The Green Ray

The Green Ray (Le Rayon vert) is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne published in 1882 and named after the optical phenomenon of the same name. It is referenced in a 1986 film of the same name by Eric Rohmer.

Plot summary
Unlike most of Verne's other works, this novel is much more of a romance and travelogue than adventure or even sci-fi. Brothers Samuel and Sebastian Melville want to marry their niece Helena Campbell off to the hilariously awful scientist Aristobulus Ursicles. Verne has fabricated the ancient Scottish legend of the Green Ray, a flash of green light that sometimes appears just as the sun is passing the horizon at sea when the sky is clear, and the viewer is enabled to see closely into his own heart and read the hearts of others. After reading a newspaper article about it, Helena refuses to marry until she sees this optical phenomenon. They all with their servants then travel to the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides. There they meet the artist Oliver Sinclair, with whom Helena falls in love. Many opportunities to see the Green Ray are thwarted at the last moment, usually inappropriately by Aristobulus. Eventually the Green Ray is seen by the brothers and servants. Helena and Oliver miss the phenomenon when they look into each other's eyes.

Main characters

 * Miss Helena Campbell - principal character, beautiful eighteen years old girl with blue eyes and fair hair
 * Elizabeth, aka Dame Bess - Melvill's housekeeper
 * Master MacFyne - proprietor of the hotel Caledonian in Oban
 * Samuel Melvill, aka uncle Sam
 * Sébastian Melvill, aka uncle Sib
 * Baillie Patrick Oldimer - Olivier's uncle
 * John Olduck - skipper of the yawl Clorinda
 * Partridge - servant
 * Olivier Sinclair - educated twenty years old artist
 * Aristobulus Ursiclos - scientist graduate of the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh

Scientific basis
Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly before sunset or after sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point. It is usually observed from a low altitude where there is an unobstructed view of the horizon, such as on the ocean. The idea in the novel that one can predict where and when to observe the green ray has no scientific basis. The rays are regularly sighted by airplane pilots because they often can see the true horizon in mid flight, more often when flying west because the sun's relative motion is slightly slower.

Cited in Eric Rohmer's 1986 film, the green ray is used as a leitmotiv, providing meaning and guidance for the film's troubled main character, Delphine. Verne's book is discussed at length in the film as a "fairytale love story" whose protagonists are consumed in their search for the rare meteorological phenomenon. Believed to give a heightened perception to those who view it, one of the characters further explains that "when you see the green ray you can read your own feelings and others too". Seizing on this idea, Delphine uses her search for the rayon vert to help overcome her fear of intimacy.

Publication history in English

 * 1883, New York: Munro, translated by James Cotterell as The Green Ray
 * 1883, London: Sampson Low, translated by Mary de Hautville as The Green Ray
 * 1965, London: Arco/Westport, CT: Associated Booksellers, Fitzroy Edition, abridged and edited by I. O. Evans as Green Ray & The Blockade Runners
 * 2003, Holicong, PA: Wildside Press as The Green Ray
 * 2009, Edinburgh: Luath Press, ISBN 978-1-905222-12-4, translated by Karen Loukes as The Green Ray