The Steam House (French: La maison à vapeur) is an 1880 Jules Verne novel recounting the travels of a group of British colonists in the Raj in a wheeled house pulled by a steam-powered mechanical elephant. Verne uses the mechanical house as a plot device to have the reader travel in nineteenth-century India. The descriptions are interspersed with historical information and social commentary. The book takes place in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against British rule, with the passions and traumas aroused still very much alive among Indians and British alike. An alternate title by which the book was known—"The End of Nana Sahib"—refers to the appearance in the book of the historical figure—rebel leader Nana Sahib—who disappeared after the crushing of the rebellion, his ultimate fate unknown. Verne offers a fictional explanation to his disappearance.
Plot
Part I – The Demon of Cawnpore In the summer of 1866, in Aurangabad, the British colonial government announces a bounty on the head of Nana Sahib, who is supposed to be hiding nearby. Disguised as a sage, he kills the man who claims to know his face. Nana Sahib escapes from Aurangabad the same night and, accompanied by his brother Bala Rao and his followers, hides in the Ajanta and Ellora caves respectively, and later retreats to the Vindhiyanchal mountains to hide from the colonial forces. Nana Sahib, along with his brother and followers, hides in various small fortresses called Pals, and mostly inside Pal of Tandil. His brother Bala Rao, who is extremely similar to Nana sahib in physical appearance, inquires about the inhabitants of the fortress and learns from locals that none except local outlaws, insurgents and a mad woman knows about the place. The mad woman is known as Rowing Flame as she carries a burning torch and roams the wilderness in the valley of Narmada. The locals respect the mysterious lady and feed and cloth her. From this hiding place, Nana Sahib launches an underground movement and secretly visit local chieftains for persuading them for an uprising. Meanwhile, in Calcutta, a group of Europeans is planning for a voyage through India. The group consist of Banks, a railroad engineer; Maucler, the French adventurer and narrator for most of the story; Captain Hood, a hunter craving his half century of tigers, retired Colonel Sir Edward Munro, whose motive behind joining this expedition is to find and kill Nana Sahib to avenge his wife, who supposedly died in the Cawnpore massacre. Servants accompanying them include Sergeant McNeil, Munro's faithful servant; Fox, the faithful servant of Captain Hood and fellow hunter, who has killed 37 tigers; Monsieur Parazard; a Negro cook of French origins; Storr, a British Engine driver; Kilouth, an Adivasi coal shoveler and Gotimi, the faithful Gurkha servant of Colonel Munro. Banks, the Engineer, introduces the machine he invented, a Steam powered mechanical elephant, which pulls two comfortable carriages having all the comforts of a 19th-century house. The machine can walk across land and float across rivers using embedded paddle wheels. The steam elephant is named Behemoth and together with two carriages, it is called the Steam House. The first carriage is used by the gentlemen, while the other is reserved for the servants. They start from Calcutta, and travel around the French town of Chandannagar, and Burdawan, Patna and Chitra, reach Gaya, where they visit various Hindu and Buddhist temples and bathing Ghat. On the way to Banaras they are interrupted by Hindu fanatics who consider the Steam House to be the chariot of their deity. Banks frightens them away by directing steam exhaust at them. In Banaras, Banks and Maucler notice a man spying on them but resolve not to tell the Colonel. From Banaras, they travel to Allahabad, where they learn that Nana Sahib has been declared dead after a skirmish in the defiles of Satpura. Colonel Munro is shocked by this news, as he wanted to take revenge himself. After Munro's request, they decides to pass through Kanpur, where an emotional Colonel visits his old house and the well which is supposedly the grave of Mrs. Munro and other victims of the massacre. The group decides to journey towards a northern forest, and pass the Monsoon season there, hunting wild animals. On the way to Terai, they defeat three elephants of an arrogant Gujarati Prince in a competition with Behemoth. Near Terai, they are caught in a violent thunderstorm and Gautami narrowly survives after being struck by lightning. The man who was spying on the Steam House meets Nana in Bhopal and informs him of further plans of the inhabitants of the Steam House. Nana orders his faithful follower Kalagni to infiltrate the Steam House and lure them near Nana Sahib's hiding place. While returning to their hiding place, near the Pal of Tandil, they are ambushed by British forces, who were directed unwittingly by the madwoman Rowing Flame. A body matching the description of Nana Sahib is found and he is declared dead by the British authorities.
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