Jules Verne

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Lore & Background

Jules Verne was born on 8 February 1828 on Île Feydeau, a small artificial island on the river Loire within Nantes, in the house of his maternal grandmother. His parents were Pierre Verne, an avoué originally from Provins, and Sophie Allotte de La Fuÿe, a Nantes woman from a local family of navigators and shipowners, of distant Scottish descent. In 1834, at age six, Verne was sent to boarding school where the teacher, Madame Sambin, often told students that her husband, a naval captain who had disappeared, was a shipwrecked castaway who would return like Robinson Crusoe — a theme that stayed with Verne throughout his life. In 1836, he attended École Saint‑Stanislas, a Catholic school, where he distinguished himself in recitation, geography, Greek, Latin, and singing. Legend has it that in 1839, at age 11, Verne secretly procured a spot as cabin boy on the three-mast ship Coralie intending to travel to the Indies, but his father caught him at Paimbœuf and made him promise to travel 'only in his imagination' — though this tale is now known to be an exaggerated invention by his first biographer. From 1844 to 1846, Verne and his brother were enrolled in the Lycée Royal in Nantes; he took the baccalauréat at Rennes and received the grade 'Good Enough' on 29 July 1846. Sent to Paris in 1847 to study law, he instead pursued writing, completing two verse tragedies and beginning a novel. His collaboration with publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels.

Reader's Guide

Jules Verne is considered an important author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism. 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. Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare. In the 2010s, he was the most translated French author in the world. He has sometimes been called the 'father of science fiction', a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. 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. In France, 2005 was declared 'Jules Verne Year' on the occasion of the centenary of the writer's death.

Did You Know?

• Verne's teacher Madame Sambin told students her husband was a shipwrecked castaway who would return like Robinson Crusoe, a theme that influenced Verne's lifelong interest in robinsonades.
• Legend says Verne tried to run away to sea at age 11 as a cabin boy on the Coralie, but his father caught him and made him promise to travel 'only in his imagination' — though the story is now considered an exaggerated invention by his first biographer.
• Verne wrote and dedicated some thirty poems to Rose Herminie Arnaud Grossetière, including 'La Fille de l'air', describing her as 'blonde and enchanting / winged and transparent'.
• Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare.
• In France, 2005 was declared 'Jules Verne Year' for the centenary of his death.