of Parma. Verne may have first heard about the Foiba beneath Pisino castle in Charles Yriarte’s works Les Bords de l'Adriatique (The Ports of the Adriatic) - (Hachette, Paris 1878) and Trieste e l'Istria (Trieste and Istria) - (Hachette, Paris 1875). Yriatre described the old castle as well as his trip down into the gorge. He also mentioned an experiment by a young nobleman, Count Esdorff, to find the end of the underground river. Unfortunately the count's boat never made it out of the cave. The first edition was dedicated to Alexandre Dumas, père. His son was so moved by the love expressed in the dedication that he wrote a letter to Verne which said 'I've been loving you for so long that I feel like your brother', and admitted that in literature Verne is Dumas' son more than he himself. The steam yacht of doctor Antekirtt, Savarena, is a true portrait of Verne's own steam yacht which he bought from the eccentric millionaire marquis de Préaulx for 60,000 F. Film, TV or theatrical adaptations Mathias Sandorf was performed as a five-act play in Paris in the 1880s. It even played the Boston theatre in the fall of 1888 as well as at Niblo's Garden in New York in October 1888. There have also been three screen adaptations of Mathias Sandorf. The first Mathias Sandorf was made in 1921 and directed by Henri Fescourt. It starred Yvette Andréyor, Romuald Joubé, Jean Toulout. During the 1920s Fescourt was one of the most successful directors working for Cineroman, and Mathias Sandorf, Les Gransa and Mandarin were among his most popular works. In 1963 Georges Lampin directed another version Mathias Sandorf starring Louis Jourdan, Francisco Rabal, Renaud Mary and Serena Vergano. The most recent version was a Television miniseries made for French television in 1979. Directed by Jean-Pierre Decourt it starred Hungarian actor Istvan Bujtor as Mathias Sandorf, Ivan Desny as Zathmar, and also Amadeus August, Claude Giraud, Monika Peitsch, Sissy Höfferer and Jacques Breuer. References External links Read Chapter 1 of the classic edition reissued by ROH Press Click to read the first two chapters of Ed Brumgach's new 2005 English translation. Click to read the original French version. Mathias Sandorf international list of first editions. Mathias Sandorf Article and little known facts. 1885 French novels Novels by Jules Verne Novels set in Hungary Novels set in Croatia French novels adapted into