Jules Verne's The Begum's Fortune – Léon Benett Frontispiece 1879

Drawn from Jules Verne's 1879 novel 'Les 500 Millions de la Bégum,' this dramatic frontispiece by Léon Benett depicts the colossal cannon of Steel City — the weapon forged by the villainous Herr Schultze to annihilate the utopian French colony of France-Ville. A lone figure stands defiantly atop the massive gun barrel, jungle foliage framing the scene, while a distant industrial cityscape smolders below. It is a masterwork of Victorian proto-science-fiction tension: utopia versus dystopian militarism rendered in exquisite engraved line work.