Jules Verne
Jules Verne, (born Feb. 8, 1828, Nantes, France—died
March 24, 1905, Amiens), prolific French author whose writings laid much of the
foundation of modern science fiction.
Verne’s father, intending that Jules follow in his
footsteps as an attorney, sent him to Paris to study law. But the young Verne
fell in love with literature, especially theatre. He wrote several plays,
worked as secretary of the Théâtre Lyrique (1852–54), and published short
stories and scientific essays in the periodical Musée des familles. In 1857
Verne married and for several years worked as a broker at the Paris Stock
Market. During this period he continued to write, to do research at the
Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library), and to dream of a new kind of
novel—one that would combine scientific fact with adventure fiction. In
September 1862 Verne met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who agreed to publish the first
of Verne’s Voyages extraordinaires (“Extraordinary Journeys”)—Cinq semaines en
balloon (1863; Five Weeks in a Balloon). Initially serialized in Hetzel’s Le
Magasin d’éducation et de récréation, the novel became an international best
seller, and Hetzel offered Verne a long-term contract to produce many more
works of “scientific fiction.” Verne subsequently quit his job at the stock
market to become a full-time writer and began what would prove to be a highly
successful author-publisher collaboration that lasted for more than 40 years
and resulted in more than 60 works in the popular series Voyages
extraordinaires.
Verne’s works can be divided into three distinct
phases. The first, from 1862 to 1886, might be termed his positivist period.
After his dystopian second novel Paris au XXe siècle (1994; Paris in the 20th
Century) was rejected by Hetzel in 1863, Verne learned his lesson, and for more
than two decades he churned out many successful science-adventure novels,
including Voyage au centre de la terre (1863, expanded 1867; Journey to the
Centre of the Earth), De la terre à la lune (1865; From the Earth to the Moon),
Autour de la lune (1870; Trip Around the Moon), Vingt mille lieues sous les
mers (1870; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), and Le Tour du monde en
quatre-vingts jours (1873; Around the World in Eighty Days). During these years
Verne settled with his family in Amiens and made a brief trip to the United
States to visit New York City and Niagara Falls. During this period he also
purchased several yachts and sailed to many European countries, collaborated on
theatre adaptations of several of his novels, and gained both worldwide fame
and a modest fortune.
Illustration from Jules Verne’s
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Captain Nemo observes an octopus through
the window of the submarine.
The second phase, from 1886 until his death in 1905,
might be considered Verne’s pessimist period. Throughout these years the
ideological tone of his Voyages extraordinaires began to change. Increasingly
Verne turned away from pro-science tales of exploration and discovery in favour
of exploring the dangers of technology wrought by hubris-filled scientists in
novels such as Sans dessus dessous (1889; Topsy-Turvy), L’Île à hélice (1895;
Floating Island), Face au drapeau (1896; For the Flag), and Maître du monde
(1904; Master of the World). This change of focus also paralleled certain
adversities in the author’s personal life: growing problems with his rebellious
son, Michel; financial difficulties that forced him to sell his yacht; the
successive deaths of his mother and his mentor Hetzel; and an attack by a
mentally disturbed nephew who shot him in the lower leg, rendering him
partially crippled. When Verne died he left a drawerful of nearly completed
manuscripts in his desk.
The third and final phase of the Jules Verne story,
from 1905 to 1919, might be considered the Verne fils period, when his
posthumous works were published—after being substantially revamped—by his son,
Michel. They include Le Volcan d’or (1906; The Golden Volcano), L’Agence
Thompson and Co. (1907; The Thompson Travel Agency), La Chasse au météore
(1908; The Chase of the Golden Meteor), Le Pilote du Danube (1908; The Danube
Pilot), Les Naufragés du Jonathan (1909; The Survivors of the Jonathan), Le
Secret de Wilhelm Storitz (1910; The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz), Hier et demain
(1910; Yesterday and Tomorrow, a collection of short stories), and L’Étonnante
aventure de la mission Barsac (1919; The Barsac Mission). Comparing Verne’s
original manuscripts with the versions published after his death, modern
researchers discovered that Michel Verne did much more than merely edit them.
In most cases he entirely rewrote them—among other changes, he recast plots,
added fictional characters, and made their style more melodramatic. Scholarly
reaction to these discoveries has been mixed. Some critics condemn these
posthumous works as contaminated; others view them as a legitimate part of the
Verne père et fils collaboration. The debate continues With Michel Verne’s
death in 1925, the final chapter of Jules Verne’s literary legacy was more or
less complete. The following year American publisher Hugo Gernsback used a
representation of Verne’s tomb as a logo for his Amazing Stories, the first
literary magazine featuring tales of “scientifiction.” As the term
scientifiction evolved into science fiction, the new genre began to flourish as
never before, and Verne became universally recognized as its patron saint.
