biography of jules verne in english

Jules Verne

(1828-1905)

Who Was Jules Verne?

Jules Verne hit his stride as a writer after meeting publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who nurtured many of the works that would comprise the author's Voyages Extraordinaires. Often referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction," Verne wrote books about a variety of innovations and technological advancements years before they were practical realities. Although he died in 1905, his works continued to be published well after his death, and he became the second most translated author in the world.

Early Years and Career

Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in Nantes, France, a busy maritime port city. There, Verne was exposed to vessels departing and arriving, sparking his imagination for travel and adventure. While attending boarding school, he began to write short stories and poetry. Afterward, his father, a lawyer, sent his oldest son to Paris to study law.

Verne continued to write despite pressure from his father to resume his law career, and the tension came to a head in 1852, when Verne refused his father's offer to open a law practice in Nantes. The aspiring writer instead took a meager-paying job as secretary of the Théâtre-Lyrique, giving him the platform to produce Blind Man's Bluff ( Le Colin‑maillard ) and The Companions of the Marjolaine ( Les Compagnons de la Marjolaine ).

In 1856, Verne met and fell in love with Honorine de Viane, a young widow with two daughters. They married in 1857, and, realizing he needed a stronger financial foundation, Verne began working as a stockbroker. However, he refused to abandon his writing career, and that year he also published his first book, The 1857 Salon ( Le Salon de 1857 ) .

Marriage and Child

In 1859, Verne and his wife embarked on the first of approximately 20 trips to the British Isles. The journey made a strong impression on Verne, inspiring him to pen Backwards to Britain ( Voyage en Angleterre et en Écosse ), although the novel wouldn't be published until well after his death. In 1861, the couple's only child, Michel Jean Pierre Verne, was born.

Meeting Pierre-Jules Hetzel

Verne's literary career had failed to gain traction to that point, but his luck would change with his introduction to editor and publisher Hetzel in 1862. Verne was working on a novel that imbued a heavy dose of scientific research into an adventure narrative, and in Hetzel he found a champion for his developing style. In 1863, Hertzel published Five Weeks in a Balloon ( Cinq semaines en ballon) , the first of a series of adventure novels by Verne that would comprise his Voyages Extraordinaires . Verne subsequently signed a contract in which he would submit new works every year to the publisher, most of which would be serialized in Hetzel's Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation.

Literary Career

In 1864, Hetzel published The Adventures of Captain Hatteras ( Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras) and Journey to the Center of the Earth ( Voyage au centre de la Terre) . That same year, Paris in the Twentieth Century ( Paris au XXe siècle) was rejected for publication, but in 1865 Verne was back in print with From the Earth to the Moon ( De la Terre à la Lune) and In Search of the Castaways ( Les Enfants du capitaine Grant).

Inspired by his love of travel and adventure, Verne soon bought a ship, and he and his wife spent a good deal of time sailing the seas. Verne's own adventures sailing to various ports, from the British Isles to the Mediterranean, provided plentiful fodder for his short stories and novels. In 1867, Hetzel published Verne's Illustrated Geography of France and Her Colonies ( Géographie illustrée de la France et de ses colonies ), and that year Verne also traveled with his brother to the United States. He only stayed a week — managing a trip up the Hudson River to Albany, then on to Niagara Falls — but his visit to America made a lasting impact and was reflected in later works.

In 1869 and 1870, Hetzel published Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea ( Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) , Ar ound the Moon ( Autour de la Lune) and Discovery of the Earth ( Découverte de la Terre). By this point, Verne's works were being translated into English, and he could comfortably live on his writing.

Beginning in late 1872, the serialized version of Verne's famed Around the World in Eighty Days ( Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours ) first appeared in print. The story of Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout takes readers on an adventurous global tour at a time when travel was becoming easier and alluring. In the century plus since its original debut, the work has been adapted for the theater, radio, television and film, including the classic 1956 version starring David Niven.

Verne remained prolific throughout the decade, penning The Mysterious Island ( L’Île mystérieuse ), The Survivors of the Chancellor ( Le Chancellor ), Michael Strogoff ( Michel Strogoff ), and Dick Sand: A Captain at Fifteen ( Un Capitaine de quinze ans ), among other works.

Later Years, Death and Posthumous Works

Although he was enjoying immense professional success by the 1870s, Verne began experiencing more strife in his personal life. He sent his rebellious son to a reformatory in 1876, and a few years later Michel caused more trouble through his relations with a minor. In 1886, Verne was shot in the leg by his nephew Gaston, leaving him with a limp for the rest of his life. His longtime publisher and collaborator Hetzel died a week later, and the following year his mother passed away as well.

Verne did, however, continue to travel and write, churning out Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon ( La Jangada ) and Robur the Conqueror ( Robur-le-conquérant ) during this period. His writing soon became noted for a darker tone, with books like The Purchase of the North Pole ( Sans dessus dessous ), Propeller Island ( L’Île à hélice ) and Master of the World (Maître du monde) warning of dangers wrought by technology.

Having established his residence in the northern French city of Amiens, Verne began serving on its city council in 1888. Stricken with diabetes, he died at home on March 24, 1905.

However, his literary output didn't end there, as Michel assumed control of his father's uncompleted manuscripts. Over the following decade, The Lighthouse at the End of the World ( Le Phare du bout du monde), The Golden Volcano ( Le Volcan d’or) and The Chase of the Golden Meteor ( La Chasse au météore) were all published following extensive revisions by Michel.

Additional works surfaced decades later. Backwards to Britain finally was printed in 1989, 130 years after it was written, and Paris in the Twentieth Century , originally considered too far-fetched with its depictions of skyscrapers, gas-fueled cars and mass transit systems, followed in 1994.

In all, Verne authored more than 60 books (most notably the 54 novels comprising the Voyages Extraordinaires ), as well as dozens of plays, short stories and librettos. He conjured hundreds of memorable characters and imagined countless innovations years before their time, including the submarine, space travel, terrestrial flight and deep-sea exploration.

His works of imagination, and the innovations and inventions contained within, have appeared in countless forms, from motion pictures to the stage, to television. Often referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction," Verne is the second most translated writer of all time (behind Agatha Christie ), and his musings on scientific endeavors have sparked the imaginations of writers, scientists and inventors for over a century.

Watch "The Extraordinary Journeys of Jules Verne" on HISTORY Vault

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Verne
• Birth Year: 1828
• Birth date: February 8, 1828
• Birth City: Nantes
• Birth Country: France
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Jules Verne, a 19th-century French author, is famed for such revolutionary science-fiction novels as 'Around the World in Eighty Days' and 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.'
• Fiction and Poetry
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1905
• Death date: March 24, 1905
• Death City: Amiens
• Death Country: France

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Jules Verne: His Life and Writings

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Jules Verne is frequently called the "father of science fiction," and among all writers, only Agatha Christie's works have been translated more. Verne wrote numerous plays, essays, books of nonfiction, and short stories, but he was best known for his novels. Part travelogue, part adventure, part natural history, his novels including  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  and  Journey to the Center of the Earth  remain popular to this day.

The Life of Jules Verne

Born in 1828 in Nantes, France, Jules Verne seemed destined to study the law. His father was a successful lawyer, and Verne went to boarding school and later traveled to Paris where he earned his law degree in 1851. Throughout his childhood, however, he was drawn to the stories of nautical adventures and shipwrecks shared by his first teacher and by the sailors who frequented the docks in Nantes.

While studying in Paris, Verne befriended the son of the well-known novelist Alexandre Dumas. Through that friendship, Verne was able to get his first play,  The Broken Straws , produced at Dumas's theater in 1850. A year later, Verne found employment writing magazine articles that combined his interests in travel, history, and science. One of his first stories, "A Voyage in a Balloon" (1851), brought together the elements that would make his later novels so successful.

Writing, however, was a difficult profession for earning a living. When Verne fell in love with Honorine de Viane Morel, he accepted a brokerage job arranged by her family. The steady income from this work allowed the couple to marry in 1857, and they had one child, Michel, four years later.

Verne's literary career would truly take off in the 1860s when he was introduced to the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, a successful businessman who had worked with some of the greatest writers of nineteenth-century France including Victor Hugo, George Sand , and Honoré de Balzac. When Hetzel read Verne's first novel,  Five Weeks in a Balloon , Verne would get the break that finally allowed him to devote himself to writing. 

Hetzel launched a magazine, the  Magazine of Education and Recreation , that would publish Verne's novels serially. Once the final installments ran in the magazine, the novels would be released in book form as part of a collection,  Extraordinary Voyages . This endeavor occupied Verne for the rest of his life, and by the time of his death in 1905, he had written fifty-four novels for the series.

The Novels of Jules Verne

Jules Verne wrote in many genres, and his publications include over a dozen plays and short stories, numerous essays, and four books of nonfiction. His fame, however, came from his novels. Along with the fifty-four novels Verne published as part of  Extraordinary Voyages  during his lifetime, another eight novels were added to the collection posthumously thanks to the efforts of his son, Michel.

Verne's most famous and enduring novels were written in the 1860s and 1870s, at a time when Europeans were still exploring, and in many cases exploiting, new areas of the globe. Verne's typical novel included a cast of men—often including one with brains and one with brawn--who develop a new technology that allows them to journey to exotic and unknown places. Verne's novels take his readers across continents, under the oceans, through the earth, and even into space.

Some of Verne's best-known titles include:

• Five Weeks in a Balloon  (1863):   Ballooning had been around for nearly a century when this novel was published, but the central character, Dr. Fergusson, develops a device that allows him easily to change the altitude of his balloon without relying on ballast so that he can find favorable winds. Fergusson and his companions traverse the African continent in their balloon, encountering extinct animals, cannibals, and savages along the way.
• Journey to the Center of the Earth  (1864): The characters in Verne's third novel don't actually go to the true center of the earth, but they do travel across all of Europe through a series of underground caverns, lakes, and rivers. The subterranean world Verne creates is illuminated by glowing green gases, and the adventures encounter everything from pterosaurs to a herd of mastodons to a twelve-foot-tall human.  Journey to the Center of the Earth  is one of Verne's most sensational and least plausible works, but perhaps for those very reasons, it has remained one of his most popular.
• From the Earth to the Moon  (1865): In his fourth novel, Verne imagines a group of adventurers building a cannon so large that it can shoot a bullet-shaped capsule with three occupants to the moon. Needless to say, the physics of doing this are impossible—the speed of the projectile through the atmosphere would cause it to burn up, and the extreme  g-forces  would be lethal to its occupants. In Verne's fictional world, however, the main characters succeed not in landing on the moon, but in orbiting it. Their stories continue in the novel's sequel,  Around the Moon  (1870).
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  (1870): When Verne wrote his sixth novel, submarines were crude, small, and extremely dangerous. With Captain Nemo and his submarine the Nautilus, Verne imagines a miraculous vehicle capable of circling the globe underwater. This favorite novel of Verne's takes his readers to the deepest parts of the ocean and gives them a glimpse of the strange fauna and flora of the world's seas. The novel also predicts the globe-circling nuclear submarines of the 20th century.
• Around the World in Eighty Days  (1873): Whereas most of Verne's novels push science well beyond what was possible in the nineteenth century,  Around the World in Eighty Days  presents a race around the globe that was, in fact, feasible. The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad , the opening of the Suez Canal , and the development of large, iron-hulled steamships made the journey possible. The novel certainly includes elements of adventure as the travelers rescue a woman from immolation and are pursued by a Scotland Yard detective, but the work is very much a celebration of existing technologies.

Jules Verne's Legacy

Jules Verne is frequently called the "father of science fiction, although that same title has also been applied to H.G. Wells. Wells's writing career, however, began a generation after Verne, and his most famous works appeared in the 1890s:  The Time Machine  (1895),  The Island of Dr. Moreau  (1896),  The Invisible Man  (1897), and  The War of the Worlds  (1898). H. G. Wells, in fact, was sometimes called "the English Jules Verne." Verne, however, was certainly not the first writer of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several science fiction stories in the 1840s, and Mary Shelley 's 1818 novel  Frankenstein  explored the resulting horrors when scientific ambitions go unchecked.

Although he wasn't the first writer of science fiction, Verne was one of the most influential. Any contemporary writer of the genre owes at least a partial debt to Verne, and his legacy is readily apparent in the world around us. Verne's influence on popular culture is significant. Many of his novels have been made into movies, television series, radio shows, animated children's cartoons, computer games, and graphic novels. 

The first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus , was named after Captain Nemo's submarine in  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.  Just a few years after the publication of  Around the World in Eight Days , two women who were inspired by the novel successfully raced around the world. Nellie Bly would win the race against Elizabeth Bisland, completing the journey in 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes. Today, astronauts in the International Space Station circle the globe in 92 minutes. Verne's From the Earth to the Moon  presents Florida as the most logical place to launch a vehicle into space, yet this is 85 years before the first rocket would launch from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Again and again, we find the scientific visions of Verne becoming realities.

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Jules Verne Biography

Born: February 8, 1828 Nantes, France Died: March 24, 1905 Amiens, France French novelist and writer

The French novelist Jules Verne was the first authentic writer of modern science fiction. The best of his works, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, are characterized by his intelligent foresight into the technical achievements that are within man's grasp.

Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in Nantes, France, the eldest son of a prosperous lawyer, Pierre Verne, and his wife Sophie. Raised in a middle-class family, Jules despised his parents' constant drive to achieve middle-class respectability. Always rebellious but unsuccessful, Verne learned to escape into his own world of imagination. These feelings would show up in many of Verne's works as an adult.

An otherwise uneventful childhood was marked by one major event. In his twelfth year, Jules worked as a cabin boy on an ocean-going ship. The ship was intercepted by his father before it went to sea, and Jules is said to have promised his parents that in the future he "would travel only in imagination"—a prediction fulfilled in a manner his parents could not have imagined.

Career as a playwright

During a visit to Amiens, France, in May 1856, Verne met and fell in love with the widowed daughter of an army officer, Madame Morel (née Honorine de Viane), whom he married the following January. The circumstance that his wife's brother was a stockbroker may have influenced Verne in making the unexpected decision to embrace this profession. Membership in the Paris Exchange did not seriously interfere with his literary labors, however, because he adopted a rigorous timetable, rising at five o'clock in order to put in several hours researching and writing before beginning his day's work at the Bourse.

First novels

Verne's first long work of fiction, Five Weeks in a Balloon, took the form of an account of a journey by air over central Africa, at that time largely unexplored. The book, published in January 1863, was an immediate success. He then decided to retire from stockbroking and to devote himself full time to writing.

Verne's next few books were immensely successful at the time and are still counted among the best he wrote. A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) describes the adventures of a party of explorers and scientists who descend the crater of an Icelandic volcano and discover an underground world. The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1866) centers on an expedition to the North Pole (not actually reached by Robert Peary until 1909). In From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and its sequel, Round the Moon (1870), Verne describes how two adventurous Americans—joined, naturally, by a Frenchman—arrange to be fired in a hollow projectile from a gigantic cannon that lifts them out of Earth's gravity field and takes them close to the moon. Verne not only pictured the state of weightlessness his "astronauts" experienced during their flight, but also he had the vision to locate their launching site in Florida, where nearly all of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) space launches take place today.

Later works

Verne wrote his two masterpieces when he was in his forties. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) relates the voyages of the submarine Nautilus, built and commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo, one of the literary figures in whom Verne incorporated many of his own character traits. Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) is the story of a successful bet made by a typical Englishman, Phineas Fogg, a character said to have been modeled on Verne's father, who had a mania for punctuality, or the art of timeliness.

Other popular novels include The Mysterious Island (1875) and Michael Strogoff (1876). Verne's total literary output comprised nearly eighty books, but many of them are of little value or interest today. One noteworthy feature of all his work is its moral idealism, which earned him in 1884 the personal congratulations of Pope Leo XIII (1810–1903). "If I am not always what I ought to be," Verne once wrote, "my characters will be what I should like to be." His interest in scientific progress was balanced by his religious faith, and in some of his later novels (such as The Purchase of the North Pole, 1889), he showed himself to be aware of the social dangers of uncontrolled technological advance.

Verne the man

Verne's personality was complex. Though capable of bouts of extreme liveliness and given to joking and playing practical jokes, he was basically a shy man, happiest when alone in his study or when sailing the English Channel in a converted fishing boat.

In 1886 Verne was the victim of a shooting accident, which left him disabled. The man that shot him proved to be a nephew who was suffering from mental instability. This incident served to reinforce Verne's natural tendency toward depression. Although he served on the city council of Amiens two years later, he spent his old age in retirement. In 1902 he became partially blind and he died on March 24, 1905 in Amiens.

For More Information

Costello, Peter. Jules Verne: Inventor of Science Fiction. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1978.

Evans, I. O. Jules Verne and His Work. New York: Twayne, 1966. Reprint, Mattituck, NY: Aeonian Press, 1976.

Jules-Verne, Jean. Jules Verne: A Biography. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1976.

Lottman, Herbert R. Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.

Lynch, Lawrence W. Jules Verne. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.

Teeters, Peggy. Jules Verne: The Man Who Invented Tomorrow. New York: Walker and Company, 1993.

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Jules Verne: An Imaginative Genius Who Changed Literature

• by history tools
• November 19, 2023

Jules Verne was a renowned French author and futurist who pioneered the science fiction genre. Through his extraordinary vision and skillful writing, he opened readers‘ eyes to the wonders of technology and the possibilities of the future.

Verne captured the spirit of an optimistic time when it seemed anything could be achieved through scientific ingenuity. His enduring popularity and influence show that his stories remain as captivating today as when he wrote them in the 19th century.

Jules Verne Profile

Early life develops wanderlust and imagination.

Jules Verne was born in the busy seaport of Nantes, France in 1828. As a child, Verne had a wanderlust fueled by reading adventure stories and watching ships arrive from exotic destinations. He snuck aboard ships to imaginary distant shores beyond the horizon.

Verne moved to Paris in 1847 to study law at his father‘s insistence. But his heart wasn‘t in dusty law books. He found himself drawn to literature and the theater. Verne began writing short comedy plays in his free time.

After receiving his law degree in 1851, Verne took a day job as a stockbroker. This gave him financial security to pursue writing. He rose early each morning to work on stories before heading to the stock exchange.

Big Breakthrough Working With Hetzel Publishing

In 1857, Jules Verne met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, an enterprising publisher who would launch his career. Verne gave Hetzel the manuscript for his debut novel Five Weeks in a Balloon . Hetzel recognized Verne‘s talent for thrilling science-driven adventure and published the book in 1863.

The novel follows a light-hearted expedition across Africa in a balloon, with narrow escapes from danger at every turn. Five Weeks in a Balloon became a smash hit and bestseller. This marked the beginning of an immensely productive collaboration between Verne and Hetzel‘s publishing house.

For the rest of his career, Verne contracted to publish two books a year with Hetzel. The deal allowed Verne to become a full-time author and take his writing to new heights of imagination.

Classic Sci-Fi Novels That Inspired Generations

Some of Verne‘s most popular sci-fi titles published with Hetzel include:

• Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) – A professor leads an expedition down an Icelandic volcano to explore the unknown depths below.
• From the Earth to the Moon (1865) – Members of a post-Civil War gun club construct a giant cannon to launch themselves to the moon.
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) – A strange giant sea creature is revealed to be a highly advanced submarine, the Nautilus, helmed by the mysterious Captain Nemo.
• Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) – A gentleman named Phileas Fogg attempts to travel across the globe in under 80 days on a bet.

These stories fused rip-roaring adventure with pioneering science fiction concepts. Verne reveled in conjuring up futuristic submarines, spacecraft, and other innovations decades before they became reality. He awed readers with his technological prophecies.

Lasting Popularity and Acclaim

During his lifetime, Jules Verne achieved great fame and success. By his death in 1905, his books were translated into numerous languages and devoured by readers internationally.

But more than just a popular author, Verne inspired generations of writers. Sci-fi pioneers including H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke all owed a debt to Verne for paving the way for their own futuristic works.

Beyond fiction, Verne motivated real-world scientific advancement. Engineers were spurred by Verne‘s vivid descriptions of submarines and rockets to make them a reality. He demonstrated science fiction‘s power to captivate while spreading knowledge and optimism about human progress.

Later Years: Politics and Playwriting

In his later years, Jules Verne settled down in the provincial town of Amiens with his wife Honorine. He entered politics, serving on Amiens‘ city council. Verne also continued writing theatre.

His science fiction output slowed, but he published the darker dystopian novel Paris in the Twentieth Century in 1994, along with the adventure tale The Lighthouse at the End of the World (1905).

On March 24, 1905, Jules Verne died aged 77, leaving behind an unparalleled literary legacy. His pioneering works had laid the foundations of modern science fiction and inspired future generations to imagine, dream, and create.

10 Fascinating Facts About Jules Verne

• Verne woke up at 4 AM each day to work on stories before his 9-5 job as a stockbroker.
• He served on city council in Amiens, France from 1888-1903.
• Verne‘s tomb in Amiens is decorated with a sculpture of him emerging from a tombstone.
• His first published story was the comic opera The Broken Straws in 1850.
• Verne believed his English translations took too many liberties. Two "translations" were rewritten by the publisher.
• He accurately predicted electric submarines, skywriting, and other future technologies.
• Verne‘s writing was influenced by scientist Jean Macé who encouraged science in fiction.
• Around the World in 80 Days made globetrotting a popular leisure activity.
• A giant squid that attacked his antihero Nemo inspired 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea .
• Over 200 films have adapted Verne‘s works, more than any other author.

Why Jules Verne Remains Relevant Today

Today, Jules Verne remains one of sci-fi‘s most revered and influential authors. What makes his work still relevant in the modern age?

• He made complex scientific concepts understandable through engaging fiction.
• His futuristic visions inspired generations of engineers and inventors.
• Verne opened reader‘s eyes to the wonders of travel and discovery.
• He combined thrilling adventures with thoughtful social commentary.
• Verne shaped sci-fi into the culture-defining genre it is today.
• His cautionary tales reveal the pros and cons of technological advancement.

Verne‘s imaginative stories have stood the test of time. They remind us to approach the future with humanity, wisdom, and care. Modern readers continue to find inspiration in Verne‘s work much like readers did over a century ago.

In his pioneering novels, Jules Verne opened doors to worlds never before imagined. His writing captured the spirit of an optimistic era when it seemed science could accomplish anything.

Verne didn‘t just foresee amazing inventions, he changed how people saw the future‘s possibilities. His lasting influence on literature, technology, and culture is immense. Verne proved sci-fi could stimulate minds while retaining a sense of wonder.

Nearly two centuries later, Verne‘s ingenious stories still light fires in the imagination. Generations of writers and dreamers continue following the trail he blazed. There‘s no doubt Jules Verne deserves his title as the legendary "Father of Science Fiction".

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Jules Verne: A Biography

Jules verne (1828-1905).

Jules Verne was a French poet, playwright and novelist but he earns his place on this list of great writers because of his futuristic adventure novels. He has been called the father of science fiction and has had an incalculable influence on the development of science fiction writing. More interesting, perhaps, is his place as a prophet or predictor of technology which wasn’t to be invented until long after his death. He put a man on the moon, including its launch from a Florida launchpad to its splashdown in the Pacific; in 1863 he predicted the internet: Paris in the 20th Century (1863) depicts the details of modern life: skyscrapers, television, Maglev trains, computers, and a culture preoccupied with the Internet. Verne’s various novels predict world wars, weapons of mass destruction, chemical warfare, and the rise of a charismatic German madman intent on world domination.

Verne is one of the world’s most translated authors: his works have been translated into more than 140 languages. A number of films have been made from his novels, starting in 1916 with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island , From the Earth to the Moon , Journey to the Center of the Earth , and, the most famous, Around the World in 80 Days .

Jules Verne’s influence extends to the world of science and technology, where he inspired generations of scientists, inventors, and explorers. In 1954 the United States Navy launched the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, named Nautilus, the submarine in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . In the 20th and 21st centuries, adventurers like Nellie Bly, Wiley Post, Richard Branson and Steve Fossett have been inspired by Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg by attempting to circumnavigate the globe in record-breaking times.

Portrait of Jules Verne

Verne’s novels have had a wide influence on scientific and philosophical works as well as on fiction writers. Writers known to have been influenced by Verne include Michel Butor, Blaise Cendrars, Roland Barthes, Marcel Ayme, Rene Barjavel, Jean Cocteau, Antoine Saint- Exupery, Jean-Paul Satre and Wernher von Braun. The science fiction author, Ray Bradbury, speaking for literature and science throughout the world, wrote: ‘We are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne.’

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Biography of Jules Verne

Jules Verne was a novelist, poet, and playwright. Born in Nantes, France, Verne wrote many celebrated adventure and science fiction novels in the latter half of the 19th century. Some of his most famous works include Journey to the Center of the Earth , Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , and Around the World in Eighty Days. He has been the second-most translated author in the world since 1979; today, he is regarded as one of the fathers of science fiction.

Growing up, Verne had one brother and three sisters, and was primarily educated at various boarding schools throughout France. By the age of nineteen Verne was already writing long works, but his father insisted that he not try to make any money through an authorial career, and that he instead go to law school to eventually inherit the family's law practice. He went to Paris to begin legal studies. While there, Verne fell in love with a girl who was eventually married off to someone richer and more stable than he, an occurrence which devastated him.

Verne finished his law studies in Paris during the French Revolution of 1848, a time of great political strife for the city and the nation. He continued to write, however, citing French author Victor Hugo as a major influence. After graduating with his law degree, Verne gave up the legal profession and instead pursued a career as a playwright, encouraged by his friend Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers .

After publishing a few plays and realizing that such a publication record was not enough to support him, Verne became a stockbroker. This employment provided him with enough stability to marry Honorine de Viane, a young widow. The same year he married her, he published his first book, Le Salon de 1857. In 1861 they had their only child together, Michel Jean Pierre Verne.

When Verne met and got to know publisher Jean Hetzel, his literary luck changed. After publishing Five Weeks in a Balloon in 1863, he realized that he could attain recognition as an author. Throughout the remainder of the 1860s and into the 1870s, Verne continued to publish a number of novels that garnered wide acclaim. During this period, he bought a ship and began to sail the British Isles and the Mediterranean, his adventures providing much inspiration for his compositions. He continued to write through the 1870s.

Altogether, Verne wrote more than 70 books, most notably the 54 novels comprising his collection called Voyages Extraordinaires. He died, ill with diabetes, in his home in Amiens, France in 1905.

Study Guides on Works by Jules Verne

Around the world in 80 days jules verne.

Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel written by renowned French author Jules Verne, published in 1873. It tells the story of Phileas Fogg, a resident of London, who makes a bet with the members of his club that he can...

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Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne

Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of its author’s most beloved works. Engaging the themes of space and time, geology, travel, and discovery, it is a fantastic fusion of science and adventure. This book is part of the series...

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne

It would be easy to credit Walt Disney with making Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea an adventurous cultural phenomenon, but in fact, credit should actually go to French author Jules Verne, whose penned this futuristic novel in 1870, almost...

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Jules Verne in English: A Bibliography of Modern Editions and Scholarly Studies

Verniana: Jules Verne Studies/Études Jules Verne

Related Papers

Science Fiction Studies

Arthur Evans

Australian Journal of French Studies

This article offers a detailed comparison of the original French editions of Jules Verne’s "Voyages Extraordinaires" and their English translations. Many of Verne’s most popular novels were severely abridged, simplified, and ideologically censored in their English-language versions. Several of these bowdlerized translations became the “standard” editions of Verne’s works in the UK and the US and are still being published today. As a result, most anglophone readers of Verne have never had the opportunity to read the real Verne. It seems clear that these poor translations are largely responsible for Verne’s reputation in anglophone countries as a prescient but non-literary writer of adventure stories for children. More modern and accurate English translations of Verne’s oeuvre are needed to correct this misconception. Originally published in Science Fiction Studies 32.1 (2005): 80-104.

Daniel Compère

Kieran M A T T H E W A N T H O N Y O'Driscoll

Narratives of Modernity

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Jules Verne

Studies in paris, literary debut, later years, death and posthumous publications, literary reception, english translations, relationship with science fiction, general sources, external links, online editions.

In addition to his novels, he wrote numerous plays, short stories, autobiographical accounts, poetry, songs, and scientific, artistic, and literary studies. His work has been adapted for film and television since the beginning of cinema, as well as for comic books, theater, opera, music and video games.

Verne is considered to be an important author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism . [4] His reputation was markedly different in the Anglosphere where he had often been labeled a writer of genre fiction or children's books, largely because of the highly abridged and altered translations in which his novels have often been printed. Since the 1980s, his literary reputation has improved. [5]

Jules Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare . [6] He has sometimes been called the "father of science fiction", a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback . [7] In the 2010s, he was the most translated French author in the world. In France, 2005 was declared "Jules Verne Year" on the occasion of the centenary of the writer's death.

Verne was born on 8 February 1828, on Île Feydeau, a then small artificial island on the river Loire within the town of Nantes (later filled-in and incorporated into the surrounding land-area), in No. 4 Rue Olivier-de-Clisson, the house of his maternal grandmother Dame Sophie Marie Adélaïde Julienne Allotte de La Fuÿe (born Guillochet de La Perrière). [8] His parents were Pierre Verne, an attorney originally from Provins , and Sophie Allotte de La Fuÿe, a Nantes woman from a local family of navigators and shipowners, of distant Scottish descent. [9] [lower-alpha 2] In 1829, the Verne family moved some hundred metres away to No. 2 Quai Jean-Bart, where Verne's brother Paul was born the same year. Three sisters, Anne "Anna" (1836), Mathilde (1839), and Marie (1842) would follow. [9]

In 1834, at the age of six, Verne was sent to boarding school at 5 Place du Bouffay in Nantes. The teacher, Madame Sambin, was the widow of a naval captain who had disappeared some 30 years before. [10] Madame Sambin often told the students that her husband was a shipwrecked castaway and that he would eventually return like Robinson Crusoe from his desert island paradise. [11] The theme of the robinsonade would stay with Verne throughout his life and appear in many of his novels, some of which include The Mysterious Island (1874), Second Fatherland (1900), and The School for Robinsons (1882).

In 1836, Verne went on to École Saint‑Stanislas, a Catholic school suiting the pious religious tastes of his father. Verne quickly distinguished himself in mémoire (recitation from memory), geography, Greek, Latin, and singing. [12] In the same year, 1836, Pierre Verne bought a vacation house at 29 Rue des Réformés in the village of Chantenay (now part of Nantes) on the Loire. [13] In his brief memoir Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse ( Memories of Childhood and Youth , 1890), Verne recalled a deep fascination with the river and with the many merchant vessels navigating it. [14] He also took vacations at Brains , in the house of his uncle Prudent Allotte, a retired shipowner, who had gone around the world and served as mayor of Brains from 1828 to 1837. Verne took joy in playing interminable rounds of the Game of the Goose with his uncle, and both the game and his uncle's name would be memorialized in two late novels ( The Will of an Eccentric (1900) and Robur the Conqueror (1886), respectively). [14] [15]

Legend has it that in 1839, at the age of 11, Verne secretly procured a spot as cabin boy on the three-mast ship Coralie with the intention of traveling to the Indies and bringing back a coral necklace for his cousin Caroline. The evening the ship set out for the Indies, it stopped first at Paimboeuf where Pierre Verne arrived just in time to catch his son and make him promise to travel "only in his imagination". [16] It is now known that the legend is an exaggerated tale invented by Verne's first biographer, his niece Marguerite Allotte de la Füye, though it may have been inspired by a real incident. [17]

In 1840, the Vernes moved again to a large apartment at No. 6 Rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, where the family's youngest child, Marie, was born in 1842. [13] In the same year Verne entered another religious school, the Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien, as a lay student. His unfinished novel Un prêtre en 1839 ( A Priest in 1839 ), written in his teens and the earliest of his prose works to survive, [18] describes the seminary in disparaging terms. [12] From 1844 to 1846, Verne and his brother were enrolled in the Lycée Royal (now the Lycée Georges-Clemenceau ) in Nantes. After finishing classes in rhetoric and philosophy, he took the baccalauréat at Rennes and received the grade "Good Enough" on 29 July 1846. [19]

By 1847, when Verne was 19, he had taken seriously to writing long works in the style of Victor Hugo , beginning Un prêtre en 1839 and seeing two verse tragedies, Alexandre VI and La Conspiration des poudres ( The Gunpowder Plot ), to completion. [18] However, his father took it for granted that Verne, being the firstborn son of the family, would not attempt to make money in literature but would instead inherit the family law practice. [20]

In 1847, Verne's father sent him to Paris, primarily to begin his studies in law school, and secondarily (according to family legend) to distance him temporarily from Nantes. [21] [22] His cousin Caroline, with whom he was in love, was married on 27 April 1847, to Émile Dezaunay, a man of 40, with whom she would have five children. [23]

After a short stay in Paris, where he passed first-year law exams, Verne returned to Nantes for his father's help in preparing for the second year. (Provincial law students were in that era required to go to Paris to take exams.) [24] While in Nantes, he met Rose Herminie Arnaud Grossetière, a young woman one year his senior, and fell intensely in love with her. He wrote and dedicated some thirty poems to her, including La Fille de l'air ( The Daughter of Air ), which describes her as "blonde and enchanting / winged and transparent". [25] His passion seems to have been reciprocated, at least for a short time, [22] but Grossetière's parents frowned upon the idea of their daughter marrying a young student of uncertain future. They married her instead to Armand Terrien de la Haye, a rich landowner ten years her senior, on 19 July 1848. [26]

The sudden marriage sent Verne into deep frustration. He wrote a hallucinatory letter to his mother, apparently composed in a state of half-drunkenness, in which under pretext of a dream he described his misery. [27] This requited but aborted love affair seems to have permanently marked the author and his work, and his novels include a significant number of young women married against their will (Gérande in Master Zacharius (1854), Sava in Mathias Sandorf (1885), Ellen in A Floating City (1871), etc.), to such an extent that the scholar Christian Chelebourg attributed the recurring theme to a "Herminie complex". [28] The incident also led Verne to bear a grudge against his birthplace and Nantes society, which he criticized in his poem La sixième ville de France ( The Sixth City of France ). [29] [30]

In July 1848, Verne left Nantes again for Paris, where his father intended him to finish law studies and take up law as a profession. He obtained permission from his father to rent a furnished apartment at 24 Rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie, which he shared with Édouard Bonamy, another student of Nantes origin. [27] (On his 1847 Paris visit, Verne had stayed at 2 Rue Thérèse, the house of his aunt Charuel, on the Butte Saint-Roch.) [31]

Verne arrived in Paris during a time of political upheaval: the French Revolution of 1848 . In February, Louis Philippe I had been overthrown and had fled; on 24 February, a provisional government of the French Second Republic took power, but political demonstrations continued, and social tension remained. In June, barricades went up in Paris, and the government sent Louis-Eugène Cavaignac to crush the insurrection. Verne entered the city shortly before the election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte as the first president of the Republic, a state of affairs that would last until the French coup of 1851 . In a letter to his family, Verne described the bombarded state of the city after the recent June Days uprising but assured them that the anniversary of Bastille Day had gone by without any significant conflict. [32]

Verne used his family connections to make an entrance into Paris society. His uncle Francisque de Chatêaubourg introduced him into literary salons , and Verne particularly frequented those of Mme de Barrère, a friend of his mother's. [33] While continuing his law studies, he fed his passion for the theater, writing numerous plays. Verne later recalled: "I was greatly under the influence of Victor Hugo , indeed, very excited by reading and re-reading his works. At that time I could have recited by heart whole pages of Notre Dame de Paris , but it was his dramatic work that most influenced me." [34] Another source of creative stimulation came from a neighbor: living on the same floor in the Rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie apartment house was a young composer, Aristide Hignard , with whom Verne soon became good friends, and Verne wrote several texts for Hignard to set as chansons . [35]

During this period, Verne's letters to his parents primarily focused on expenses and on a suddenly appearing series of violent stomach cramps , [36] the first of many he would suffer from during his life. (Modern scholars have hypothesized that he suffered from colitis ; [36] Verne believed the illness to have been inherited from his mother's side. [37] ) Rumors of an outbreak of cholera in March 1849 exacerbated these medical concerns. [36] Yet another health problem would strike in 1851 when Verne suffered the first of four attacks of facial paralysis . These attacks, rather than being psychosomatic , were due to an inflammation in the middle ear , though this cause remained unknown to Verne during his life. [38]

In the same year, Verne was required to enlist in the French army, but the sortition process spared him, to his great relief. He wrote to his father: "You should already know, dear papa, what I think of the military life, and of these domestic servants in livery. … You have to abandon all dignity to perform such functions." [39] Verne's strong antiwar sentiments, to the dismay of his father, would remain steadfast throughout his life. [39]

Though writing profusely and frequenting the salons, Verne diligently pursued his law studies and graduated with a licence en droit in January 1851. [40]

Thanks to his visits to salons, Verne came into contact in 1849 with Alexandre Dumas through the mutual acquaintance of a celebrated chirologist of the time, the Chevalier d'Arpentigny. [40] Verne became close friends with Dumas' son, Alexandre Dumas fils , and showed him a manuscript for a stage comedy, Les Pailles rompues ( The Broken Straws ). The two young men revised the play together, and Dumas, through arrangements with his father, had it produced by the Opéra-National at the Théâtre Historique in Paris, opening on 12 June 1850. [41]

In 1851, Verne met with a fellow writer from Nantes, Pierre-Michel-François Chevalier (known as "Pitre-Chevalier"), the editor-in-chief of the magazine Musée des familles ( The Family Museum ). [42] Pitre-Chevalier was looking for articles about geography, history, science, and technology, and was keen to make sure that the educational component would be made accessible to large popular audiences using a straightforward prose style or an engaging fictional story. Verne, with his delight in diligent research, especially in geography, was a natural for the job. [43] Verne first offered him a short historical adventure story , The First Ships of the Mexican Navy , written in the style of James Fenimore Cooper , whose novels had deeply influenced him. [42] Pitre-Chevalier published it in July 1851, and in the same year published a second short story by Verne, A Voyage in a Balloon (August 1851). The latter story, with its combination of adventurous narrative, travel themes, and detailed historical research, would later be described by Verne as "the first indication of the line of novel that I was destined to follow". [34]

Dumas fils put Verne in contact with Jules Seveste, a stage director who had taken over the directorship of the Théâtre Historique and renamed it the Théâtre Lyrique . Seveste offered Verne the job of secretary of the theater, with little or no salary attached. [9] Verne accepted, using the opportunity to write and produce several comic operas written in collaboration with Hignard and the prolific librettist Michel Carré . [44] To celebrate his employment at the Théâtre Lyrique, Verne joined with ten friends to found a bachelors' dining club, the Onze-sans-femme ( Eleven Bachelors ). [45]

For some time, Verne's father pressed him to abandon his writing and begin a business as a lawyer. However, Verne argued in his letters that he could only find success in literature. [46] The pressure to plan for a secure future in law reached its climax in January 1852, when his father offered Verne his own Nantes law practice. [47] Faced with this ultimatum, Verne decided conclusively to continue his literary life and refuse the job, writing: "Am I not right to follow my own instincts? It's because I know who I am that I realize what I can be one day." [48]

Meanwhile, Verne was spending much time at the Bibliothèque nationale de France , conducting research for his stories and feeding his passion for science and recent discoveries, especially in geography . It was in this period that Verne met the illustrious geographer and explorer Jacques Arago , who continued to travel extensively despite his blindness (he had lost his sight completely in 1837). The two men became good friends, and Arago's innovative and witty accounts of his travels led Verne toward a newly developing genre of literature: that of travel writing . [49] [50]

In 1852, two new pieces from Verne appeared in the Musée des familles : Martin Paz , a novella set in Lima , which Verne wrote in 1851 and published 10 July through 11 August 1852, and Les Châteaux en Californie, ou, Pierre qui roule n'amasse pas mousse ( The Castles in California, or, A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss ), a one-act comedy full of racy double entendres . [51] In April and May 1854, the magazine published Verne's short story Master Zacharius , an E. T. A. Hoffmann -like fantasy featuring a sharp condemnation of scientific hubris and ambition, [52] followed soon afterward by A Winter Amid the Ice , a polar adventure story whose themes closely anticipated many of Verne's novels. [53] The Musée also published some nonfiction popular science articles which, though unsigned, are generally attributed to Verne. [43] Verne's work for the magazine was cut short in 1856 when he had a serious quarrel with Pitre-Chevalier and refused to continue contributing (a refusal he would maintain until 1863, when Pitre-Chevalier died, and the magazine went to new editorship). [54]

While writing stories and articles for Pitre-Chevalier, Verne began to form the idea of inventing a new kind of novel, a "Roman de la Science" ("novel of science"), which would allow him to incorporate large amounts of the factual information he so enjoyed researching in the Bibliothèque. He is said to have discussed the project with the elder Alexandre Dumas, who had tried something similar with an unfinished novel, Isaac Laquedem , and who enthusiastically encouraged Verne's project. [55]

At the end of 1854, another outbreak of cholera led to the death of Jules Seveste, Verne's employer at the Théâtre Lyrique and by then a good friend. [53] Though his contract only held him to a further year of service, Verne remained connected to the theater for several years after Seveste's death, seeing additional productions to fruition. [56] He also continued to write plays and musical comedies, most of which were not performed. [54]

In May 1856, Verne traveled to Amiens to be the best man at the wedding of a Nantes friend, Auguste Lelarge, to an Amiens woman named Aimée du Fraysne de Viane. Verne, invited to stay with the bride's family, took to them warmly, befriending the entire household and finding himself increasingly attracted to the bride's sister, Honorine Anne Hébée Morel (née du Fraysne de Viane), a widow aged 26 with two young children. [57] [58] Hoping to find a secure source of income, as well as a chance to court Morel in earnest, he jumped at her brother's offer to go into business with a broker. [59] Verne's father was initially dubious but gave in to his son's requests for approval in November 1856. With his financial situation finally looking promising, Verne won the favor of Morel and her family, and the couple were married on 10 January 1857. [60]

Verne plunged into his new business obligations, leaving his work at the Théâtre Lyrique and taking up a full-time job as an agent de change [54] on the Paris Bourse , where he became the associate of the broker Fernand Eggly. [61] Verne woke up early each morning so that he would have time to write, before going to the Bourse for the day's work; in the rest of his spare time, he continued to consort with the Onze-Sans-Femme club (all eleven of its "bachelors" had by this time married). He also continued to frequent the Bibliothèque to do scientific and historical research, much of which he copied onto notecards for future use—a system he would continue for the rest of his life. [54] According to the recollections of a colleague, Verne "did better in repartee than in business". [61]

In July 1858, Verne and Aristide Hignard seized an opportunity offered by Hignard's brother: a sea voyage, at no charge, from Bordeaux to Liverpool and Scotland. The journey, Verne's first trip outside France, deeply impressed him, and upon his return to Paris he fictionalized his recollections to form the backbone of a semi-autobiographical novel, Backwards to Britain (written in the autumn and winter of 1859–1860 and not published until 1989). [62] A second complimentary voyage in 1861 took Hignard and Verne to Stockholm , from where they traveled to Christiania and through Telemark . [63] Verne left Hignard in Denmark to return in haste to Paris, but missed the birth on 3 August 1861 of his only biological son, Michel . [64]

Meanwhile, Verne continued work on the idea of a "Roman de la Science", which he developed in a rough draft, inspired, according to his recollections, by his "love for maps and the great explorers of the world". It took shape as a story of travel across Africa and would eventually become his first published novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon . [54]

In 1862, through their mutual acquaintance Alfred de Bréhat, Verne came into contact with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel , and submitted to him the manuscript of his developing novel, then called Voyage en Ballon . [65] Hetzel, already the publisher of Honoré de Balzac , George Sand , Victor Hugo , and other well-known authors, had long been planning to launch a high-quality family magazine in which entertaining fiction would combine with scientific education. [66] He saw Verne, with his demonstrated inclination toward scrupulously researched adventure stories, as an ideal contributor for such a magazine, and accepted the novel, giving Verne suggestions for improvement. Verne made the proposed revisions within two weeks and returned to Hetzel with the final draft, now titled Five Weeks in a Balloon . [67] It was published by Hetzel on 31 January 1863. [68]

To secure his services for the planned magazine, to be called the Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation ( Magazine of Education and Recreation ), Hetzel also drew up a long-term contract in which Verne would give him three volumes of text per year, each of which Hetzel would buy outright for a flat fee. Verne, finding both a steady salary and a sure outlet for writing at last, accepted immediately. [69] For the rest of his lifetime, most of his novels would be serialized in Hetzel's Magasin before their appearance in book form, beginning with his second novel for Hetzel, The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1864–65). [68]

When The Adventures of Captain Hatteras was published in book form in 1866, Hetzel publicly announced his literary and educational ambitions for Verne's novels by saying in a preface that Verne's works would form a novel sequence called the Voyages extraordinaires ( Extraordinary Voyages or Extraordinary Journeys ), and that Verne's aim was "to outline all the geographical, geological, physical, and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science and to recount, in an entertaining and picturesque format that is his own, the history of the universe". [70] Late in life, Verne confirmed that this commission had become the running theme of his novels: "My object has been to depict the earth, and not the earth alone, but the universe… And I have tried at the same time to realize a very high ideal of beauty of style. It is said that there can't be any style in a novel of adventure, but it isn't true." [71] However, he also noted that the project was extremely ambitious: "Yes! But the Earth is very large, and life is very short! In order to leave a completed work behind, one would need to live to be at least 100 years old!" [72]

Hetzel influenced many of Verne's novels directly, especially in the first few years of their collaboration, for Verne was initially so happy to find a publisher that he agreed to almost all of the changes Hetzel suggested. For example, when Hetzel disapproved of the original climax of Captain Hatteras , including the death of the title character, Verne wrote an entirely new conclusion in which Hatteras survived. [73] Hetzel also rejected Verne's next submission, Paris in the Twentieth Century , believing its pessimistic view of the future and its condemnation of technological progress were too subversive for a family magazine. [74] (The manuscript, believed lost for some time after Verne's death, was finally published in 1994.) [75]

The relationship between publisher and writer changed significantly around 1869 when Verne and Hetzel were brought into conflict over the manuscript for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas . Verne had initially conceived of the submariner Captain Nemo as a Polish scientist whose acts of vengeance were directed against the Russians who had killed his family during the January Uprising . Hetzel, not wanting to alienate the lucrative Russian market for Verne's books, demanded that Nemo be made an enemy of the slave trade , a situation that would make him an unambiguous hero. Verne, after fighting vehemently against the change, finally invented a compromise in which Nemo's past is left mysterious. After this disagreement, Verne became notably cooler in his dealings with Hetzel, taking suggestions into consideration but often rejecting them outright. [76]

From that point, Verne published two or more volumes a year. The most successful of these are: Voyage au centre de la Terre ( Journey to the Center of the Earth , 1864); De la Terre à la Lune ( From the Earth to the Moon , 1865); Vingt mille lieues sous les mers ( Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas , 1869); and Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours ( Around the World in Eighty Days ), which first appeared in Le Temps in 1872. Verne could now live on his writings, but most of his wealth came from the stage adaptations of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (1874) and Michel Strogoff (1876), which he wrote with Adolphe d'Ennery . [77]

In 1867, Verne bought a small boat, the Saint-Michel , which he successively replaced with the Saint-Michel II and the Saint-Michel III as his financial situation improved. On board the Saint-Michel III , he sailed around Europe. After his first novel, most of his stories were first serialised in the Magazine d'Éducation et de Récréation , a Hetzel biweekly publication, before being published in book form. His brother Paul contributed to 40th French climbing of the Mont-Blanc and a collection of short stories – Doctor Ox – in 1874. Verne became wealthy and famous. [78]

Meanwhile, Michel Verne married an actress against his father's wishes, had two children by an underage mistress and buried himself in debts. [79] The relationship between father and son improved as Michel grew older. [80]

Though raised as a Roman Catholic , Verne gravitated towards deism . [81] [82] Some scholars [ which? ] believe his novels reflect a deist philosophy, as they often involve the notion of God or divine providence but rarely mention the concept of Christ. [83] [84]

On 9 March 1886, as Verne returned home, his twenty-six-year-old nephew, Gaston, shot at him twice with a pistol . The first bullet missed, but the second one entered Verne's left leg, giving him a permanent limp that could not be overcome. This incident was not publicised in the media, but Gaston spent the rest of his life in a mental asylum . [85]

After the deaths of both his mother and Hetzel (who died in 1886), Jules Verne began publishing darker works. In 1888 he entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens , where he championed several improvements and served for fifteen years. [86]

Verne was made a knight of France's Legion of Honour on 9 April 1870, [87] and subsequently promoted in Legion of Honour rank to Officer on 19 July 1892. [88]

On 24 March 1905, while ill with chronic diabetes and complications from a stroke which paralyzed his right side, Verne died at his home in Amiens , [89] 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne). His son, Michel Verne, oversaw the publication of the novels Invasion of the Sea and The Lighthouse at the End of the World after Jules's death. The Voyages extraordinaires series continued for several years afterwards at the same rate of two volumes a year. It was later discovered that Michel Verne had made extensive changes in these stories, [3] and the original versions were eventually published at the end of the 20th century by the Jules Verne Society (Société Jules Verne). In 1919, Michel Verne published The Barsac Mission ( French: L'Étonnante Aventure de la Mission Barsac ), whose original drafts contained references to Esperanto , [90] a language that his father had been very interested in. [91] [92]

In 1989, Verne's great-grandson discovered his ancestor's as-yet-unpublished novel Paris in the Twentieth Century , which was subsequently published in 1994. [93]

Image gallery

Verne's largest body of work is the Voyages extraordinaires series, which includes all of his novels except for the two rejected manuscripts Paris in the Twentieth Century and Backwards to Britain (published posthumously in 1994 and 1989, respectively) and for projects left unfinished at his death (many of which would be posthumously adapted or rewritten for publication by his son Michel). [94] Verne also wrote many plays, poems, song texts, operetta libretti , and short stories, as well as a variety of essays and miscellaneous non-fiction.

After his debut under Hetzel, Verne was enthusiastically received in France by writers and scientists alike, with George Sand and Théophile Gautier among his earliest admirers. [95] Several notable contemporary figures, from the geographer Vivien de Saint-Martin to the critic Jules Claretie , spoke highly of Verne and his works in critical and biographical notes. [96]

However, Verne's growing popularity among readers and playgoers (due especially to the highly successful stage version of Around the World in Eighty Days ) led to a gradual change in his literary reputation. As the novels and stage productions continued to sell, many contemporary critics felt that Verne's status as a commercially popular author meant he could only be seen as a mere genre-based storyteller, rather than a serious author worthy of academic study. [97]

This denial of formal literary status took various forms, including dismissive criticism by such writers as Émile Zola and the lack of Verne's nomination for membership in the Académie Française , [97] and was recognized by Verne himself, who said in a late interview: "The great regret of my life is that I have never taken any place in French literature." [98] To Verne, who considered himself "a man of letters and an artist, living in the pursuit of the ideal", [99] this critical dismissal on the basis of literary ideology could only be seen as the ultimate snub. [100]

This bifurcation of Verne as a popular genre writer but a critical persona non grata continued after his death, with early biographies (including one by Verne's own niece, Marguerite Allotte de la Fuÿe) focusing on error-filled and embroidered hagiography of Verne as a popular figure rather than on Verne's actual working methods or his output. [101] Meanwhile, sales of Verne's novels in their original unabridged versions dropped markedly even in Verne's home country, with abridged versions aimed directly at children taking their place. [102]

However, the decades after Verne's death also saw the rise in France of the "Jules Verne cult", a steadily growing group of scholars and young writers who took Verne's works seriously as literature and willingly noted his influence on their own pioneering works. Some of the cult founded the Société Jules Verne, the first academic society for Verne scholars; many others became highly respected avant garde and surrealist literary figures in their own right. Their praise and analyses, emphasizing Verne's stylistic innovations and enduring literary themes, proved highly influential for literary studies to come. [103]

In the 1960s and 1970s, thanks in large part to a sustained wave of serious literary study from well-known French scholars and writers, Verne's reputation skyrocketed in France. [104] [105] Roland Barthes ' seminal essay Nautilus et Bateau Ivre ( The Nautilus and the Drunken Boat ) was influential in its exegesis of the Voyages extraordinares as a purely literary text, while book-length studies by such figures as Marcel Moré and Jean Chesneaux considered Verne from a multitude of thematic vantage points. [106]

French literary journals devoted entire issues to Verne and his work, with essays by such imposing literary figures as Michel Butor , Georges Borgeaud , Marcel Brion , Pierre Versins , Michel Foucault , René Barjavel , Marcel Lecomte , Francis Lacassin , and Michel Serres ; meanwhile, Verne's entire published opus returned to print, with unabridged and illustrated editions of his works printed by Livre de Poche and Éditions Rencontre . [107] The wave reached its climax in Verne's sesquicentennial year 1978, when he was made the subject of an academic colloquium at the Centre culturel international de Cerisy-la-Salle , and Journey to the Center of the Earth was accepted for the French university system's agrégation reading list. Since these events, Verne has been consistently recognized in Europe as a legitimate member of the French literary canon, with academic studies and new publications steadily continuing. [108]

Verne's reputation in English-speaking countries has been considerably slower in changing. Throughout the 20th century, most anglophone scholars dismissed Verne as a genre writer for children and a naïve proponent of science and technology (despite strong evidence to the contrary on both counts), thus finding him more interesting as a technological "prophet" or as a subject of comparison to English-language writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and H. G. Wells than as a topic of literary study in his own right. This narrow view of Verne has undoubtedly been influenced by the poor-quality English translations and very loosely adapted Hollywood film versions through which most American and British readers have discovered Verne. [5] [109] However, since the mid-1980s a considerable number of serious English-language studies and translations have appeared, suggesting that a rehabilitation of Verne's anglophone reputation may currently be underway. [110] [111]

Translation of Verne into English began in 1852, when Verne's short story A Voyage in a Balloon (1851) was published in the American journal Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art in a translation by Anne T. Wilbur. [112] Translation of his novels began in 1869 with William Lackland's translation of Five Weeks in a Balloon (originally published in 1863), [113] and continued steadily throughout Verne's lifetime, with publishers and hired translators often working in great haste to rush his most lucrative titles into English-language print. [114] Unlike Hetzel, who targeted all ages with his publishing strategies for the Voyages extraordinaires , the British and American publishers of Verne chose to market his books almost exclusively to young audiences; this business move, with its implication that Verne could be treated purely as a children's author, had a long-lasting effect on Verne's reputation in English-speaking countries. [110] [115]

These early English-language translations have been widely criticized for their extensive textual omissions, errors, and alterations, and are not considered adequate representations of Verne's actual novels. [114] [116] [117] In an essay for The Guardian , British writer Adam Roberts commented: "I'd always liked reading Jules Verne and I've read most of his novels; but it wasn't until recently that I really understood I hadn't been reading Jules Verne at all ... It's a bizarre situation for a world-famous writer to be in. Indeed, I can't think of a major writer who has been so poorly served by translation." [116]

Similarly, the American novelist Michael Crichton observed:

Verne's prose is lean and fast-moving in a peculiarly modern way ... [but] Verne has been particularly ill-served by his English translators. At best they have provided us with clunky, choppy, tone-deaf prose. At worst – as in the notorious 1872 "translation" [of Journey to the Center of the Earth ] published by Griffith & Farran – they have blithely altered the text, giving Verne's characters new names, and adding whole pages of their own invention, thus effectively obliterating the meaning and tone of Verne's original. [117]

Since 1965, a considerable number of more accurate English translations of Verne have appeared. However, the older, deficient translations continue to be republished due to their public domain status, and in many cases their easy availability in online sources. [110]

The relationship between Verne's Voyages extraordinaires and the literary genre science fiction is a complex one. Verne, like H. G. Wells , is frequently cited as one of the founders of the genre, and his profound influence on its development is indisputable; however, many earlier writers, such as Lucian of Samosata , Voltaire , and Mary Shelley , have also been cited as creators of science fiction, an unavoidable ambiguity arising from the vague definition and history of the genre . [7]

A primary issue at the heart of the dispute is the question of whether Verne's works count as science fiction to begin with. Maurice Renard claimed that Verne "never wrote a single sentence of scientific-marvelous". [118] Verne himself argued repeatedly in interviews that his novels were not meant to be read as scientific, saying "I have invented nothing". [119] His own goal was rather to "depict the earth [and] at the same time to realize a very high ideal of beauty of style", [71] as he pointed out in an example:

I wrote Five Weeks in a Balloon , not as a story about ballooning, but as a story about Africa. I always was greatly interested in geography, history and travel, and I wanted to give a romantic description of Africa. Now, there was no means of taking my travellers through Africa otherwise than in a balloon, and that is why a balloon is introduced.… I may say that at the time I wrote the novel, as now, I had no faith in the possibility of ever steering balloons… [71]

Closely related to Verne's science-fiction reputation is the often-repeated claim that he is a " prophet " of scientific progress, and that many of his novels involve elements of technology that were fantastic for his day but later became commonplace. [120] These claims have a long history, especially in America, but the modern scholarly consensus is that such claims of prophecy are heavily exaggerated. [121] In a 1961 article critical of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas ' scientific accuracy, Theodore L. Thomas speculated that Verne's storytelling skill and readers' faulty memories of a book they read as children caused people to "remember things from it that are not there. The impression that the novel contains valid scientific prediction seems to grow as the years roll by". [122] As with science fiction, Verne himself flatly denied that he was a futuristic prophet, saying that any connection between scientific developments and his work was "mere coincidence" and attributing his indisputable scientific accuracy to his extensive research: "even before I began writing stories, I always took numerous notes out of every book, newspaper, magazine, or scientific report that I came across." [123]

Verne's novels have had a wide influence on both literary and scientific works; writers known to have been influenced by Verne include Marcel Aymé , Roland Barthes , René Barjavel , Michel Butor , Blaise Cendrars , Paul Claudel , Jean Cocteau , Julio Cortázar , François Mauriac , Rick Riordan , Raymond Roussel , Claude Roy , Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , and Jean-Paul Sartre , [124] while scientists and explorers who acknowledged Verne's inspiration have included Richard E. Byrd , Yuri Gagarin , Simon Lake , Hubert Lyautey , Guglielmo Marconi , Fridtjof Nansen , Konstantin Tsiolkovsky , Wernher von Braun , [109] and Jack Parsons . [125] Verne is credited with helping inspire the steampunk genre, a literary and social movement that glamorizes science fiction based on 19th-century technology. [126] [127]

Ray Bradbury summarized Verne's influence on literature and science the world over by saying: "We are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne." [128]

• Legion of Honour
• List of Legion of Honour recipients by name (V)
• Legion of Honour Museum
• Scientific Marvelous
• ↑ These six, and most of Verne's novels, were published in the Voyages extraordinaires series.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   1: "On his mother's side, Verne is known to be descended from one 'N. Allott, Scotsman', who came to France to serve in the Scots Guards of Louis XI and rose to earn a title (in 1462). He built his castle, complete with dovecote or fuye (a privilege in the royal gift), near Loudun in Anjou and took the noble name of Allotte de la Fuye."

Related Research Articles

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.

The Voyages extraordinaires is a collection or sequence of novels and short stories by the French writer Jules Verne.

Paris in the Twentieth Century is a science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The book presents Paris in August 1960, 97 years in Verne's future, when society places value only on business and technology.

Les Indes noires is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, serialized in Le Temps in March and April 1877 and published immediately afterward by Pierre-Jules Hetzel. The first UK edition was published in October 1877 by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington as The Child of the Cavern, or Strange Doings Underground . Other English titles for the novel include Black Diamonds and The Underground City .

Dr. Ox's Experiment is a humorous science fiction short story by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1872. It describes an experiment by one Dr. Ox, and is inspired by the real or alleged effects of oxygen on living things.

Facing the Flag or For the Flag is an 1896 patriotic novel by Jules Verne. The book is part of the Voyages extraordinaires series.

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The Barsac Mission is a novel attributed to Jules Verne and written by his son Michel Verne. First serialized in 1914, it was published in book form by Hachette in 1919. An English adaptation by I. O. Evans was published in 1960 in two volumes, Into the Niger Bend and The City in the Sahara . It includes a hidden city, called in English "Blackland", in the Sahara Desert.

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Jules Verne (1828–1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Most famous for his novel sequence, the Voyages Extraordinaires , Verne also wrote assorted short stories, plays, miscellaneous novels, essays, and poetry. His works are notable for their profound influence on science fiction and on surrealism, their innovative use of modernist literary techniques such as self-reflexivity, and their complex combination of positivist and romantic ideologies.

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• ↑ Longman Pronunciation Dictionary .
• 1 2 3 Evans, Arthur B. (23 April 2020). "Jules Verne: French author". In Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (online   ed.). Archived from the original on 20 September 2020 . Retrieved 22 September 2020 .
• ↑ Angenot 1973 , p.   34.
• 1 2 Evans 2000 , p.   33.
• ↑ UNESCO 2013 .
• 1 2 Roberts, Adam (2000), Science Fiction , London: Routledge, p.   48
• ↑ Butcher 2006 , pp.   5–6.
• 1 2 3 Butcher 2007 .
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   3.
• ↑ Allotte de la Fuÿe 1956 , p.   20.
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , p.   9.
• 1 2 Terres d'écrivains 2003 .
• 1 2 Verne 1890 , §2.
• ↑ Compère 1997b , p.   35.
• ↑ Allotte de la Fuÿe 1956 , p.   26.
• ↑ Pérez, de Vries & Margot 2008 , C9 .
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , p.   17.
• ↑ Compère 1997a , p.   20.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   19.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   10.
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , p.   14.
• ↑ Martin 1973 .
• ↑ Compère 1997c , p.   41.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , pp.   14–15.
• ↑ Martin 1974 .
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , p.   24.
• ↑ Chelebourg 1986 .
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   16.
• ↑ Verne 2000 .
• ↑ Compère 1997c , p.   42.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   12.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   17.
• 1 2 Sherard 1894 , §3.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   32.
• 1 2 3 Lottmann 1996 , p.   25.
• ↑ Dumas 1988 , p.   372: "Je suis bien Allotte sous le rapport de l'estomac."
• ↑ Dumas 2000 , p.   51: "La paralysie faciale de Jules Verne n'est pas psychosomatique, mais due seulement à une inflammation de l'oreille moyenne dont l'œdème comprime le nerf facial correspondant. Le médiocre chauffage du logement de l'étudiant entraîne la fréquence de ses refroidissements. L'explication de cette infirmité reste ignorée de l'écrivain; il vit dans la permanente inquiétude d'un dérèglement nerveux, aboutissant à la folie."
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , p.   29.
• 1 2 Evans 1988 , p.   17.
• ↑ Dekiss & Dehs 1999 , p.   29.
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , p.   37.
• 1 2 Evans 1988 , p.   18.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , pp.   53, 58.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   27.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   38.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , pp.   46–47.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   47.
• ↑ Dekiss & Dehs 1999 , pp.   30–31.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , pp.   39–40.
• ↑ Margot 2005 , p.   151.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   57.
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , p.   58.
• 1 2 3 4 5 Evans 1988 , p.   19.
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• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   37.
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• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , pp.   66–67.
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• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   44.
• 1 2 Lottmann 1996 , pp.   76–78.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   79.
• ↑ Lottmann 1996 , p.   81; confusion regarding the year resolved with reference to Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   54, Butcher 2007 , and Pérez, de Vries & Margot 2008 , B6 .
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   54.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , pp.   54–55.
• ↑ Evans 1988 , pp.   23–24.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   56.
• 1 2 Dehs, Margot & Har'El 2007 , I
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , pp.   56–57.
• ↑ Evans 1988 , pp.   29–30.
• 1 2 3 Sherard 1894 , §4.
• ↑ Evans 1988 , p.   30.
• ↑ Evans 2001 , pp.   98–99.
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• ↑ Evans 1995 , p.   44.
• ↑ Evans 2001 , pp.   100–101.
• ↑ "Discovering More than Just the World" . Utah Shakespeare Festival . Retrieved 2 February 2021 .
• ↑ "Jules Verne | Biography & Facts" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 2 February 2021 .
• ↑ Verne, Jules (2012). Vice, Redemption and the Distant Colony . BearManor Media.
• ↑ Jules-Verne 1976 , p.   9: "After about 1870, Verne was less and less subservient to the discipline of the Church: his wife went to Mass without him and his views broadened into a kind of Christian-based deism."
• ↑ Costello, Peter (1978). Jules Verne, Inventor of Science Fiction . New York: Scribner. p.   34. ISBN   9780684158242 . Retrieved 9 March 2021 . Verne was to spend his life [...] moving as he grew older towards anarchy and a more generalised deism.
• ↑ Verne 2007 , p.   412.
• ↑ Oliver 2012 , p.   22.
• ↑ Lynch, Lawrence (1992). Twayne's World Authors Series 832. Jules Verne . New York: Twayne Publishers. p.   12.
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• ↑ "Verne, Jules Gabriel - Knight Certificate" . National Archives - Léonore Database (in French). France. 9 April 1870. p.   12/16. Archived from the original on 15 March 2022 . Retrieved 30 July 2021 . {{ cite web }} : CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link )
• ↑ "Verne, Jules Gabriel - Officer Certificate" . National Archives - Léonore Database (in French). France. 19 July 1892. p.   1/16. Archived from the original on 15 March 2022 . Retrieved 30 July 2021 . {{ cite web }} : CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link )
• ↑ "Mr. Jules Verne Lies Dead at Amiens" . Titusville Herald. 15 March 1905 . Retrieved 12 October 2021 .
• ↑ about that: Abel Montagut , Jules Verne kaj esperanto (la lasta romano) , Beletra Almanako, number 5 , June 2009, New York City, pages 78-95.
• ↑ Delcourt, M. - Amouroux, J. (1987): Jules Verne kaj la Internacia Lingvo. - La Brita Esperantisto , vol. 83, number 878, pages 300-301. London. Republished from Revue Française d'Esperanto , nov.-dec. 1977
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• "Statistics: 'Top 50' Author" , Index Translationum , UNESCO Culture Sector, 2013 , retrieved 6 August 2013 ; statistics on Index Translationum database (1979–present, updates processed upon receipt from UNESCO members states)
• Teague, Gypsey Elaine (2013), Steampunk Magic: Working Magic Aboard the Airship , Weiser Books, ISBN   9781609258405
• Verne, Jules (1890), "Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse" , Jules Verne Collection , Zvi Har'El, archived from the original on 24 April 2003 , retrieved 3 March 2013
• Verne, Jules (2000), "La sixieme ville de France" , Le Tour de Verne en 80 Mots , Gilles Carpentier , retrieved 3 March 2013
• Verne, Jules (2007), Arthur B. Evans (ed.), The Kip Brothers , translated by Stanford Luce, Introduction and notes by Jean-Michel Margot., Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press
• Zvi Har'El's Jules Verne Collection , an extensive resource from the early 2000s
• The Jules Verne Collecting Resource with sources, images, and ephemera
• The North American Jules Verne Society
• Maps from Verne's books
• "Jules Verne biography" . Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame .
• Jules Verne at IMDb
• Works by Jules Verne in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
• Works by Jules Verne at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Jules Verne at Internet Archive
• Works by Jules Verne at Faded Page (Canada)
• Jules Verne's works with concordances and frequency list

• Authority control databases International FAST