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Jules Verne Steve Wood TCCC
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.”
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.”
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."
1828 • Jules Verne is born on February 8 in Nantes, France. His parents are Pierre and Sophie. His father and grandfather were lawyers.
1829 • His brother Paul is born; three sisters would follow.
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.
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.
1847 • Verne studies law in Paris. He writes his first play at this time.
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.
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.”
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 Man’s Bluff”
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.
1861 • Verne’s only child, Michel, is born. • According to some accounts, this year is when Verne realized he was on the cusp of something remarkable.
1863 • Five Weeks in a Balloon appears and is an immediate success. • A review in Paris read, "Is Dr. Fergusson`s 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."
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.
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.
1865 • From the Earth to the Moon is published.
1869 • Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Round the Moon are published.
1871 • Verne’s father dies.
1872 • Around the World in Eighty Days is published.
1873 • The Mysterious Island is published.
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.
1887 • His mother dies.
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.
1905 • Verne falls ill and eventually dies from diabetes.
1905 • A number of books are published posthumously, although some of them were probably written by Verne’s less-than-honest son Michel.
