Novelist · 1828 – 1905
Jules Verne
Key Takeaways
- Verne is regarded as a founding father of science fiction.
- His novels imagined submarines, space travel and other future technologies.
- His adventure stories include Around the World in Eighty Days.
- He is one of the most translated authors in the world.
Jules Verne sent his readers under the sea, around the world and to the Moon — decades before any of it was possible. From France he launched the modern genre of science fiction.
Voyages Extraordinaires
In his great series of “Extraordinary Voyages,” Verne combined thrilling adventure with the real science of the Industrial Revolution. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea gave the world Captain Nemo and his submarine the Nautilus; Around the World in Eighty Days raced Phileas Fogg across the globe; Journey to the Center of the Earth plunged into the planet itself.
Prophet of the technological age
Building on the example of Mary Shelley and paralleled by H. G. Wells, Verne imagined submarines and moon launches that the future would make real. Encouraged early on by Alexandre Dumas, this novelist of the modern era became one of the most translated writers in history.
Influence
Verne turned the wonders of 19th-century science into thrilling fiction, founding science fiction and inspiring generations of inventors, explorers and writers.
Legacy
His visions of submarines, moon voyages and global travel made him a prophet of the technological age and one of the most read authors ever.
Major Works
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
- Around the World in Eighty Days
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
Connections
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Jules Verne?
Jules Verne (1828–1905) was a French novelist and a founding father of science fiction, author of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days.
What is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea about?
It follows the mysterious Captain Nemo and his advanced submarine, the Nautilus, on a voyage beneath the world's oceans, blending adventure with visionary science.
Citations & Sources
People Like Jules
Mary Shelley
80Mary Shelley was an English writer who, at just eighteen, conceived Frankenstein — a novel often called the first work of science fiction — and went on to a notable literary career while editing the works of her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Why An earlier author whose Frankenstein, like Verne's work, helped found science fiction.
H. G. Wells
81H. G. Wells was an English writer, a founding father of science fiction, whose visionary novels — The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man — imagined time travel, alien invasion and other ideas that have shaped the genre ever since.
Why The other great founder of science fiction, often paired with Verne.
Alexandre Dumas
81Alexandre Dumas was a French writer whose swashbuckling historical novels — The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo — became some of the most popular and widely adapted stories in the world.
Why A fellow French author of adventure who encouraged the young Verne.
Charles Dickens
86Charles Dickens was an English novelist of the Victorian age, the most popular writer of his time and one of the greatest in the English language, whose vivid characters and social conscience defined the 19th-century novel.
Why Also a novelist & writer · Active in the same era
Mark Twain
84Mark Twain was an American writer and humorist, called the "father of American literature", whose novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn captured the voice of America and remain classics of world literature.
Why Also a novelist & writer · Active in the same era
Victor Marie Hugo
89Victor Hugo was a French novelist, poet, and dramatist, the towering figure of French Romanticism, whose novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame are monuments of world literature.
Why Also a novelist & writer · Active in the same era