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 25 min2 h 45 min fast, 4 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 49,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1879by Jules Verne
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A solicitor brings a fortune to Brighton
Dr. Sarrasin is fifty, kind, and pleased with how the English papers report his talk at the Congress of Hygiene. Then Mr. Sharp, a solicitor with a skull-like face, walks in with a leather bag. He recites the doctor's family history back to him. The doctor begins to think the man is mad.
Sharp explains. The doctor's great-uncle, a former drum major in the French army, sailed to India. He rose to command a rajah's small army and married the rajah's widow, Begum Gokool. Their only son died without heirs, and the estate, grown to twenty-one million pounds, now sits in the Bank of England.
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Details
- First published
- 1879
- Language
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- Level
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Cite this edition
Verne, Jules. The Begum's Fortune. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-begums-fortune.
Verne, J. (2026). The begum's fortune. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-begums-fortune (Original work published 1879)
Verne, Jules. The Begum's Fortune. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-begums-fortune.
@book{verne2026begums,
author = {Verne, Jules},
title = {The Begum's Fortune},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-begums-fortune},
note = {First published 1879}
}
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What is The Begum's Fortune about?
It follows a French doctor who inherits a vast Indian fortune and builds a model city of health, while a German rival inherits half and builds a fortress of cannons. A young engineer spies on the rival and tries to protect the doctor's city.
Who is Marcel Bruckmann?
Marcel is an Alsatian engineer, friend to the doctor's son, who is strong, quick and determined. He goes by the name Johann Schwartz inside the City of Steel while he works to uncover Herr Schultze's secret plans.
What are France-Ville and Stahlstadt?
France-Ville is the doctor's model city on the Pacific coast, built around health, schooling and free citizens. Stahlstadt, the City of Steel, is Herr Schultze's walled cannon factory, where everything depends on one man's orders.
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).
“Heaven helps those who help themselves!”
More by Jules Verne
See all their booksMore like this
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