Jules Verne

1
Jules Verne

• Steve Wood
• TCCC

2
Importance

• More than forty years before he had made an
  agreement with his publishers to produce two
  novels a year for the rest of his life for 4,000
  annually. Although his books had from the
  beginning an enormous sale, being translated into
  all the languages of Europe and Japanese and
  Arabic, he nobly stuck to his agreement, and at
  his death was twelve or fifteen books ahead of
  his contract, making a total of over one hundred
  novels either published or ready for
  publication.

3
The Teacher

• "You might tell your readers that these books in
  which I have published prophecies based upon the
  latter-day discoveries of science have really
  only been a means to an end. It will perhaps
  surprise you to hear that I do not take especial
  pride in having written of the motor car, the
  submarine boat, and the navigable airship before
  they became actual realities. When I wrote about
  them as realities these things were already half
  discoveries.

4
The Teacher

• "I simply made fiction out of what became
  ulterior fact, and my object in so doing was not
  to prophesy, but to spread a knowledge of
  geography among the young in as interesting a
  dress as I could compass. Every single
  geographical fact and every scientific one in
  every book that I have ever written has been
  looked up with care, and is scrupulously correct.
  If, for instance, I had not wished to point the
  fact that a journey round the world entailed the
  apparent loss of a whole day, my 'Tour of the
  World in Eighty Days' would never have been
  written. And 'The Mysterious Island' owed its
  inception to my wish to tell the world's boys
  something about the wonders of the Pacific."

5
1828

• Jules Verne is born on February 8 in Nantes,
  France. His parents are Pierre and Sophie. His
  father and grandfather were lawyers.

6
1829

• His brother Paul is born three sisters would
  follow.

7
1834-1838

• Verne goes to school his teacher, Madame
  Sambain, is waiting for the return of her
  sea-captain husband (who is apparently lost).
• At some point (1835?) Verne ran away to work on a
  sailing ship but was caught and sent back home.

8
1838-1846

• Verne continues his education, first at College
  Saint-Stanislas, then Petit Seminaire, then the
  Lycee Royal de Nantes.
• He is an above average student who excels in
  geography, Greek, and Latin. He also writes his
  first stories.

9
1847

• Verne studies law in Paris. He writes his first
  play at this time.

10
1848

• Verne is in Paris during the July revolution. He
  also gets involved with the literary salons in
  Paris at this time, meeting both Alexandre Dumas
  pere (of the Three Musketeers fame) and Alexandre
  Dumas fils (his son, a famous playwright).
• Verne continues to write plays.

11
1849-1851

• Verne finishes his law degree in 1849, but stays
  in Paris to write.
• A one act comedy of his is performed in 1850.
• His first published short stories appear in 1851,
  including Drama in the Air.

12
1852-1855

• Verne becomes secretary of Théâtre lyrique. Works
  published during this time include
• Martin Paz
• Master Zacharius
• Winter in the Ice
• Castles in California
• And the opera Blind Mans Bluff

13
1856-1857

• In 1856, Verne meets a young widow with two
  children, Honorine de Viane.
• In 1857, they marry, and Verne becomes a
  stockbroker in Paris.

14
1861

• Vernes only child, Michel, is born.
• According to some accounts, this year is when
  Verne realized he was on the cusp of something
  remarkable.

15
1863

• Five Weeks in a Balloon appears and is an
  immediate success.
• A review in Paris read, "Is Dr. Fergussons
  journey a reality or is it not? All we can say is
  that it is bewitching as a novel and as
  instructive as a book of science. Never have the
  serious discoveries of celebrated travelers been
  summed up so well."

16
1863

• Verne also writes Paris in the 20th Century.
• Rejected by his publisher because of its
  pessimistic view of a future obsessed with
  wealth, the novel will not be published until
  1994.

17
1864

• Edgar Allan Poe and His Works, The Adventures of
  Captain Hatteras, and Journey to the Center of
  the Earth are published.
• Verne gives up his unsuccessful stockbroker
  practice, and moves to Auteuil.

18
1865

• From the Earth to the Moon is published.

19
1869

• Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Round
  the Moon are published.

20
1871

• Vernes father dies.

21
1872

• Around the World in Eighty Days is published.

22
1873

• The Mysterious Island is published.

23
1886

• Clipper of the Clouds (also published as Robur
  the Conqueror) is published.
• His nephew Gaston, mentally ill, asks for money
  to travel to England. Verne refuses, and the
  nephew fires at him twice, laming him for life.

24
1887

• His mother dies.

25
More Prophecies

• In Propeller Island, Verne lamented destruction
  of the native cultures of various Polynesian
  islands.
• In The Ice Sphinx he predicted the destruction of
  whale populations.
• The Begum's Fortune warns that technology and
  scientific knowledge in the hands of evil people
  can lead to destruction.

26
1905

• Verne falls ill and eventually dies from diabetes.

27
1905

• A number of books are published posthumously,
  although some of them were probably written by
  Vernes less-than-honest son Michel.