Abstract: The Vernian novel not only offers a liberal background to its adventures: it also contributes to the contradiction of liberalism. Kéraban, after advocating free movement, ends up substituting himself for the tax-imposing state. La Chasse au météore (The Chase of the Golden Meteor) shows the limits of the search for liquidity in transactions. The text Les Forceurs de blocus (The Blockade Runners) suggests that economic liberalism and political liberalism do not go hand in hand. Verne’s work thus confronts liberalism with its limits.
