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: 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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• World Biography

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

The scientific author, Jules Verne is still remembered for his much celebrated works such as Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869). Jules Gabriel Verne was born in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France on February 8, 1828. He was the first child of Sophie Henriette Allotte de la Fuye and Pierre Verne, an attorney who had four more children following the birth of Jules. Living in a maritime port city and spending summers on the Loire River, Verne would closely observe the comings and goings of ships and schooners which developed his imagination for adventure and travelling. Jules had begum writing short stories and poetry while studying at boarding school after which he went to Paris to study law following the footsteps of his father. However, Verne seemed to be more interested in pursuing a career in theater rather than law much to the disappointment of his father. Verne wrote and worked in collaborations on many operettas, dramas and plays including Blind Man’s Bluff (1852). During this period, Verne collaborated with his musician friend Jean Louis Aristide Hignard several times.

In 1857, Verne married a widow named Honorine de Viane Morel who already had two daughters, Suzanne and Valentine. Verne and Honorine later had a son they named Michel Jean Verne. Jules worked at the stock market, but when he was not working there, Verne and his wife travelled in America, France and the British Isles. During these travels, Verne met other authors including Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo . Although many of his novels had previously been rejected by publishers, Verne’s literary career was launched after he became acquainted with publisher Pierre Jules Hetzel. Five Weeks in a Balloon was published in 1863 receiving immense acclaim. It was the first of the extraordinary series. Almost a year later in 1864 came Journey to the Center of the Earth followed by From the Earth to the Moon in 1865 and its 1870 sequel, All Around the Moon. Many of Verne’s novel were serialized in Hetzel’s Magazine d’Éducation et de Récréation before being published as complete books.

Verne and his wife spend a lot of time sailing on their ship, Saint-Michel. His sailing experiences and adventures became the inspiration for many other literary works such as The Adventures of a Special Correspondent (1872), The Mysterious Island (1875), The Survivors of the Chancellor (1875), Michael Strogoff (1876), and Dick Sand: A Captain at Fifteen (1878).

Jules Verne was selected councilor of Aimens in 1888. He spent fifteen years serving the position while continuing to travel and write. Some significant publications from this time include Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon (1881), Robur the Conqueror (1886), Ticket No. 9672 (1886), Facing the Flag (1896), and Master of the World (1904). Jules Verne died on March 24, 1905 after suffering from diabetes.

A true inventor and visionary, Jules Verne set ideas and wrote about many important inventions, conveniences and explorations we experience today. He predicted the use of hydrogen as an energy source as well as future technologies such as submarines, airplanes, helicopters and skyscrapers. He also wrote about ways of travelling to and exploring the north, south poles and the moon.

Buy Books by Jules Verne

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Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography

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Timothy Unwin, Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography, French Studies , Volume 62, Issue 3, July 2008, Pages 348–349, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knn031

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A biography that styles itself ‘definitive’ must, one imagines, either have valuable and authoritative new material to offer, or be making the rashest of promises to its readers. William Butcher's book does something of each, but steers a troubled course between well-considered reappraisal on the one hand, and ill-judged rhetoric on the other. Detailed work on published and unpublished material certainly produces a convincing portrait of Verne's difficult and complex relationship with his parents, his bohemian decades in Paris, his travels, his curious relationship with the publisher Hetzel, and — most valuably — on the changes that Hetzel imposed on many of the manuscripts. While this represents a significant advance on the last English-language biography (Lottman, 1997), it should also be seen in the context of much excellent recent work on Verne, most notably the publication of his correspondence with Hetzel, of his early theatrical writings, of contemporary reviews and témoignages , and of a major new biography (Dusseau, 2005). However, in an ill-tempered and hectoring introduction, Butcher rides roughshod over large swathes of scholarship, claiming that the ‘real’ Jules Verne has remained a largely invisible figure who will only now be revealed. While the ensuing pages offer a thorough account, much of it is inevitably dependent on the findings of the very biographers who were dismissed at the outset, and the dramatically promised ‘revelations’ are, in every case, deeply underwhelming. One example among many is the loudly trumpeted, but completely unsubstantiated claim that Jules Verne's brother Paul was the principal author of Une ville flottante , the short novel based on an account of a transatlantic journey the brothers made in 1867. Speculation often takes the place of hard information, too, in the narrative of Verne's early years. The habit of asking rhetorical questions at difficult moments can produce blatant tendentiousness, typically so in the description of Jules and Honorine's wedding: ‘While the priest was blessing the couple, did Verne's mind wander salaciously along to his previous conquests?’ (p. 123) Well, who can know? It is obvious, of course, that the biographer is claiming special insight here, as elsewhere, but such interventions bring an unfortunate strand of tabloid rhetoric into an otherwise serious and painstaking study. Altogether there is too much emphasis on Verne's troubled sex life and on the sexual ambiguity that has already been so fully explored by Moré, Soriano and others. Curiously, too, Verne's Scottish ancestry and his interest in Scotland are overplayed while, in contrast, there is disappointingly little about his political thinking; and the important final three decades of his life are covered hastily in fifty pages. In short, this biography contains much that is valuable, but it is well short of definitive, and its exaggerated claims should be treated with due scepticism.

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The Wild Life and Adventures of Jules Verne

Novelist, poet, playwright, and songwriter. Jules Verne was one of the most prolific writers in history. 

He was, no doubt, best known for his wildly-popular adventure novels,  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ,  Journey to the Center of the Earth ,  Around the World in Eighty Days , and  The Mysterious Island.  Several of these were made into major motion pictures. 

Considered one of the founding fathers of the science fiction genre, Verne’s approach to writing was a unique melding of factual science and fictional adventure. He invariably imagined a variety of innovations and technological advancements decades before they were practical realities. 

Nantes, France

Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in the port city of Nantes, to attorney Pierre Verne, and Sophie Allotte de La Fuÿe, one of two sisters from a family of local navigators and shipowners. 

In 1829, the Verne family moved from the home of Sophie’s maternal grandmother Dame Sophie Marie Adélaïde Julienne Allotte de La Fuÿe to Quai Jean-Bart. This was where Verne’s brother Paul was born that same year. Followed by sisters Anne in 1836, Mathilde in 1839, and Marie in 1842.  

School and Early Inspiration

In 1834, at the age of six, Verne was sent to a boarding school in Nantes. It was operated by Madame Sambin, the widow of a naval captain who disappeared some 30 years before. Sambin often told the children that her husband was a shipwrecked castaway who’d eventually return from his desert island paradise, like Robinson Crusoe. 

This “shipwrecked” theme would stick with Verne throughout his life and appear in several novels including, The Mysterious Island (1874), The School for Robinsons (1882), and Second Fatherland (1900). 

In 1836, Verne attended the Catholic École Saint-Stanislas. He quickly distinguished himself in the subjects of mémoire (recitation from memory), geography, Greek, Latin, and singing. 

That same year, his father bought a vacation house in the village of Chantenay (now part of Nantes) on the Loire River. In his memoir, Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse ( Memories of Childhood and Youth ), Verne recalls his fascination with the river and the vessels that navigate it.

Verne also vacationed at his uncle Prudent Allotte’s house at Brains. He was a retired shipowner who’d traveled the world. Verne enjoyed playing the board game “Game of the Goose” with his uncle. Both the game and his uncle’s name were later memorialized in two novels, Robur the Conqueror (1886), and The Will of an Eccentric (1900).

In 1840, the Vernes moved again, this time to a large apartment at Rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau. That same year Verne attended the seminary, Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien. 

Then from 1844 to 1846, he and his brother Paul were enrolled in the Lycée Royal (now the Lycée Georges-Clemenceau). This was a public secondary school in Nantes. Verne received his certificate of completion in July of 1846.

Writing vs. the Study of Law

By 1847, at the age of 19, Verne began writing his first serious work. He wrote  Un prêtre en 1839  ( A Priest in 1939),  based on his experience at Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien, and two verse tragedies,  Alexandre VI  (Pope  Alexander VI ) and  La Conspiration des poudres  ( The Gunpowder Plot ).

To redirect Verne’s interests toward the study of law, his father sent him to Paris to focus on law. His father assumed he would eventually inherit the family law practice. A short time later he passed his first-year exams. 

But rather than devote his time to pursuing his degree, Verne used his family clout to enter Paris society. His uncle Francisque de Chatêaubourg introduced him to the world of “literary salons.” These were social gatherings hosted by French intellectuals to discuss literature and philosophy . 

For the next three years, Verne fed his newly discovered passion for theater by writing numerous plays. He worked with French composer Jean-Louis Aristide Hignard, for whom he wrote a lyric to be set to music. 

He was doing this while fighting bouts of stomach cramps (possibly, colitis), facial paralysis (caused by a chronic middle ear inflammation), and trying to avoid his obligation to enlist in the French army. 

Despite having no intention to practice law, in January of 1851, Verne achieved his law degree.

Literary Debut

One useful consequence of his time spent frequenting salons was making the acquaintance of French Playwright Alexandre Dumas fils . 

After showing him a manuscript for a stage comedy called Les Pailles rompues ( The Broken Straws ), the two young men revised the play. Dumas had it produced by the Opéra-National at the Théâtre Historique, in Paris. It opened on June 12, 1850.

The following year, Verne met Pierre-Michel-François Chevalier. He was editor-in-chief of the magazine, Musée des familles ( The Family Museum ). He was seeking stories featuring geography, history, science, and technology. 

Verne offered him a short historical adventure called, “The First Ships of the Mexican Navy.” Chevalier published it in July 1851. Then a few months later he published “A Voyage in a Balloon.” 

A combination of adventurous narrative, travel themes, and detailed scientific research, “A Voyage . . .” would become the template for many major works to follow.

Elements of His Craft 

Verne began to frequent the Bibliothèque nationale de France. He spent time researching the individual elements that would constitute the components of his adventure tales. Particularly science topics and the latest discoveries (especially in geography). 

During this period, Verne met the famed writer and explorer Jacques Arago. Even though he lost his sight in 1837, he continued to travel extensively. The two men became close friends. Arago’s scintillating accounts of world travel led Verne toward the development of a new literary genre, “travel writing.” 

“Roman de la Science”

In 1852, Verne had two new pieces published in Musée des familles: Martin Paz .

The first was a novella set in Lima, Peru. And “Les Châteaux en Californie, ou, Pierre qui roule n’amasse pas mousse” (“The Castles in California, or, A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss”). This was a one-act comedy cleverly laced with sexual innuendos. 

In April and May of 1854, the magazine published two of Verne’s short stories, “Master Zacharius” and “A Winter Amid the Ice.”

At this point, Verne began formulating an idea for a new kind of novel. He called it a “Roman de la Science” (“novel of science”). This allowed him to incorporate large amounts of factual, science-based information. 

Meanwhile, Verne’s father pressed him to abandon writing and get down to the business of lawyering.  

In the Name of Love

In May of 1856, Verne traveled to Amiens, in northern France, to attend the wedding of boyhood friend, Auguste Lelarge. While there, he found himself attracted to the bride’s sister, Honorine Anne Hébée Morel. She was a 26-year-old widow with two young children. 

Needing to present himself as a “man of means” to formally court Mme Morel, Verne accepted an offer to work for stock broker, Fernand Eggly. This was a full-time position as an agent de change on the Paris Bourse (securities market). 

Winning the favor of Morel and her family, Verne and Morel were married on January 10, 1857.

Essentially leading a double life, Verne rose early each morning to write before going to the Bourse. He published his first book, Le Salon de 1857 (The 1857 Salon) , and conducted scientific and historical research in the evenings. 

Voyages to Fuel the Imagination

In July of 1858, Verne and composer Jean-Louis Hignard took advantage of an offer extended by Hignard’s brother, Auguste. The offer was to take a sea voyage from Bordeaux to Liverpool to Scotland. The journey would be Verne’s first trip outside France.

Upon return to Paris, Verne fictionalized his experiences to form the framework of a semi-autobiographical novel, Backwards to Britain (published in 1889). 

In 1861, Verne and Hignard took another voyage, this time to Stockholm (Sweden) and then Norway. Adding to his growing imagination, Verne continued to develop his “Roman de la Science.” The story that eventually developed was an African-set adventure called, Five Weeks in a Balloon (published in 1863) .

That same year, Michel Jean Pierre, Verne and his wife’s only child, was born.

Pierre-Jules Hetzel 

In 1862, Verne met publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. This was the man who would essentially put Verne and his writing on the literary map. 

They formed a writer/publisher collaboration that would span decades. Hetzel saw the commercial value in Verne’s writing that ultimately lead to the creation of Voyages extraordinaires . 

This was a series of short stories and adventure novels that included The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1864/1866), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). 

Hetzel’s goal with Voyages was to “outline all the geographical, geological, physical, historical and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science and to recount, in an entertaining and picturesque format . . . the history of the universe.” 

Verne’s fastidious attention to detail and scientific trivia, coupled with his natural sense of wonder and imagination, easily met Hetzel’s vision.  

Part of the appeal of Verne’s adventures was that readers could genuinely learn science and geography (as well as geology, biology, astronomy, paleontology, oceanography, and history) while visiting exotic lands and cultures around the globe. Some referred to Verne’s works as “encyclopedic novels.”

In all, fifty-four of Verne’s novels were published during his lifetime, between 1863 and 1905. Many of which became part of the Voyages series.

Rude Awakening

For the first several years of their collaboration, Hetzel influenced many of Verne’s novels. Verne was happy to have his work published. So he blindly agreed to his suggestions. 

But in 1869, a conflict regarding the storyline of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea awakened Verne to the reality that he and Hetzel were not equal partners. He realized that Hetzel wielded all control.

Verne had planned to make his protagonist, Captain Nemo, a Polish scientist whose acts of vengeance were directed against the Russians for killing his family during the “January Uprising.” This was a true-life insurrection in Russian-controlled Poland. 

But Hetzel objected to villainizing the Russian people. So Nemo’s motivation was left a mystery. From that time on, the relationship between the editor and writer was strained. Hetzel outright rejected many of Verne’s creative intentions. 

Even with the ongoing resentment, Verne published two or more volumes each year (per contract). The most successful were, Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon , Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days . 

Final Years

On April 9, 1870, Verne was made a knight of France’s Legion of Honour. On July 19, 1892, he was promoted to the rank of Officer.

By 1872, Verne was successful enough to live on income derived from his writing alone. But most of his wealth came from the stage adaptations of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (in 1874) and Michel Strogoff (1876). He wrote these with French playwright, Adolphe d’Ennery.

On March 9, 1886, Verne entered his home. His twenty-six-year-old mentally deranged nephew, Gaston, shot at him twice with a pistol. The first bullet missed. The second entered Verne’s left leg and caused permanent damage. Gaston spent the rest of his life in a mental asylum.

In addition to his leg injury, Verne later suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. He also fought chronic diabetes for the remainder of his life. 

On March 24, 1905, Verne died at the age of 77 at his home in Amiens, France, at 44 Boulevard Longueville. It is now renamed Boulevard Jules-Verne, in his honor. 

His son, Michel Verne, oversaw the publication of the novels Invasion of the Sea and The Lighthouse at the End of the World , after his father’s death. The Voyages extraordinaires series continued for several years under Michel’s management until it was discovered that he had altered his father’s stories. He was consequently forced to extricate himself. 

Legacy: Verne, the Visionary

Fans of Verne’s work often cite the esteemed writer’s ability to seemingly see into the future. It seems like he predicted the advent of technology and societal development. For example:

• Space Flight: Verne was one of the first writers to attempt to scientifically prove the possibility of space travel. He wrote extensively about it in From the Earth to the Moon , Around the Moon, and Hector Servadac.
• Modern Cities: In the 1860s, Verne wrote a dystopian look at life in 20th Century Paris. In it, he describes a world where society only values technology and commerce. People live and work in skyscrapers, and cars and high-speed trains are typical. This piece was rejected for publication.
• Computers, the Internet, Fax Machines: In Paris in the 20th Century , Verne describes sophisticated electrically-powered computers that perform various complex tasks in banks. They are able to transfer information over great distances. Essentially, computers using the Internet. Other machines called “photographic telegraphy” are essentially fax machines.
• Video Calling/Skyping: In “One Day in the Year of an American Journalist in 2889,” Verne describes a device called a “phonotelephot.” With this, two individuals can visually and audibly communicate—no matter where they are located.
• Weapons of Mass Destruction: In his novel, Five Hundred Million Begums , the antagonist creates a giant cannon. It launches projectiles containing liquefied carbon dioxide which when evaporated, dramatically lower the temperature. This causes “any living creature within thirty meters of the explosion must inevitably die from this chilling temperature and from suffocation.”

Legacy: Acknowledgments and Accolades

During the 20th Century, Verne’s works were translated into more than 140 languages. This made him one of the world’s most translated authors. 

Dozens of famed writers credit Verne with inspiring them to write, including Ray Bradbury. He is quoted as saying, “We are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne.” 

Beginning in 1916, with  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , many highly successful motion pictures were made from Verne novels. These included  The Mysterious Island  (1929 and 1961),  From the Earth to the Moon  (1958),  Journey to the Center of the Earth  (1959), and perhaps the most popular,  Around the World in 80 Days  (1956). 

Verne’s fans find it no surprise that his influence extends beyond literature and film. His influence extends into the world of science and technology. He continues to inspire scientists, inventors, and explorers. 

In 1954 the US Navy launched the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, christening it  Nautilus .  

Additionally, real-life adventurers like journalist Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (a.k.a. Nellie Bly), aviator Wiley Post, and businessman/aviator/sailor Steve Fossett, have all attempted to circumnavigate the globe in record-breaking times,  ala  Verne’s fictional hero, Phileas Fogg.

Verne is credited with helping inspire the literary, theatrical, and social movement that romanticizes science fiction based on 19th-century technology known as  Steampunk .

Britannica, “Jules Verne,” Jules Verne | Biography & Facts | Britannica 

Evans, Arthur, B., “Jules Verne and the French Literary Canon,” https://scholarship.depauw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=mlang_facpubs

Pérez, de Vries, Margot, “Jules Verne FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions,” Jules Verne FAQ [English] (gilead.org.il) 

Biography.com., “Jules Verne,” https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/jules-verne

WorldPredictions.com., “How Jules Verne predicted the future in his works,” How Jules Verne predicted the future in his works (theworldpredictions.com) 

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