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VERNE, JULES (1828-1905)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 1030 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VERNE, JULES (1828-1905) , See also:French author, was See also:born at See also:Nantes on the 8th of See also:February 1828. After completing his studies at the Nantes lycee, he went to See also:Paris to study for the See also:bar. About 1848, in See also:conjunction with See also:Michel Carre, he wrote librettos for two operettas, and in 185o his See also:verse See also:comedy, See also:Les Pailles rompues, in which See also:Alexandre See also:Dumas fits had some See also:share, was produced at the Gymnase. For some years his interests alternated between the See also:theatre and the See also:bourse, but some travellers' stories which he wrote for the Musee See also:des Families seem to have revealed to him the true direction of his See also:talent —the delineation, viz., of delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly prepared scientific and See also:geographical details See also:lent an See also:air of verisimilitude. Something of the See also:kind had been done before, after kindred methods, by Cyrano de See also:Bergerac, by See also:Swift and See also:Defoe, and later by See also:Mayne See also:Reid. But in his own particular application of plausible scientific apparatus Verne undoubtedly struck out a See also:department for himself in the wide See also:literary genre of voyages imaginaires. His first success was obtained with Cinq semaines en ballon, which he wrote for Hetzel's Magazin d'See also:Education in 1862, and thenceforward, for a See also:quarter of a See also:century, scarcely a See also:year passed in which Hetzel did not publish one ormore of his fantastic stories, illustrated generally by pictures of the most lurid and sensational description. The most successful of these romances include: Voyage au centre de la terre (1864); De la terre a la lune (1865); Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (1869); Les Anglais au See also:pole See also:nord (187o); and Voyage autour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, which first appeared in Le Temps in 1872. The See also:adaptation of this last (produced with immense success at the See also:Porte St See also:Martin theatre on the 8th of See also:November 1874) and of another excellent See also:tale, See also:Michael Strogoff (at the See also:Chatelet, I88o), both dramas being written in conjunction with Adolphe d'Ennery, proved the most acceptable of Verne's theatrical pieces. The novels were translated into the various See also:European See also:languages—and some even into See also:Japanese and Arabic—and had an enormous success in See also:England. But after 1877, when he published See also:Hector Servadac, a See also:romance of existence upon a See also:comet, the writer's invention began to show signs of fatigue (his See also:kingdom had been invaded in different directions and at different times by such writers as R. M.

Ballantyne, Rider See also:

Haggard and H. G. See also:Wells), and he even committed himself, somewhat unguardedly, to very gloomy predictions as to the future of the novel. Jules Verne's own novels, however, will certainly See also:long continue to delight readers by See also:reason of their sparkling See also:style, their picturesque verve—apparently inherited directly from Dumas—their amusing and See also:good-natured See also:national caricatures, and the ingenuity with which the love See also:element is either subordinated or completely excluded. M. Verne, who was always extremely popular in society, divided his See also:time for the most See also:part between Paris, his See also:home at See also:Amiens and his yacht. He was a member of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour, and several of his romances were crowned by the French See also:Academy, but he was never enrolled among its members. He died at Amiens on the 24th of See also:March 1905. His See also:brother, See also:Paul Verne, contributed to the Transactions of the French Alpine See also:Club, and wrote an See also:Ascension du Mont See also:Blanc for his brother's collection of Voyages extraordinaires in 1874.

End of Article: VERNE, JULES (1828-1905)

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