Jules Verne: Star of the South

The Star of the South is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, but the authorship of the novel is somewhat disputed, as the original text, which Jules Verne adapted and published under his own name, was written by another French writer, André Laurie. The radio script was written by Dimitrij Dudík. The book tells the story of the South African diamond fields. At the centre of the action is the "Star of the South", a diamond of unprecedented size and beauty. The French engineer Cyprian Méré is convinced that he managed to produce it by an artificial process he invented. He filled the metal casing with a chemical mixture of his own making, sealed it and annealed it in an oven for two weeks. Then the case exploded and Méré found the diamond in the shattered case under a layer of clay. However, the diamond mysteriously disappears during the reception.