Around the World in 80 Days — About Jules Verne

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was born in the port city of Nantes, France to a family with a seafaring history. Verne showed his spirit for adventure from a young age when he tried to stow away on a merchant ship, but was found and returned to his parents. He found an outlet for his adventurous spirit when he began writing in the 1840s.

Verne moved to Paris to study law, but, while rubbing elbows with the likes of famed authors Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo, he eventually became a full-time writer. He also spent much of his time studying geology, engineering, and astronomy, a clear influence in his work. A disciplined and steady writer, Verne was able to pace himself and write at least one book per year for over forty years.

Verne's novels eventually gained huge popularity throughout the world and he became well-known for his combination of scientific facts and imagination in taking readers on extraordinary journeys to fantastic places. In such books as Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, he predicted many technological advances of the twentieth century, including the invention of the automobile, telephone, nuclear submarine, atomic power, and rocket travel to the moon. Recognized as a founding father of science fiction, his writing caught the enterprising spirit of the nineteenth century and its fascination with scientific progress and inventions.

Though he lacked the education of a scientist or even the experiences of a traveler (ironically, his only balloon flight lasted a brief twenty-four minutes), Verne did his best to be realistic and practical in details. At the same time, when the logic of the story contradicted contemporary scientific knowledge, Verne did not keep to the facts and probabilities too rigidly, allowing for a story that readers could find both probable and fantastic. In the case of Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg's daring but realistic travel feat was actually based on a real journey by the US traveler George Francis Train.

Around the World in Eighty Days was published in 1873 and became one of Verne's best-known books. In total, Verne's literary work covers 65 novels, 20 short stories and essays, 30 plays, and some geographical works and opera librettos as well. His writing has inspired numerous film makers and Hollywood directors, which would have pleased the playwright in Verne.

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