The Vanished Diamond

The Vanished Diamond, also translated as The Southern Star (French: L'Étoile du sud, lit. The Star of the South), is an 1884 French novel credited to Jules Verne, based on an uncredited manuscript by Paschal Grousset. This novel takes place in South Africa amongst the diamond fields in the district of Griqualand. Most of the land is owned by a fictitious wealthy miner, Mr. John Watkins. A shanty town filled with miners has sprung up, all with the hope to get rich. The main area of diamond mining is the Vandergaart Kopje. The protagonist is a French mining engineer, Victor Cyprien (in the original French version: Cyprien Méré). He moves to the Griqualand district to study the formation of diamonds. While he is there he falls in love with wealthy landowner Mr.