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Theme: progress

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Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Existential Journey

Author: Jules Verne (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, exploration, entropy, human progress, nature's fate  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-05

Can it give heat to a dead body?” “Not that I know of.” “Well, my friend, this earth will one day be that cold corpse; it will become uninhabitable an...
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Around the World in Eighty Days / Journey Through Nature

Author: Jules Verne (Gutenberg)  | Themes: nature vs. progress, exploration, regional identity, transportation  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-03

The railway turned around the sides of the mountains, and did not attempt to violate nature by taking the shortest cut from one point to another. The ...
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The War of the Worlds / Nature and Mechanization

Author: H.G. Wells (Gutenberg)  | Themes: nature, technology, fear, awe, progress  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-03

Once the lightning had begun, it went on in as rapid a succession of flashes as I have ever seen. The thunderclaps, treading one on the heels of anoth...
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Around the World in Eighty Days / Train Decoupling Incident

Author: Jules Verne (Gutenberg)  | Themes: industrialization, chaos, human agency, progress, technology  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-03

There, suspended by one hand between the baggage-car and the tender, with the other he loosened the safety chains; but, owing to the traction, he woul...
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The War of the Worlds / Control and Chaos

Author: H.G. Wells (Gutenberg)  | Themes: industrialization, anxiety, control, nature, progress  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-17

I am not an expert driver, and I had immediately to turn my attention to the horse. When I looked back again the second hill had hidden the black smok...
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Around the World in Eighty Days / Railway Expectations

Author: Jules Verne (Gutenberg)  | Themes: progress, anticipation, disillusionment, technology, limitation  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-11-29

This is the 22nd, and we shall reach Calcutta in time.” There was nothing to say to so confident a response. It was but too true that the railway came...
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A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Fate and Explosions

Author: Jules Verne (Gutenberg)  | Themes: human ambition, industrial dangers, time's weight, resignation, scientific progress  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-11-26

"We are bound to go through," responded the Professor, tapping me on the back. At midnight, our work as miners was completely finished; the charge of ...
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The War of the Worlds / Technological Innovation

Author: H.G. Wells (Gutenberg)  | Themes: industrialization, progress, creation, anxiety, wonder  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-11-17

These last had brought with them certain fresh appliances that stood in an orderly manner about the cylinder. The second handling-machine was now comp...