Kids Free Souls - Brainy Stuff - Literature -Jules Verne

JULES VERNE

(FEBRUARY 8, 1828-1905)

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Phileas Fogg had won his wager, and had made his journey around the world in eighty days. To do this, he had employed every means of conveyance - steamers, railways, carriages, yachts, trading vessels, sledges, elephants. The eccentric gentleman had throughout displayed all his marvellous qualities of coolness and exactitude. But what then? What had he really gained by all this trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey?
Nothing, you say? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men!
Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?
- end part of the Book "Around the World in Eighty Days

A French Novelist, born in Nantes, Jules Verne studied law in Paris but decided to become a writer. He wrote some of the first science-fiction stories. His books have remained popular in the space age, although they were written before the invention of aerospace. He is the soul behind the forecast of the invention of aeroplanes, submarines, television, guided missiles and space satellites. He had a vision to predict its uses accurately too.

Jules Verne's famous book "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (published in 1870) says of Caption Nemo, a mad sea captain who cruises beneath the oceans in a submarine. In Around the World in Eighty Days,(1873) Phileas Fogg travels around the earth in the then unheard-of time of 80 days, just to win a bet. His other thrillers include a Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), and Around the Moon (1870).

Verne cleverly used realistic detail and explanations that one can believe in the incredible tales of adventure. He knew a good deal of geography and made use of it to bring his adventures alive. He wrote several historical stories and one was American Civil War, North Against South in 1887.

Jules Verne's first Novel 'Five weeks in a Balloon (1863) brought him immediate success. It was based on an essay he wrote describing the exploration of Africa in a balloon. The essay was rejected several times before the publisher suggested that Verne rewrite it as a novel of imagination. This popularity of the book made Jules Verne to continue writing on science fiction themes. However, his first works as a writer were plays and words for opera.