Jules Gabriel Verne
Enormously popular French author, the founding father of science fiction with. Verne's stories, written for adolescents as well as adults, caught the enterprising spirit of the 19th century, its uncritical fascination about scientific progress and inventions. His works were often written in the form of a travel book, which took the readers on a voyage to the moon in From the Earth to the Moon (1865) or to another direction as in A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). Many of Verne's ideas have been hailed as prophetic. Among his best-known books is the classic adventure story Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

"Ah - what a journey - what a marvelous and extraordinary journey! Here we had entered the earth by one volcano, and we had come out by another. And this other was situated more than twelve hundred leagues from Sneffels, from that drear country of Iceland cast away on the confines of the earth... We had abandoned the region of eternal snows for that infinite verdure, and had left over our heads the gray fog of the icy regions to come back to the azure sky of Sicily!" (from A Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864)

Jules Verne was born and raised in the port of Nantes. His father was a prosperous lawyer. To continue the practice, Verne moved to Paris, where he studied law. His uncle introduced him into literary circles and he started to published plays under the influence of such writers as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas(fils), whom Verne also knew personally. LÉONARD DE VINCI, which he wrote at the age of 23, was not published until 1995. The play, later renamed Joconde and then Monna Lisa was about the love between Leonardo da Vinci and his beautiful model, the wife of a Florentine gentleman. Verne's one-act comedy The Broken Straws was performed in Paris when he was 22. In spite of busy writing, Verne managed to pass his law degree. During this period Verne suffered from digestive problems which then recurred at intervals through his life.

In 1854 Charles Baudelaire translated Edgar Allan Poe's works into French. Verne became one of the most devoted admirers of the American author, and wrote his first science fiction tale, 'An voyage in Balloon' (1851), under the influence of Poe. Later Verne would write a sequel to Poe's unfinished novel, Narrative of a Gordon Pym, entitled The Sphinz of the Ice-Fileds (1897). When his career as an author progressed slowly, Verne turned to stockbroking, an occupation which he held until his successful tale Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863) in the series VOYAGES EXTRAORDINAIRES. Verne had met in 1862 Pierre Jules Hetzel, a publisher and writer for children, who started to publish Verne's 'Extraordinary Journeys'. This cooperation lasted until the end of Verne's career. Hetzel had also worked with Balzac and George Sand. He read Verne's manuscripts carefully and did not hesitate to suggest corrections. One of Verne's early works, Paris in the Twentieth Century, was turned down by the publisher, and it did not appear until 1997 in English.

Verne's novels gained soon a huge popularity throughout the world. Without the education of a scientist or experiences as a traveler, Verne spent much of his time in research for his books. In the contrast of fantasy literature, exemplified by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865), Verne tried to be realistic and practical in details. Arthur B. Evans has noted in Jules Verne Rediscovered (1988) that Verne's novels contain little of what the general reading public nowadays considers typical for science fiction - for example E.T.s and bug-eyed monsters.

When H.G. Well's invented in The First Men in the Moon 'cavourite,' a substance impervious to gravity, Verne was not satisfied: "I sent my characters to the moon with gunpowder, a thing one may see every day. Where does M. Wells find his cavourite? Let him show it to me!" However, when the logic of the story contradicted contemporary scientific knowledge, Verne did not keep to the facts and probabilities too slavishly. Around the World in Eighty Days was about Philèas Fogg's daring but realistic travel feat on a wager, based on a real journey by the US traveller George Francis Train (1829-1904). A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is vulnerable to criticism on geological grounds. The story depicted an expedition that enters in the hollow heart of the Earth. In Hector Servadac (1877) a comet takes Hector and his servant on a trip around the Solar System. In a tongue-in-cheek episode they discover a fragment of the Rock of Gibraltar, occupied by two Englishmen playing chess.

In Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Verne introduced one of the forefathers of modern superheroes, the misanthropic Captain Nemo and his elaborate submarine, Nautilus, named after Robert Fulton's steam-powered submarine. The Mysterious Island was about industrial exploits of men stranded on an island  Daniel Defoe. In these works, filmed several times, Verne combined science and invention with fast-paced adventure. Some of Verne's fiction has also become a fact: his submarine Nautilus predated the first successful power submarine by a quarter century, and his spaceship predicted the development a century later. The first all-electric submarine, built in 1886 by two Englishmen, was named Nautilus in honor of Verne's vessel. The first nuclear-powered submarine, launched in 1955, was named Nautilus, too.

The film version of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1954), produced by Walt Disney and directed by Richard Fleischer, won an Oscar for its special effects, which included Bob Mattey's mechanically operated giant squid. It fought with the actors in a special studio tank. Interior sets were built as closely as possible to Verne's own descriptions of Nautilus. James Mason played Captain Nemo and Kirk Douglas was Ned Land, a lusty salor. Mike Todd's film Around The World in 80 Days (1957) won an Academy Award as the Best Picture but it failed to gain any acting honors with its 44 cameo stars. Almost 70,000 extras was employed and the film used 8,552 animals, most of which were Rocky Mountain sheep, buffalos, and donkeys. Also four ostriches appeared.

In the first part of his career Verne expressed his technophile optimism about progress and Europe's central role in the social and technical development of the world. What becomes of technical inventions, Verne's imagination sometimes contradicted facts. In From Earth to the Moon a giant cannon shoots the protagonist into orbit. Any contemporary scientist could have told Verne, that the passengers would be killed by the initial acceleration. However, the idea of the space gun first appeared in print in the 18th-century. And before it, Cyrano de Bergerac wrote Voyages to the Moon and Sun (1655), and applied in one of his stories the rocket to space travel.

"It is difficult to say how seriously Verne took the idea of this mammoth cannon, because so much of the story is facetiously written... Probably he believed that if such a gun could be built, it might be capable of sending a projectile to the Moon, but it seems unlikely that he seriously imagined that any of the occupants would have survived the shock of takeoff." (Arthur C. Clarke in Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!, 1999)

Verne's major works were written by 1880. In later novels the author's pessimism about the future of human civilization reflected the doom-ladden fin-de-siècle atmosphere. In his tale 'The Eternal Adam' a far-future historian discovers the 20th-century civilization was overthrown by geological catalysms, and the legend of Adam and Eve becomes both true and cyclical. In Robur the Conqueror (1886) Verne predicted the birth of heavier-than-air craft, but in the sequel, Master of the World (1904), the great inventor Robur suffers from megalomania, and plays cat-and-mouse game with authorities.

Verne spent an uneventful, bourgeois life from the 1860s. He traveled with his brother Paul in 1867 to the United States, visiting the Niagara falls. When he made a boat trip around the Mediterranean, he was celebrated in Gibraltar, North Africa, and in Rome Pope Leo XIII blessed his books. In 1871 he settled in Amiens and was elected councilor in 1888. Verne survived there in 1886 a murder attempt. His paranoid nephew, Gaston, shot him in the leg and the authors was disabled for the rest of his life. Gaston never recovered his sanity.

Verne had married at age 28 Honorine de Viane, a young widow, acquiring two step-children. He lived with his family in a large provincial house and yachted occasionally. To the horror of his family, he started to admire Prince Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921), who devoted himself to a life as a revolutionary, and whose character possibly influenced the noble anarchist of NAUFRAGÉS DE JONATHAN (1909). Kropotkin wrote of an anarchy based on mutual support and trust. Verne's interest in socialistic theories was already seen in MATHIAS SANDORF (1885).

For over 40 years Verne published at least one book per year on a wide range subjects. Although Verne wrote about exotic places, he traveled relatively little - his only balloon flight lasted twenty-four minutes. In a letter to Hetzel he confessed: "I must be slightly off my head. I get caught up in all the extraordinary adventures of my heroes. I regret only one thing, not being able to accompany them pedibus cum jambis." Verne's oeuvre include 65 novels, some twenty short stories and essays, thirty plays, some geographical works, and also opera librettos. Verne died in Amiens on March 24, 1905. Verne's works have inspired a number of film makers from Georges Méliès (A Trip to the Moon, 1902), Karel Zeman (Vynález zkázy / The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, 1958), and Walt Disney (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954) to such Hollywood directors as Henry Levin (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1959) and Irwin Allen (Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1962). Also the Italian painter Giorgio de Chiroco was interested in Verne and wrote on him in the essay 'On Metaphysical Art': "But who was more gifted than he in capturing the metaphysical element of a city like London, with its houses, streets, clubs, squares and open spaces; the ghostliness of a Sunday afternoon in London, the melancholy of a man, a real walking phantom, as Phineas Fogg appears in Around the World in Eighty Days? The work of Jules Verne is full of these joyous and most consoling moments; I still remember the description of the departure of a steamship from Liverpool in his novel The Floating City."

For further reading: Jules Verne by Kenneth Allott (1940); Jules Verne and His Works by I.O. Evans (1966); Jules Verne by B. Becker (1966); Le Trés Curieux Jules Verne by M. More (1969); The Political and Social Ideas of Jules Verne by Jean Chesneaux (1972); Jules Verne by Jean-Jules Verne (1976), Jules Verne by Peter Costello (1978); Jules Verne: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography by Edward J. Gallagher, Judith Mistichelli and John A. Van Eerde (1980); Jules Verne Rediscovered by Arthur B. Evans (1988); Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Self by William Butcher (1990); The Mask of the Prophet by Andrew Martin (1990); Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography by Herbert R. Lottman (1997) - Suom: Verneltä on suomennettu useita kymmeniä teoksia. Suomentajana on ollut mm. kirjailija Joel Lehtonen.

Selected works:

• VOYAGES EXTRAORDINAIRES. CINQ SEMAINES EN BALLON, 1863 - Five Weeks in a Balloon (trans. by William Lackland) - Viisi viikkoa ilmapallossa (suom. Inkeri Tuomikoski) - film: 1962, dir. by Irwin Allen, Cwedric Hardwicke, Peter Lorre, Red Buttons, Fabian, Richard Haydn
• LES ADVENTURES DU CAPITAINE HATTERAS, 1864 - The Extraordinary Journeys: The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (trans. by William Butcher) - Kapteeni Hatteras: seikkailuromaani Jäämereltä (suom. V.E. Hämeen-Anttila)
• LE VOYAGE AU CENTRE DE LA TERRE, 1864 - Journey to the Center of Earth (trans. by I.O. Evans) - Matkustus Maan keskipisteeseen (suom. Matti Karjalainen) /Matka maan keskipisteeseen (suom. Pentti Kähkönen) - film: 1959, dir. by Henry Levin, starring James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Pat Boone, Peter Ronson, Diane Baker - See also: Giacomo Casanova's Icosameron (1788)
• DE LA TERRE Á LA LUNE, 1865 - From the Earth to the Moon (trans. by Edward Roth) - Maasta kuuhun (suom. Edwin Hagfors) / Matka kuuhun (Marja Putro) - films: 1902, dir. by Georges Méliés ; 1958, dir. by Byron Haskin, starring Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, Henry Daniell, Debra Paget
• LE DÉSERT DE GLACE, 1866 - The Desert of Ice
• LES ENFANTS DU CAPITAINE GRANT, 1867-68 - In Search of the Castaways - Kapteeni Grantin lapset & Kapteeni Grantin etsintä & Kapteeni Grantin löytyminen (suom. Eino Woionmaa)
• VINGT MILLE LIEUES SOUS LES MERS, 1869-70 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (translators: Mendor T. Brunetti; Philip Schuyler Allen; H. Frith; Walter James Miller) - Kapteeni Nemo (suom. V. Hämeen-Anttila, Urho Kivimäki) / Kapteeni Nemo ja Nautilus (suom. V. Hämeen-Anttila, Urho Kivimäki) / Nautilus (suom. Urho Kivimäki) / Merten alitse (suom. V. Hämeen-Anttila) / Sukelluslaivalla maapallon ympäri suom. Martta Tynni) - films: 1907, dir. by George Méliès ; 1916, dir. by Stuart Paton ; 1954, dir. by Richard Fleischer, starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre
• AUTOUR DE LA LUNE, 1870 - From the Earth to the Moon Direct in 97 hours and 20 minutes, and a Trip Around It (trans. Lewis Mercier, Eleanor King) - Kuun ympäri (suom. Matti Karjalainen)
• UNE VILLE FLOTTANTE SUIVI LES FORCEURS DE BLOCUS, 1871 - A Floating City
• UNE FANTAISIE DE DOCTEUR OX, 1872 - Dr Ox's Experiment / A Fantasy of Dr Ox (trans. by Andrew Brown)
• AVENTURES DE TROIS RUSSES ET DE TROIS ANGLAIS DANS L'AFRIQUE AUSTRALE, 1872 - Meridiana: The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa (trans. Henry Firth)
• LE TOUR DU MONDE EN QUATRE-VINGT JOURS, 1873 - Around the World in Eighty Days (translators: by George Makepeace Towle; Michael Glencross; Jacqueline Rogers) - Maailman ympäri 80 päivässä (suom.: Tauno Karilas; Kristina Haataja) - films: 1956, dir. by Michael Anderson, Kevin McClory, starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton, Shirley Maclaine, Charles Boyer ; 2004, dir. by Franck Coraci, starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cecille de France, Jim Broadbent, Kathy Bates, John Cleese
• LE PAYS DES FOURRURES, 1873 - The Fur Country (trans. by N. D'Anvers) - Ajelehtiva saari (suom. P.J. Hannikainen) / Turkiksien maassa (suom. P.J. Hannikainen)
• L'ÎLE MYSTÉRIEUSE, 1874 - The Mysterious Island (translators: W. H. G. Kingston; Sidney Kravitz; Jordan Stump) - Salaperäisen saaren seikkailuja 1-2 (suom. Urho Kivimäki) - films: 1929, dir. by Lucien Hubbard, starring Lionel Barrymore ; 1961, dir. by Cy Endfield, starring Joan Greenwood, Michael Craig, Herbert Lom, spaciel effects by Ray Harryhausen ; Mysterious Island of Captain Nemo, 1974, dir. by Juan Antonio Bardem, Henri Colpi, starring Omar Sharif, Philippe Nicaud, Gerard Tichy, Jess Hahn
• LE 'CHANCELLOR', 1875 - The Wreck of the Chancellor (trans. by Ellen Frewer) / The Survivors of the Chancellor (trans. by Ellen Frewer) - Armoton meri (suom. Tauno Karilas)
• MIHEL STROGOFF, MOSKOU-IRKOUTSK, 1876 - Michael Strogoff, the Courier of the Czar (trans. W.H.G. Kingston) - Kavaltajan loppu (suom. Valfrid Hedman) / Tsaarin kuriiri (suom. Valfrid Hedman) - films: 1956, dir. by Carmine Gallone, starring Curd Jürgens, Geneviève Page ; The Triumph of Michael Strogoff, 1961, dir. by Viktor Tourjansky, starring Curd Jürgens ; television series 1975, dir. by Jean-Pierre Decourt, starring Raimund Harmstorf, Lorenza Guerrieri
• HECTOR SERVADAC, 1877 - Hector Servadac (trans. by Ellen E. Frewer) - Hector Servadacin avaruusmatka (suom. Pentti J. Huhtala)
• LES INDES-NOIRES, 1877 - Underground City; or, The Child of the Cavern (trans. by W. H. G. Kingston)
• UN CAPITAINE DE QUINZE ANS, 1878 - Dick Sand; or, A Captain at Fifteen (trans. anon.) / Dick Sands, the Boy Captain (trans. by Ellen E. Frewer) - 15 vuotias kapteeni
• LES CINQ CENTS MILLIONS DE LA BÉGUM, 1879 - The 500 Millions of the Begum (trans. by W.H.G. Kingston) / The Begum's Millions (translated by Stanford L. Luce) - Begumin miljoonat (suom. Olga Lavonius) / Begumin viisisataa miljonaa (suom. Olga Lavonius)
• LES TRIBULATIONS D'UN CHINOIS EN CHINE, 1879 - The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China (trans. anon.) / The Steam House (trans. by A.D. Kingston) - Kiinalaisen koettelemukset (suom. Pentti Kähkönen) / Höyrytalo (suom. Pentti Kähkönen)
• LA JANGADA, 1881 - The Giant Raft (trans. by W.J. Gordon) / The Jangada; or, Eight Hundred Leagues over the Amazon (trans. by James Cotterell) - Jangada: 800 peninkulmaa Amazonia pitkin (suom. Pentti Kähkönen)
• L´ÉCOLE DES ROBINSONS, 1882 - Godfrey Morgan: A Californian Mystery (trans. W.J. Gordon / Robinson's School - Robinson-koulu: seikkailuromaan Tyyneltämereltä (suom. Valfrid Hedman)
• KÉREBAN-LE-TÉTU, 1883 - The Headstrong Turk (trans. J. Cotterell)
• L'ÉTOILE DU SUD, 1884 - The Vanished Diamond - Etelän tähti (suom. Pentti Kähkönen)
• L'ARCHIPEL EN FEU, 1884 - The Archipelago on Fire
• MATHIAS SANDORF, 1885 - trans. anon. - Salaliitto (suom. Tauno Karilas)
• ROBUR LE CONQUÉRANT, 1886 - The Clipper of the Clouds - Robur Valloittaja (suom. Pentti Kähkönen) - film: 1961, dir. by William Witney, starring Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Henry Hull, Mary Webster, screenplay by Richard Matheson, based loosely on Robur le conquérant and Maître du monde
• UN BILLET DE LOTERIE: LE NUMÉRO 9672, 1886 - Ticket No. "9672" (trans. by Laura E. Kendall)
• NORD CONTRE SUD, 1887 - Texar's Vengeance (trans. by Laura E. Kendall)
• LE CHEMIN DE FRANCE, 1887 - The Flight to France
• DEUX ANS DE VACANCES, 1888 - A Long Vacation (trans. by translated by Olga Marx) - Kahden vuoden loma-aika (suom. Anni Swan)
• FAMILLE-SANS-NOM, 1889 - A Family without a Name
• SANS DESSUS DESSUS, 1889 - Topsy-Turvy
• CÉSAR CASCABEL, 1890 - trans.
• MISTRESS BRANICAN, 1891 - (trans. by A. Estoclet)
• LE CHÁTEAU DES CARPATHER, 1892 - The Castle of the Carpathians - Karpaattien linna (suom. Pentti Kähkönen)
• CLAUDIUS BOMBARNAC, 1892 - trans. - Claudius Bombarnac: reportterin muistikirja (suom. Pentti Kähkönen)
• P'TIT-BONHOMME, 1893 - Foundling Mick
• LES MIRIFIQUES AVENTURES DE MAÍTRE ANTIFER, 1894 - Captain Antifer
• L'ÎLE À HÉLICE, 1895 - Floating Island (trans. William J. Gordon)
• CLOVIS DARDENTOR, 1896 - trans. anon.
• FACE AU DRAPEAU, 1896 - For the Flag - Isänmaan lippu (suom. Pentti Kähkönen)
• LES SPHINX DES GLACES, 1897 - An Antarctic Mystery (trans. by Mrs Cashel Hoey)
• LE SUPERGE ORÉNOQUE, 1897 - The Mighty Orinoco (trans. by Stanford L. Luce)
• LE TESTAMENT D'UN EXCENTRIQUE, 1899 - The Will of an Eccentric
• SECONDE PATRIE, 1900 - Their Island Home (trans. Cranstoun Metcalfe)
• LES HISTOIRES DE JEAN-MARIE CABIDOULIN, 1901 - The Sea Serpent (trans. by by I. O. Evans)
• LE VILLAGE AÉRIEN, 1901 - The Village in the Tree Tops (trans. by I.O. Evans)
• LES FRÈRES KIP, 1902 - The Kip Brothers (trans. by Stanford L. Luce)
• BOURSES DE VOYAGE, 1902 - Travelling Grants
• UN DRAME EN LIVONIE, 1904 - A Drama in Livonia (trans. by I. O. Evans)
• MAÍTRE DU MONDE, 1904 - Master of the World - film: 1961, dir. by William Witney, starring Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Henry Hull, Mary Webster, screenplay by Richard Matheson, based loosely on Robur le conquérant and Maître du monde
• L'INVASION DE LA MER, 1905 - The Invasion of the Sea (trans. by Edward Baxter)
• LE PHARE DU BOUT DU MONDE, 1905 - The Lighthouse at the End of the World (trans. by William Butcher) - Majakka maailman laidalla: seikkailuromaan Etelä-Amerikasta (suom V.E. Hämeen-Anttila) - film: 1971, dir. by Kevin Billington, starring Kirk Douglas, Samantha Eggar, Yul Brynner
• LE VOLCAN 'D'OR, 1906 - The Golden Volcano (trans. by Edward Baxter)
• L'AGENCE THOMPSON AND CO. - The Thompson Travel Agency (trans. by I.O. Evans)
• LA CHASSE AU MÉTÉORE, 1908 - The Meteor Hunt (trans. by Frederick Paul Walter & Walter James Miller)
• LE PILOTE DY DANUBE, 1908 - The Danube Pilot (trans. by I.O. Evans) - Tonavan luotsi (suom. Edwin Hagfors)
• LES NAUFRAGÉS DU JONATHAN, 1909 - The Survivors of the "Jonathan" (trans. by I.O. Evans)
• HIER ET DEMAIN, 1910 - Yesterday and Tomorrow (trans. by I. O. Evans)
• LE SECRET DE WILHELM STORITZ, 1910 - The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz (trans. by I.O. Evans)
• L'ÉTONNANTE AVENTURE DE LA MISSION BARSAC, 1919 - The Barsac Mission (trans. by I.O. Evans)
• MONNA LISA, 1995
• PARIS AU XXE SIÈCLE, 1996 - Paris in the Twentieth Century, 1997 (the lost novel by Jules Verne; translated by Richard Howard) - Pariisi 1900-luvulla (suom. Annikki Suni)