Jacques Eliacin François Marie Paganel is a fictional French geographer and one of the main characters in Jules Verne's 1867–68 novel In Search of the Castaways (original title Les Enfants du capitaine Grant). Paganel is portrayed as an absent-minded scholar, and his absent-mindedness is a recurring source of humor in the novel.
Verne gives a memorable characterisation of his hero:
In the novel, Paganel is the "Secretary of the Geographical Society of Paris, Corresponding Member of the Societies of Berlin, Bombay, Darmstadt, Leipsic, London, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and New York; Honorary Member of the Royal Geographical and Ethnographical Institute of the East Indies". After spending twenty years engaged in geographical work in the study, he decides to travel to India to continue the work of major explorers, but mistakenly boards the protagonists' yacht Duncan, which is bound for Patagonia, the first of Paganel's absent-minded actions.
Another of Paganel's mistakes is to learn Portuguese while believing he is studying Spanish. Paganel studies The Lusiads by Luís de Camões for six weeks, believing the poem to be written in Spanish.Chapter XV, "Jacques Paganel's Spanish".
Nevertheless, Paganel proves to be an important member of the search party. His interpretation of the documents is vital in the advancement of the novel; he also provides numerous geographical references and is a constant source of humor.
In film and television Actors who have played Paganel on the screen include: Nikolai Cherkasov, in The Children of Captain Grant (1936) Maurice Chevalier, in In Search of the Castaways (1962) Lembit Ulfsak, in In Search of Captain Grant (1985)
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