Jules Verne Biography

Jules Gabriel Verne, known as Jules Verne, was born on February 8, 1828, in the town of Nantes, France. He is recognized as one of the most prolific and popular writers of universal literature. According to the Index Translationum, he is the second author with the highest number of translations in the world (4,185), surpassed only by Agatha Christie.

His work has resulted in 95 films based on 33 of his works. Some of the most recognized adaptations are: Journey to the Moon of 1902 (directed by Georges Méliès), The Mysterious Island of 1951 (directed by Spencer Gordon Benet), Miguel Strogoffde 1956 (directed by Carmine Gallone), Around the World in 80 days of 1956 (directed by Michael Anderson), The Mysterious Island of 1961 (directed by Cy Endfield), Five Weeks in a Balloon of 1962 (directed by Irwin Allen), 20,000 leagues under the sea of 1997 (directed by Rod Hardy), Around the World in 80 Days of 2004 (directed by Frank Coraci) and The Mysterious Island of 2012 (directed by Brad Peyton).

He is the creator of endless fantastic worlds born of the combination of his unlimited imagination with his deep interest in science and technology. Thanks to the latter, he predicted the appearance of various technological devices such as submarines (20,000 leagues under the sea, the mysterious island)

, helicopters (Robur the Conqueror), spacecraft (From Earth to the Moon, Around the Moon), the great ocean liners (A floating city), the weapons of mass destruction (Before the flag, the five hundred million of the Begún), Internet (Paris in the XX century) and the elevator (The mysterious island). He also anticipated several historical events, for example, the conquest of the poles, the trip to the moon, and totalitarian governments.

Jules was born from the marriage of Pierre Verne and Sophie Allotte de la Fuÿe. He was the eldest brother of the five children the couple had. In 1839, he entered the Saint-Stanislas school and in it, he developed his skills for geography, Greek, Latin, and singing. Some biographers say that his interest in literature was born from the stories his teacher told him about the adventures of her husband, who was a sailor.

In 1847, he began to study law in Paris and wrote the play: Alejandro VI. In 1848, he would meet Alejandro Dumas (father) with the help of his uncle Châteaubourg, who introduced him to literary circles. He finished his career as a lawyer in 1849 but decided not to dedicate himself to her, which caused his father to decide to withdraw his financial aid. The deprivations to which he had to submit, especially in the diet, ended up taking a toll on his health: he suffered digestive, nervous and facial paralysis.

Jules Verne met P. J. Hetzel, who became his editor. Hetzel, at first worked as a publisher of pious books but ended up becoming editor of such important characters as Victor Hugo and Jules Michelet.

In 1850, Verne wrote Las pajas rotas. The following year he published Martín Paz and Un drama en México. With the help of Dumas, he acquired a position as secretary at the National Theater in Paris and bought a piano.

On January 10, 1857, he married Honorine Deviane Verne and asked his father for 50,000 francs to invest in the stock market. But he quickly discovered that he was not made for married life, so he ended up abandoning his wife after four years of marriage.

His first novel, Paris in the twentieth century, was rejected by his editor for being too pessimistic, as it presaged a world obsessed with money and faxes where the protagonist cannot achieve happiness despite being surrounded by glass skyscrapers, trains, high-speed gas cars and a global communications network. The work was published in 1994 after his great-grandson found it in a safe box.

In 1863, he published Five Weeks in a Balloon, the first trip in a series of forty-six Extraordinary Trips, which included titles such as Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From Earth to the Moon (1865), The Children of the Earth and Captain Grant (1867).

Since 1869 some of his stories began to be translated and published in Spain, some even before appearing in France, due to the friendship of Hetzel with Vicente Guimerá.

He bought a small yacht with which he would sail the Mediterranean in 1879, and later travel to Ireland, Scotland and Norway in 1880, and England, the North Sea and the Baltic in 1881.

On March 9, 1886, his nephew Gaston shot him with a revolver and wounded him in the left leg. His nephew ended his days in a madhouse. In 1888, Verne was elected councilor of Amiens and remained in office for fifteen years.

He died on March 24, 1905, due to diabetes he had been fighting for years.