Jules gabriel verne

French writer, classic of adventure literature, one of the founders of the science fiction genre. Member of the French Geographical Society. According to UNESCO statistics, Jules Verne's books rank second in translatability in the world, second only to the works of Agatha Christie.

Biography in facts

Jules Verne was born in 1828 in the city of Nantes, located at the mouth of the Loire and fifty kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean.

Father - lawyer Pierre Verne (1798-1871), descended from a family of Provencal lawyers. Mother - Sophie-Nanina-Henriette Allot de la Fuy (1801-1887), had Scottish roots. Jules Verne was the first child of five. After him were born: brother Paul (1829) and three sisters - Anna (1836), Matilda (1839) and Marie (1842).

In childhood, the circle of Jules Verne's hobbies was determined: the boy avidly read fiction, giving preference to adventure stories and novels, and knew everything about ships, yachts and rafts. Jules' hobby was shared by his younger brother Paul. The love for the sea was instilled in the boys by their grandfather, the ship owner.

When the writer was eleven years old, he was hired as a sailor-cabin boy and wanted to escape to India, but he was stopped and was not allowed to do so.

On May 20, 1856, Jules Verne arrived in Amiens for his friend's wedding, where he first met Honorine. On January 10, 1857, they married and settled in Paris, where Verne had lived for several years. Four years later, on August 3, 1861, Honorine gave birth to a son, Michel, their only child. Jules Verne was not present at birth, as at that time he was traveling in Scandinavia. The writer's son was involved in cinematography and filmed several of his father's works.

Verne studied law in Paris, but his love of literature prompted him to take a different path.

"Five weeks in a hot air balloon" - a trip through Africa. Compiled from the notes of Dr. Fergusson by Julius Verne.
The novel's success inspired the writer. He decided to continue to work in this vein, accompanying the romantic adventures of his characters with ever more skillful descriptions of the incredible, but nevertheless carefully thought out scientific "miracles" born of his imagination.

Jules Verne traveled all over the world, visited many countries. He also had three of his own yachts, called Saint-Michel, on which he constantly sailed.

Jules Verne wrote 66 novels, including unfinished ones, published at the end of the 20th century, as well as more than 20 novellas and short stories, more than 30 plays, several documentary and scientific works.

In 1865 he moved closer to the sea, to the village of Le Crotois. The sailing yacht "San Michel", which the writer acquires and transforms at his own discretion, becomes a "floating" office. Here he spends a significant part of his creative life.

Jules Verne signed his first contract with the publishing house in 1863. Under the terms of the contract, the writer had to prepare at least three works a year, for each of which he received 1,900 francs. Within 8 years, Verne's income had grown significantly - for each novel, he received 6,000 francs.

In 1867, Verne made a transatlantic cruise on the Great Eastern to the United States, and visited Niagara Falls in New York.

In 1878, Jules Verne made a long voyage on the yacht "Saint-Michel III" in the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Lisbon, Tangier, Gibraltar and Algeria. In 1879, on the yacht Saint-Michel III, Jules Verne again visited England and Scotland. In 1881, Jules Verne traveled to the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark on his yacht. Then he planned to reach St. Petersburg, but this was prevented by a strong storm.

In 1884, Jules Verne made his last great journey. On "Saint-Michel III" he visited Algeria, Malta, Italy and other Mediterranean countries. Many of his trips later formed the basis for "Unusual Travels" - "The Floating City" (1870), "Black India" (1877), "Green Ray" (1882), "Lottery Ticket No. 9672" (1886) and others.

Jules Verne could write for more than fifteen hours in a row, without really leaving the office, if he had any insight, it was difficult to stop him.

On March 9, 1886, Jules Verne was severely wounded in the ankle by a revolver shot by the mentally ill nephew of Gaston Verne (Paul's son). I had to forget about travel forever.

The work "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in the 19th century was banned in Russia. The then clergy found anti-religious ideas in the work and decided that this would undermine the spirituality of the entire state.

In 1892, the writer became a Knight of the Legion of Honor.

Jules Verne was married to a widow. The writer fell in love and took a woman with two children, he even borrowed 50,000 francs from his father to support the family.

When the European Space Agency decided to make the ATV cargo ships going to the International Space Station “personalized”, the very first one was named Jules Verne. He flew in 2008.

Shortly before his death, Vern went blind, but he still continued to dictate books.

For the novel "Around the World in Eighty Days" the author took up after he read in one of the newspapers a note that with the capabilities of the vehicles of that time, a traveler is able to travel around our planet in just such a time.

Almost all of the writer's books contain predictions and discoveries. Everything fantastic that the writer wrote in his books was later invented. When making discoveries, scientists even relied on his works, took ideas from him. The ingenious Frenchman predicted space flights and the patency of the Northern Sea Route during one navigation, the appearance of an airplane and a helicopter.

Money, fame - everything was there, but noisy Paris was already annoying, and Jules Verne moved to provincial and quiet Amiens. He taught himself to work like a machine, got up at 5 am and wrote until 7 pm. Break only for tea, food and reading.

The writer died on March 24, 1905, at the age of 78, from diabetes. After his death, a card index remained, including over 20 thousand notebooks with information from all areas of human knowledge.

As many designers of rockets and spaceships, and the first cosmonauts and astronauts later admitted, Jules Verne's books were their desktops.

Jules Verne's stories have been translated into 148 languages.

There is a monument on the grave of Jules Verne with a laconic inscription: "To immortality and eternal youth."

From the list of works by Jules Verne

1863 - Five weeks in a hot air balloon. Travel and discoveries of three Englishmen in Africa.
1864 - Travel to the center of the Earth.
1865 - The Travels and Adventures of Captain Hatteras.
1865 - From the Earth to the Moon in a direct way in 97 hours and 20 minutes.
1867 - Children of Captain Grant. Traveling across the world.
1869 - Around the Moon.
1870 - Twenty thousand leagues under the sea. Travel around the world under the waves of the ocean.
1870 - Floating city.
1872 - Adventures of three Russians and three Englishmen in South Africa.
1872 - Around the World in Eighty Days.
1873 - In the land of furs.
1875 - Mysterious Island.
1875 - Chancellor. Diary of passenger J.-R. Casallona.
1876 ​​- Mikhail Strogoff. Moscow - Irkutsk.
1877 - Hector Servadac. Travels and adventures in a near sunny world.
1877 - Black India.
1878 - Fifteen year old captain.
1879 - Five Hundred Million Begums.
1879 - Troubles of a Chinese in China.
1880 - Steam house. Travel to North India.
1881 - Zhangada. Eight hundred leagues across the Amazon.
1882 - Robinson School.
1882 - Green Ray.
1883 - Stubborn Keraban.
1884 - South Star. Country of diamonds.
1884 - The archipelago is on fire.
1885 - Foundling with the deceased "Cynthia". (co-author Andre Laurie)
1885 - Matthias Sandor.
1886 - Lottery ticket number 9672.
1886 - Robur the Conqueror.
1887 - North against South.
1887 - Road to France.
1888 - Two years of vacation.
1889 - Family without a name.
1889 - Upside down.
1890 - Caesar Cascabel.
1891 - Mrs Breniken.
1892 - Castle in the Carpathians.
1892 - Clodius Bombarnack. Notebook of a reporter about the opening of the great Trans-Asian highway (From Russia to Beijing).
1893 - Kid.
1894 - The Amazing Adventures of Uncle Antifer.
1895 - Floating Island.
1896 - Flag of the Motherland.
1896 - Clovis Dardantor.
1897 - Ice Sphinx.
1898 - Magnificent Orinoco.
1899 - Will of an eccentric.
1900 - Second homeland.
1901 - A village in the air.
1901 - The Stories of Jean-Marie Cabidoulin.
1902 - The Kip brothers.
1903 - Travel of the Fellows.
1904 - Drama in Livonia.
1904 - Master of the World.
1895 - Invasion of the sea.
1905 - Lighthouse at the End of the World.
1906 - Golden Volcano.
1907 - Thompson & Co.
1908 - In pursuit of a meteor.
1908 - Danube pilot.
1909 - The Jonothan shipwreck.
1910 - The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz.
1914 - An extraordinary adventure of the Barsak expedition.

Jules Gabriel Verne (8 February 1828 - 24 March 1905) is a world famous and incredibly popular French writer and geographer. It is he who is considered the founder of the literary genre of science fiction. He is a member of the French Geographical Society, and his books have long been a world literary heritage.

Childhood

Jules Verne was born on February 8 in the French city of Nantes. His father was a hereditary lawyer, about whom a good half of the small town knew, and his mother - Scottish by birth - taught literature at school for some time. Many bibliographers believe that it was she who instilled in the young Jules a love of literature, since his father saw in him only another representative of a generation of good lawyers.

Being between two so different people - a lawyer-father and an art-loving mother - Verne from childhood doubted who he wanted to become. While studying at school, for some time he was fond of reading French literature, which his mother selected for him. But becoming a little older, he took up jurisprudence, like his father, and moved to Paris.

In the future, he will even write a short autobiographical story about this, which will tell about his childhood, his mother's desire to make him a man of art and his father's thirst for teaching the boy the basics of jurisprudence. However, this manuscript, created by Verny in a hurry, will be read only by the closest people, after which it will be forever lost as a result of the move.

Youth and early writing career

Having reached the age of majority, Jules Verne decides to leave his family, which at that time was beginning to make him very nervous with their pressure about his future profession, and move to Paris to further study law.

Upon learning of this, the father several times tries to secretly help his son go to law, but whenever Jules Verne finds out about this, he deliberately fails the exams and goes to another university. Ultimately, there is only one law faculty left in Paris, which at that time Jules dreamed of.

He successfully enters and has been studying at the department for six months, after which he accidentally finds out that his teacher is an old and very good friend of his father, who studied at the same school with him. Realizing that his dad will try to "clear" the way for him all his life and not wanting to do anything at the expense of his parents, Vern seriously quarrels with his family and leaves the legal department.

Several years after that are worse for Jules than he had planned. He tries to stay as far from jurisprudence as possible, however, having knowledge only in this area, he spends all his last money and is forced to live on the street for six months. At the same time, Jules Verne, trying to remember his mother's lessons about art, begins to compose his first work

His friend, whom they met at the faculty, seeing the plight of his comrade, decides to help and arranges a meeting with the head of the Historical Theater in Paris. He, having studied the work, begins to understand that the talent of Jules Verne should be seen by the general public, so a couple of months later the production of Broken Straws appears on the stage. After that, they learn about the novice writer and help him financially.

In the period from 1852 to 1854 Jules Verne collaborated with the theater. According to many bibliographers, this period can be considered the initial one in Verne's writing career, when he was just mastering a new style for himself and realizing himself in this field. During this period, several stories, librettos and comedies by the author were published, many of which became successful theatrical productions in different periods of time.

Achievement of success and most famous works

Thanks to cooperation with the Historical Theater, Jules Verne found himself as a writer, and from that moment he was imbued with the idea of ​​creating completely new adventure works, in which he could describe what other authors have never touched before. That is why he creates his first cycle of works, which he unites under the general title "Extraordinary Travels".

In 1863, the first work from the cycle, "Five weeks in a balloon", was published in the "Journal for Education and Leisure". It receives the most positive reviews from readers, because the romantic line of relationships between the main characters, which so attracts in the book, was supplemented by Verne with a lot of sci-fi innovations, which was a novelty for that time. Realizing that readers like such books, Jules Verne continues to write in this style, as a result of which the cycle is replenished with such works as "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864), "Children of Captain Grant" (1867), "Around the World in 80 Days "(1872)," The Mysterious Island "(1874).

After the release of "Unusual Travels" the name of Jules Verne was known to every inhabitant of the country, and later of the whole world. In his works, everyone could find something for themselves. For some, these are wonderful and incredibly romantic storylines that connect the characters, for others, the presence of well-described adventures, for others, the freshness of scientific ideas and views. Many literary critics rightly believe that Jules Verne was not just the founder of fantastic literature, but a man who believed that people would stop fighting and begin to acquire knowledge in the field of technology, and forget about wars between nations. This idea can be traced in all of his works.

Personal life

The first and only wife of the world famous writer was Honorine de Vian - an ordinary girl from a not very wealthy family. Jules Verne met her in the French town of Amiens, where he arrived at the invitation of his cousin to his wedding. A strong relationship developed between the young people, and six months later, Verne asked Honorina's hand.

In the marriage, the couple had a son, Michelle. By the way, Jules Verne was not present at the birth, since at that time he traveled to the Scandinavian countries, studying their way of life to write several new works. However, this did not prevent the writer from sincerely and with all his soul to love the family that remained to wait for him in Paris.

Later, when Verne's son Michel grew up, he became seriously interested in cinema. And it is thanks to him that today we can not only read, but also see some of the most successful works of Jules Verne, such as "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", "Five Hundred Million Begums" and many others.

Jules Verne is an immensely popular French writer, founder of science fiction with H.G. Wells. Written for both teens and adults, Verne's art captures the adventurous spirit of the 19th century, its charm, scientific progress and inventions. Most of his novels were written in the form of travel notes, taking readers to the moon in "From Earth to the Moon" or in a completely different direction - in "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Many of Verne's ideas turned out to be prophetic. Among his most famous books is the adventure novel Around the World in 80 Days (1873).

“Ah - what a journey - what a wonderful and unusual journey! We entered the Earth through one volcano and exited through another. And this other was more than twelve thousand leagues from Sneffels, from this dreary country of Iceland ... We left the region of eternal snow and left behind the gray fog of icy expanses to return to the azure sky of Sicily! " (from Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864)

Jules Verne was born and raised in Nantes.

His father was a successful lawyer. To continue the family tradition, Verne moved to Paris, where he studied law. His uncle introduced him to literary circles, and he began publishing plays under the influence of writers such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas (son) whom Verne knew personally. Despite the fact that most of his time was devoted to writing books, he received a law degree. During this time, Verne suffered from digestive problems that periodically bothered him throughout his life.

In 1854 Charles Baudelaire translated the works of Edgar Poe into French. Verne became one of the most devoted admirers of the American writer and wrote his Voyage in a Balloon (1851) under the influence of Poe. Jules Verne would later write a sequel to Poe's unfinished novel The Tale of Gordon Pym, which he named The Sphinx of the Ice Plains (1897). As his career as a writer slowed, Verne turned back to brokerage, a business he had been doing prior to the publication of Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), which became part of the Unusual Journeys series. In 1862, Verne met Pierre Jules Etzel, a publisher and writer for children, who published Verne's Extraordinary Journeys. They collaborated until the end of Jules Verne's career. Etzel also worked with Balzac and Georges Sand. He read Verne's manuscripts carefully and did not hesitate to suggest corrections. Verne's early work, Paris of the Twentieth Century, did not appeal to the publisher and did not appear in print until 1997 in English.

Verne's novels soon became incredibly popular around the world. Without a scholarly education and no travel experience, Verne spent most of his time researching for his works. Unlike fantasy literature such as Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865), Verne tried to be realistic and stick to the facts in detail. When Wells invented Cavorite, a substance that is immune to gravity, in The First Man on the Moon, Vern was unhappy: “I sent my heroes to the Moon with gunpowder, this could actually happen. Where will Mr. Wells find his cavorite? Let him show it to me! " However, when the logic of the novel contradicted modern scientific knowledge, Verne did not stick to the facts. Around the World in 80 Days, a novel about the realistic and courageous journey of Phileas Fogg, is based on the real journey of American George Francis Train (1829-1904). Journey to the Center of the Earth is vulnerable to criticism from a geological point of view. The story tells about an expedition that penetrates into the very heart of the Earth. In Hector Servadac (1877), Hector and his servant fly around the entire solar system on a comet.

In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Verne described one of the forefathers of modern superheroes, the misanthropic Captain Nemo, and his amazing Nautilus submarine, named after Robert Fulton's steam submarine. "The Mysterious Island" is a novel about the exploits of people who find themselves on a desert island. In these films, which have been filmed on several occasions, Verne has combined science and invention with adventure directed to the past. Some of his works have become reality: his spacecraft preceded the invention of the real rocket a century later. The first electric submarine, built in 1886 by two Englishmen, was named Nautilus after the Vernov ship. The first nuclear submarine, launched in 1955, was also named the Nautilus.

Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) (directed by Richard Fleischer) won an Oscar for its special effects, featuring a mechanical giant squid driven by Bob Mattley. The interiors of the Nautilus were recreated from the book by Jules Verne. James Mason played Captain Nemo, and Kirk Douglas played Ned Land, a hefty sailor. Mike Todd's film Around the World in 80 Days (1957) won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but failed to win any awards for 44 supporting roles. The film stars 8,552 animals, including sheep from the Rocky Mountains, bulls and donkeys. 4 ostriches also appeared on the screen.

During the first period of his career, Verne expressed optimism about the central role of Europe in the social and technological development of the world. When it comes to inventions in the field of technology, Verne's imagination often contradicted the facts. In "From Earth to the Moon" a giant cannon shoots the protagonist into orbit. Any modern scientist would tell him now that the hero would be killed by the initial acceleration. However, the idea of ​​a space gun first appeared in print in the 18th century. And before that, Cyrano de Bergerac wrote "Voyages to the Sun and the Moon" (1655) and described in one of his stories a rocket for space travel.

“It's hard to say if Vern took the idea of ​​that huge cannon seriously, because much of the story is written in a rather humorous language ... Perhaps he believed that if such a cannon were built, it could be suitable to send shells to the moon. But he hardly really thought that any of the passengers could survive after this ”(Arthur Clarke, 1999).

Most of Verne's writings were written by 1880. Verne's later novels show pessimism about the future of human civilization. In his story "Eternal Adam", future discoveries of the 20th century were overthrown by geological cataclysms. In Robur the Conqueror (1886), Verne predicted the birth of a ship heavier than air, and in the sequel to The Master of the World (1904), the inventor Robur suffers from megalomania and plays cat and mouse with the authorities.

Verne's life after 1860 was not eventful and bourgeois. He traveled with his brother Paul to the United States in 1867, visited Niagara Falls. On a boat trip across the Mediterranean, he was greeted in Gibraltar, North Africa, and in Rome, Pope Leo XII blessed him and his books. In 1871 he settled in Amiens and was elected advisor in 1888. In 1886, an attempt was made on Verne. His paranoid nephew, Gaston, shot him in the leg, and the writer was immobilized for the rest of his life. Gaston was never cured of his illness.

At the age of 28, Verne married Honorine de Viana, a young widow with two children. He lived with his family in a large country house and sometimes sailed on a yacht. To the horror of his family, he began to admire Prince Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921), who devoted himself to revolutionary activities, and whose personality may have influenced the noble anarchist in Jonathan's Shipwreck (1909). Verne's interest in socialist theories was already evident in Matthias Sandor (1885).

For over 40 years, Verne has published at least one book a year. Despite writing about exotic locations, Verne traveled relatively little - his only balloon flight lasted 24 minutes. In a letter to Etzel, he confesses: “I seem to be losing my mind. I am lost in the incredible adventures of my heroes. I only regret one thing: I cannot accompany their pedibus cum jambis. " Verne's works include 65 novels, about 20 short stories and essays, 30 plays, several geographical works, and operatic librettos.

Verne died in Amiens on March 24, 1905. Verne's writings inspired many directors, from Georges Mellier (From Earth to the Moon, 1902) and Walt Disney (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954) to Henry Levin (Journey to the Center of the Earth ", 1959) and Irwin Alain (" Five weeks in a balloon ", 1962). The Italian artist Giorgio de Chiroco was also interested in Verne's works and wrote a study based on them “On Metaphysical Art”: “But who better than him could capture the metaphysical elements of a city like London, with its buildings, streets, clubs, squares and open spaces; the haze of a Sunday London afternoon, the melancholy of a man, a walking phantom, as we see Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days? Jules Verne's work is filled with these joyful and comforting moments; I still remember the description of the departure of the steamer from Liverpool in his novel The Floating Island.

On September 27, 2015, the first monument to the writer in Russia was unveiled on the Fedorovsky embankment in Nizhny Novgorod.

fr. Jules gabriel verne

French writer, classic of adventure literature, one of the founders of the science fiction genre

Jules Verne

short biography

Jules Gabrielle Verne(French Jules Gabriel Verne; February 8, 1828, Nantes, France - March 24, 1905, Amiens, France) - French writer, classic of adventure literature, one of the founders of the science fiction genre. Member of the French Geographical Society. According to UNESCO statistics, Jules Verne's books rank second in translatability in the world, second only to the works of Agatha Christie.

Childhood

Born on February 8, 1828 on the Fedo island on the Loire River, near Nantes, at the house of his grandmother Sophie Allot de la Fuy on Rue de Clisson. Father was a lawyer Pierre Verne(1798-1871), descended from a family of Provencal lawyers, and his mother - Sophie-Nanina-Henriette Allot de la Fuy(1801-1887) from a family of Nantes shipbuilders and shipowners with Scottish roots. On the maternal side, Verne was descended from a Scotsman N. Allotta, who arrived in France to serve King Louis XI in the Scottish Guards, won the favor and received the title in 1462. He built his castle with a dovecote (fr. Fuye) near Loudun in Anjou and took the noble name Allotte de la Fuye (fr. Allotte de la Fuye).

Jules Verne became the firstborn. After him were born brother Paul (1829) and three sisters - Anna (1836), Matilda (1839) and Marie (1842).

In 1834, 6-year-old Jules Verne was assigned to a boarding house in Nantes. Teacher Madame Sambin often told students how her husband, a sea captain, was shipwrecked 30 years ago and now, she thought, was surviving on some island, like Robinson Crusoe. The theme of the Robinsonade also left its mark on the work of Jules Verne and was reflected in a number of his works: "The Mysterious Island" (1874), "School of the Robinsons" (1882), "Second Homeland" (1900).

In 1836, at the request of his religious father, Jules Verne went to the École Saint-Stanislas seminary, where he studied Latin, Greek, geography and singing. In his memoirs “fr. Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse "Jules Verne described the childish delight of the Loire embankment, the merchant ships sailing past the village of Chantenay, where his father bought a dacha. Uncle Pruden Allot circumnavigated the world and worked as mayor in Bren (1828-1837). His image was included in some of the works of Jules Verne: "Robur the Conqueror" (1886), "Will of an eccentric" (1900).

According to legend, 11-year-old Jules secretly got a job as a cabin boy on the three-masted ship "Coralie" to get coral beads for his cousin Carolina. The ship set off on the same day, stopping briefly at Pambeuf, where Pierre Verne intercepted his son in time and took from him a promise to continue traveling only in his imagination. This legend, based on a real story, was embellished by the writer's first biographer - his niece Margaret Allot de la Fuy. Already a renowned writer, Jules Verne admitted:

« I must have been born a sailor and now every day I regret that a naval career has not fallen to my lot since childhood.».

In 1842 Jules Verne continued his studies at another seminary, Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien. During this time he took up the unfinished novel The Priest in 1839 (French Un prêtre en 1839), which describes the poor conditions of the seminaries. After two years of study with his brother in rhetoric and philosophy at the Royal Lycée Georges-Clemenceau in Nantes, Jules Verne received his bachelor's degree in Rennes on July 29, 1846 with a mark "Fairly good."

Youth

By the age of 19, Jules Verne tried to write voluminous texts in the style of Victor Hugo (plays "Alexander VI", "The Gunpowder Plot"), but Pierre Verne's father expected serious work in the field of a lawyer from the first-born. Jules Verne was sent to Paris to study law, away from Nantes and Caroline's cousin, with whom the young Jules was in love. On April 27, 1847, the girl was married to 40-year-old Emile Desune.

After passing the exams after the first year of study, Jules Verne returned to Nantes, where he fell in love with Rose Ermini Arno Grossetier... He dedicated about 30 poems to her, including La Fille de l "air." grief, which he tried to "treat" with alcohol, disgusted his native Nantes and the local society. The theme of unhappy lovers, marriage against will can be traced in several of the author's works: "Master Zacharius" (1854), "Floating City" (1871), "Matthias Sandor "(1885) and others.

Study in Paris

In Paris, Jules Verne settled with his Nantes friend Edouard Bonamy in a small apartment at 24 Rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie... The novice composer Aristide Guignard lived nearby, with whom Verne remained friendly and even wrote chanson songs for his musical works. Taking advantage of family ties, Jules Verne entered the literary salon.

Young people ended up in Paris during the revolution of 1848, when the Second Republic was headed by its first president, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. In a letter to his family, Verne described the riots in the city, but was quick to assure that the annual Bastille Day was peaceful. In letters, he mainly wrote about his expenses and complained of stomach pains, which suffered the rest of his life. Modern experts suspect the writer has colitis, he himself considered the disease inherited through the maternal line. In 1851, Jules Verne suffered the first of four facial nerve palsies. Its cause is not psychosomatic, but associated with inflammation of the middle ear. Fortunately for Jules, he was not drafted into the army, which he happily wrote to his father:

« You must know, dear father, that I think about military life and these servants in livery ... You have to renounce all dignity to do such a job».

In January 1851, Jules Verne completed his studies and received permission to practice law.

Literary debut

Cover of the Musée des familles magazine, 1854-1855.

In the literary salon, the young author Jules Verne in 1849 met Alexandre Dumas, with whose son he became very friendly. Together with his new literary friend, Verne finished his play Les Pailles rompues, which, thanks to the petition of Alexandre Dumas, the father, was staged on June 12, 1850 at the Historical Theater.

In 1851, Verne met a fellow countryman from Nantes, Pierre-Michel-François Chevalier (known as Pitre-Chevalier), who was editor-in-chief of the Musée des familles magazine. He was looking for an author who could write engagingly about geography, history, science and technology without losing an educational component. Verne, with his inherent thirst for science, especially geography, proved to be a suitable candidate. The first published work, The First Ships of the Mexican Navy, was influenced by the adventure novels of Fenimore Cooper. Pitre-Chevalier published the story in July 1851, and in August he released a new story, Drama in the Air. Since then, Jules Verne has combined an adventure novel, adventure with historical excursions in his works.

Pitre Chevalier

Thanks to his acquaintance through Dumas-son with the director of the theater, Jules Seveste, Verne received the post of secretary there. Not bothered by the low pay, Verne hoped to stage a series of comedy operas, written with Guignard and librettist Michel Carré. To celebrate his work at the theater, Verne organized the Eleven Bachelors (Onze-sans-femme) dining club.

From time to time, Father Pierre Verne asked his son to leave literary craft and open a legal practice, for which he received letters of refusal. In January 1852, Pierre Verne delivered an ultimatum to his son, transferring his practice to him in Nantes. Jules Verne declined the offer, writing:

« Am I not entitled to follow my own instincts? It's all because I know myself, I realized who I want to become one day».

Jules Verne conducted research at the National Library of France, composing the plots of his works, satisfying his thirst for knowledge. During this period of his life, he met the traveler Jacques Arago, who continued to wander, despite his deteriorating eyesight (completely blind in 1837). The men became friends, and Arago's original and witty travel stories pushed Verne towards an emerging genre of literature - the travel essay. Popular science articles were also published in the Musée des familles, which are also attributed to Verne. In 1856, Verne had a falling out with Pitre-Chevalier and refused to cooperate with the magazine (until 1863, when Pitre-Chevalier died, and the post of editor went to another).

In 1854, another cholera outbreak claimed the life of the theater director, Jules Sevesta. Jules Verne for several years after that continued to engage in theater productions, write musical comedies, many of which were never staged.

Family

In May 1856, Verne went to his best friend's wedding in Amiens, where he fell in love with the bride's sister Honorine de Vian-Morel, a 26-year-old widow with two children. Name Honorine from Greek means "Sad". To rectify his financial situation and get the opportunity to marry Honorine, Jules Verne agreed to her brother's offer - to engage in brokerage. Pierre Verne did not immediately approve of his son's choice. The wedding took place on January 10, 1857. The newlyweds settled in Paris.

Jules Verne left the theater, took up bonds and worked full-time as a stockbroker on the Paris Stock Exchange. He woke up before dark to write before leaving for work. In his free time, he continued to go to the library, compiling his card index from various fields of knowledge, and met with members of the Eleven Bachelors club, who by this time had all gotten married.

In July 1858, Verne and his friend Aristide Guignard took advantage of an offer from his brother Guignard to go on a sea voyage from Bordeaux to Liverpool and Scotland. Verne's first trip outside France made a huge impression on him. Based on a trip in the winter and spring of 1859-1860, he wrote A Journey to England and Scotland (Journey Backward), which first appeared in print in 1989. The friends took the second sea voyage in 1861 to Stockholm. This journey formed the basis of the piece "Lottery Ticket No. 9672". Verne left Guignard in Denmark and hurried to Paris, but did not manage to give birth to his only son Michel (d. 1925).

The writer's son Michel was involved in cinematography and filmed several of his father's works:

• « Twenty thousand leagues under the water"(1916);
• « The fate of Jean Morena"(1916);
• « Black India"(1917);
• « South star"(1918);
• « Five Hundred Million Begums"(1919).

Michel had three children: Michel, Georges and Jean.

Grandson Jean-Jules Verne(1892-1980) - the author of a monograph about the life and work of his grandfather, on which he worked for about 40 years (published in France in 1973, Russian translation was carried out in 1978 by the publishing house "Progress").

Great-grandson - Jean Verne(b. 1962) is a famous opera tenor. It was he who found the manuscript of the novel “ Paris in the 20th century", Which for many years was considered a family myth.

There is an assumption that Jules Verne had an illegitimate daughter, Marie, from Estelle Hénin, whom he met in 1859. Estelle Henin lived in Asnieres-sur-Seine, and her husband Charles Duchenne worked as a notary clerk in Couvre-et-Valsery. In 1863-1865 Jules Verne visited Estelle in Asnieres. Estelle died in 1885 (or 1865) after giving birth to her daughter.

Etzel

Cover "Extraordinary Travels"

In 1862, through a mutual friend, Verne met the famous publisher Pierre-Jules Etzel (who printed Balzac, Georges Sand, Victor Hugo) and agreed to present him with his fresh work Voyage en Ballon. Etzel liked Verne's style of harmoniously combining fiction with scientific detailing, and agreed to collaborate with the writer. Verne made adjustments and two weeks later submitted a slightly revised novel with a new title, Five Weeks in a Balloon. It appeared in print on January 31, 1863.

Pierre-Jules Etzel

Wanting to create a separate magazine " Magasin d "Éducation et de Récréation"(" Journal of Education and Entertainment "), Etzel signed an agreement with Verne, according to which the writer undertook to provide 3 volumes annually for a fixed fee. Verne was pleased with the prospect of a stable income while doing what she loves. Most of his writings appeared first in the magazine before being published in books, which began to be practiced with the appearance in 1864 of a second novel for Etzel, The Voyage and Adventures of Captain Hatteras, in 1866. Then Etzel announced that he plans to publish a series of works by Verne entitled "Extraordinary Journeys", where the master of the word should " designate all the geographical, geological, physical and astronomical knowledge accumulated by modern science, and retell them in an entertaining and picturesque form". Verne acknowledged the ambition of the undertaking:

« Yes! But the Earth is so big and life is so short! To leave behind a completed work, you need to live at least 100 years!».

Especially in the early years of the collaboration, Etzel influenced the work of Verne, who was delighted to meet with the publisher, with whose corrections he almost always agreed. Etzel did not approve of Paris in the 20th Century, considering it a pessimistic reflection of the future, which was not suitable for a family magazine. The novel was considered lost for a long time and was published only in 1994 thanks to the writer's great-grandson.

In 1869, a conflict broke out between Etzel and Verne over the plot "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." Verne created the image of Nemo as a Polish scientist who took revenge on the Russian autocracy for the death of his family during the Polish uprising of 1863-1864. But Etzel did not want to lose the lucrative Russian market and therefore demanded to make the hero an abstract "fighter against slavery." In search of a compromise, Vern shrouded in secrets Nemo's past. After this incident, the writer coldly listened to Etzel's remarks, but did not introduce them into the text.

Travel writer

Honorine and Jules Verne in 1894 walking with the dog Follett in the courtyard of the Amiens house Maison de la Tour.

In 1865, near the sea in the village of Le Crotois, Verne bought an old sailing boat "Saint-Michel", which he rebuilt into a yacht and a "floating office". Here Jules Verne spent a significant part of his creative life. He traveled a lot around the world, including on his yachts "Saint-Michel I", "Saint-Michel II" and "Saint-Michel III" (the latter was a rather large steam vessel). In 1859 he traveled to England and Scotland, in 1861 he visited Scandinavia.

On March 16, 1867, Jules Verne and his brother Paul set out on the Great Eastern from Liverpool to New York (USA). The travel inspired the writer to create the work "The Floating City" (1870). They return on April 9 to the beginning of the World Exhibition in Paris.

Then a series of misfortunes fell on the Vernes: in 1870 Honorine's relatives (brother and his wife) died from a smallpox epidemic, on November 3, 1871, the writer's father Pierre Verne died in Nantes, in April 1876 Honorine almost died of bleeding, which was saved from with the help of a rare blood transfusion procedure in those days. Since the 1870s, Jules Verne, raised in Catholicism, turned to deism.

In 1872, at the request of Honorine, the Verne family moved to Amiens "away from the noise and unbearable hustle and bustle." Here the Verns actively participate in the life of the city, arrange evenings for neighbors and acquaintances. At one of them, guests were invited to come in the images of the heroes of the books of Jules Verne.

Here he subscribes to several scientific journals and becomes a member of the Amiens Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he was elected chairman in 1875 and 1881. Contrary to the persistent desire and help of Dumas the son, Verne failed to obtain membership in the French Academy, and he remains in Amiens for many years.

The only son of the writer Michel Verne caused a lot of problems for his relatives. He was distinguished by extreme disobedience and cynicism, which is why in 1876 he spent six months in a correctional institution in Meter. In February 1878, Michel boarded a ship to India as an apprentice navigator, but the naval service did not correct his temper. At the same time, Jules Verne wrote the novel Fifteen Years Captain. Soon Michel returned and continued his dissolute life. Jules Verne paid off his son's endless debts and eventually kicked him out of the house. Only with the help of the second daughter-in-law did the writer manage to establish relations with his son, who finally took up his mind.

In 1877, receiving large royalties, Jules Verne was able to buy a large metal sailing-steam yacht "Saint-Michel III" (in a letter to Etzel the amount of the transaction was named: 55,000 francs). The 28-meter vessel with an experienced crew was based in Nantes. In 1878, Jules Verne, together with his brother Paul, made a great trip on the yacht Saint-Michel III across the Mediterranean, visiting Morocco, Tunisia, and the French colonies in North Africa. Honorine joined the second leg of this trip through Greece and Italy. In 1879, on the yacht Saint-Michel III, Jules Verne again visited England and Scotland, and in 1881 - in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Then he planned to reach St. Petersburg, but this was prevented by a strong storm.

In 1884, Jules Verne made his last great journey. He was accompanied by his brother Paul Verne, son Michel, friends Robert Godefroy and Louis-Jules Etzel. "Saint-Michel III" moored in Lisbon, Gibraltar, Algeria (where Honorine was staying with relatives in Oran), got into a storm off the coast of Malta, but sailed safely to Sicily, from where the travelers went on to Syracuse, Naples and Pompeii. From Anzio they reached Rome by train, where on July 7, Jules Verne was invited to an audience with Pope Leo XIII. Two months after sailing, the Saint-Michel III returned to France. In 1886, Jules Verne unexpectedly sold the yacht at half price, without explaining the reasons for his decision. It has been suggested that the maintenance of a yacht with a crew of 10 has become too onerous for the writer. More Jules Verne never went to sea.

last years of life

On March 9, 1886, Jules Verne was shot twice from a revolver by the mentally ill 26-year-old nephew Gaston Verne (Paul's son). The first bullet did not hit, and the second injured the ankle of the writer, which made him limp. I had to forget about travel forever. The incident was hushed up, but Gaston spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital. A week after the incident, news came of Etzel's death.

On February 15, 1887, the writer's mother, Sophie, died, and Jules Verne was unable to attend her funeral for health reasons. The writer finally lost his attachment to the places of childhood. In the same year, he traveled through his hometown to enter into inheritance rights and sell his parents' country house.

In 1888, Verne entered politics and was elected to the city government of Amiens, where he introduced several transformations and worked for 15 years. The position involved overseeing the activities of circuses, exhibitions, performances. At the same time, he did not share the ideas of the republicans who put forward him, but remained a staunch Orleanist monarchist. Thanks to his efforts, a large circus was built in the city.

In 1892, the writer became a Knight of the Legion of Honor.

On August 27, 1897, brother and colleague Paul Verne died of a heart attack, which plunged the writer into deep sadness. Jules Verne refused to undergo surgery on his right eye, marked with cataracts, and was subsequently nearly blind.

In 1902, Verne experienced a decline in creativity, responding to a request from the Academy of Amiens that at his age “ words go away but ideas do not come". Since 1892, the writer has been gradually finalizing the prepared plots without writing new ones. In response to the request of Esperanto students, Jules Verne begins a new novel in 1903 in this artificial language, but ends with only 6 chapters. The work, after additions by Michel Verne (the writer's son), came out of print in 1919 under the title The Extraordinary Adventures of Barsak's Expedition.

The writer died on March 24, 1905 in his Amiens house at 44 Boulevard longueville(today Boulevard Jules Verne), at the age of 78, from diabetes. More than five thousand people attended the funeral. German Emperor Wilhelm II expressed condolences to the writer's family through the ambassador who was present at the ceremony. Not a single delegate from the French government came.

Jules Verne was buried in the Madeleine cemetery in Amiens. There is a monument on the grave with a laconic inscription: “ To immortality and eternal youth».

After his death, a card index remained, including over 20 thousand notebooks with information from all areas of human knowledge. Seven previously unpublished works and a collection of stories were published. In 1907, the eighth novel, The Thompson & Co. Agency, written entirely by Michel Verne, came out under the name of Jules Verne. Controversy is still underway about the ownership of the novel by Jules Verne.

Creation

Overview

Watching the sailing merchant ships, Jules Verne dreamed of adventure from childhood. This boosted his imagination. As a boy, he heard from the teacher Madame Sambin the story of her husband-captain, who was shipwrecked 30 years ago and now, she thought, was surviving on some island, like Robinson Crusoe. The theme of the Robinsonade was reflected in a number of Verne's works: The Mysterious Island (1874), The Robinson School (1882), The Second Homeland (1900). Also, the image of his own uncle-traveler Pruden Allot was included in some of the works of Jules Verne: "Robur the Conqueror" (1886), "Will of an eccentric" (1900).

While attending seminary, 14-year-old Jules poured out his discontent with learning in an early, unfinished story, "A Priest in 1839" (fr. Un prêtre en 1839). In his memoirs, he admitted that he had read the works of Victor Hugo, especially fell in love with Notre Dame Cathedral and by his 19 years tried to write equally voluminous texts (the plays Alexander VI, The Gunpowder Plot). In the same years, the enamored Jules Verne composes a number of poems that Arnaud Grossetier dedicates to Rosa Ermini. The theme of unhappy lovers, marriage against will can be traced in several works of the author: "Master Zacharius" (1854), "Floating City" (1871), "Matias Sandor" (1885), etc., which was the result of a bad experience in the life of the writer himself.

In Paris, Jules Verne entered the literary salon, where he met Dumas the father and Dumas the son, thanks to whom his play Broken Straws was successfully staged on June 12, 1850 at the Historical Theater. For many years, Verne was engaged in theater productions, wrote musical comedies, many of which were never staged.

Meeting with the editor of the magazine "Musée des familles" Pitre-Chevalier allowed Verne to reveal his talent not only as a writer, but also as an entertaining storyteller, able to present in understandable language about geography, history, science and technology. The first published work, The First Ships of the Mexican Navy, was influenced by the adventure novels of Fenimore Cooper. Pitre-Chevalier published the story in July 1851, and in August he released a new story, Drama in the Air. Since then, Jules Verne has combined an adventurous romance and adventure with historical excursions in his works.

In the work of Jules Verne, the struggle between good and evil is clearly traced. The author is categorical, displaying absolutely unambiguous images of heroes and villains in almost all works. With rare exceptions (image Robura in the novel "Robur the Conqueror"), the reader is invited to sympathize and empathize with the protagonists - examples of all virtues and to feel antipathy towards all negative heroes who are described exclusively as villains (bandits, pirates, robbers). As a rule, there are no halftones in the images.

In the writer's novels, readers found not only an enthusiastic description of technology, travel, but also bright and vivid images of noble heroes ( captain Hatteras, captain Grant, captain Nemo), cute eccentric scientists ( Professor Liedenbrock, Dr. Clawbonny, cousin Benedict, geographer Jacques Paganel, astronomer Palmyren Roset).

The author's travels with friends formed the basis of some of his novels. Journey to England and Scotland (Journey Backward) (English) (first published 1989) conveyed Verne's impressions of his visit to Scotland in the spring and winter of 1859-1860; Lottery Ticket No. 9672 refers to the 1861 voyage to Scandinavia; The Floating City (1870) recalls the transatlantic voyage with Brother Paul from Liverpool to New York (USA) on the Great Eastern in 1867. In a difficult period of difficult family relations, Jules Verne wrote the novel "The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain" as an edification to the naughty son Michel, who set off on his maiden voyage in order to reeducate.

The ability to grasp development trends, a keen interest in scientific and technological progress gave some readers a reason to exaggerately call Jules Verne a "predictor" who he really was not. The bold assumptions he made in the books are only a creative reworking of scientific ideas and theories that existed at the end of the 19th century.

« Whatever I compose, whatever I make up, - said Jules Verne, - all this will always be below the real capabilities of a person. The time will come when science will surpass the power of imagination».

Verne spent his free time at the National Library of France, where he satisfied his craving for knowledge, compiled a scientific card index for future subjects. In addition, he had acquaintances with scientists and travelers (for example, Jacques Arago) of his time, from whom he received valuable information from various fields of knowledge. For example, the prototype of Michel Ardant's hero ("From Earth to the Moon") was a friend of the writer, the photographer and balloonist Nadar, who introduced Verne to the ballooning circle (among them were the physicist Jacques Babinet and the inventor Gustave Ponton d'Amecourt).

Cycle "Unusual travels"

After a quarrel with Pitre-Chevalier, fate in 1862 gave Verne a new meeting with the famous publisher Pierre-Jules Etzel (who printed Balzac, Georges Sand, Victor Hugo). In 1863, Jules Verne published in his " Journal for Education and Leisure"The first novel from the cycle" Unusual travels ":" Five weeks in a balloon "(Russian translation - published by M. A. Golovachev, 1864, 306 p .; under the title" Air travel through Africa. Based on the notes of Dr. Fergusson by Julius Verne"). The novel's success inspired the writer. He decided to continue to work in this vein, accompanying the romantic adventures of his characters with ever more skillful descriptions of the incredible, but nevertheless carefully thought out scientific "miracles" born of his imagination. The cycle was continued by the novels:

• "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864),
• "The Voyage and Adventures of Captain Hatteras" (1865),
• "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865),
• Captain Grant's Children (1867)
• "Around the Moon" (1869),
• "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1870),
• "Around the World in 80 Days" (1872),
• "The Mysterious Island" (1874),
• "Mikhail Strogoff" (1876),
• "Fifteen Years Captain" (1878),
• Robur the Conqueror (1886)
• and many others.

Later creativity

Since 1892, the writer has been gradually finalizing the prepared plots without writing new ones. At the end of his life, Verne's optimism about the triumph of science was replaced by fear of using it to harm: "The Flag of the Motherland" (1896), "The Lord of the World" (1904), "The Unusual Adventures of Barsak's Expedition" (1919; the novel was completed by the son of the writer Michel Verne). Belief in constant progress was replaced by anxious expectation of the unknown. However, these books have never been as successful as his previous works.

In response to the request of Esperanto students, Jules Verne begins a new novel in 1903 in this artificial language, but ends with only 6 chapters. The work, after additions by Michel Verne (the writer's son), came out of print in 1919 under the title The Extraordinary Adventures of Barsak's Expedition.

After the death of the writer, a large number of unpublished manuscripts remained, which continue to be published to this day. For example, the 1863 novel Paris in the 20th century was published only in 1994. Jules Verne's creative heritage includes: 66 novels (including unfinished and published only at the end of the XX century); more than 20 stories and stories; more than 30 plays; several documentary and scientific journalistic works.

Translations into other languages

Even during the life of the author, his works were actively translated into different languages. Verne was often unhappy with the finished translations. For example, English-language publishers cut works by 20-40%, removing Verne's political criticism and extensive scholarly descriptions. English translators considered his works intended for children and therefore facilitated their content, while making a lot of mistakes, violating the integrity of the plot (up to rewriting chapters, renaming characters). These translations have been reprinted in this form for many years. It was only in 1965 that literate translations of Jules Verne's works into English began to appear. However, older translations are readily available and replicable due to their achievement of public domain status.

In Russia

In the Russian Empire, almost all of Jules Verne's novels appeared immediately after the French editions and withstood several reprints. Readers could see the works and critical reviews on them on the pages of the leading magazines of that time (Nekrasov's Sovremennik "Nature and People", "Around the World", "World of Adventures") and the books of the publishing houses of M.O. Wolf, I.D.Sytin , P. P. Soykina and others. The translator Marko Vovchok actively translated Verna.

In the 1860s, the Russian Empire banned the publication of Jules Verne's novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth, in which spiritual censors found anti-religious ideas, as well as the danger of destroying trust in Scripture and the clergy.

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev called Verne "a scientific genius"; Leo Tolstoy loved to read Verne's books to children and drew illustrations for them himself. In 1891, in a conversation with physicist A.V. Tsinger, Tolstoy said:

« Jules Verne's novels are excellent. I read them as adults, but still, I remember, they delighted me. He is an amazing master at constructing an intriguing, gripping storyline. And you should have listened to the enthusiasm with which Turgenev speaks of him! I don't directly remember him admiring anyone else as much as Jules Verne.».

In 1906-1907, the book publisher Pyotr Petrovich Soikin undertook the publication of the collected works of Jules Verne in 88 volumes, which, in addition to well-known novels, included previously unknown novels to the Russian reader, for example, "Rodnoe Znamya", "Castle in the Carpathians", "Invasion of the Sea", "Golden volcano". An album with illustrations by French artists for the novels of Jules Verne appeared as an attachment. In 1917, the publishing house of Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin published a collection of works by Jules Verne in six volumes, where little-known novels "The Cursed Mystery", "The Lord over the World", "The Golden Meteor" were published.

In the USSR, the popularity of Verne's books grew. On September 9, 1933, the Central Committee of the party issued a resolution "On the Publishing House of Children's Literature": Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift and Jules Verne. DETGIZ has begun planned work to create new, high-quality translations and launched a series of "Library of Adventures and Science Fiction". In 1954-1957, a 12-volume edition of the most famous works of Jules Verne was published, then in 1985 an 8-volume edition in the "Library" Ogonyok "series followed. Foreign classics ".

Jules Verne was the fifth (after H.C. Andersen, Jack London, the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault) in terms of publishing in the USSR by a foreign writer in 1918-1986: the total circulation of 514 editions amounted to 50,943 thousand copies.

In the post-perestroika period, small private publishing houses undertook to republish Jules Verne in pre-revolutionary translations with modern spelling, but with unadapted stylistics. The Ladomir publishing house launched the Unknown Jules Verne series in 29 volumes, which was published from 1992 to 2010.

French literature

Jules Verne

Biography

French humanist writer, one of the founders of the science fiction genre. Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in the wealthy port city of Nantes (France), the son of a lawyer. At the age of 20, he was sent by his parents to a Paris college with the aim of obtaining a legal education. He began his literary career in 1849, writing several plays (vaudeville and comic operas). “My first work was a short comedy in verse, written with the participation of Alexandre Dumas, son, who was and remained one of my best friends until his death. It was called "Broken Straws" and was staged on the stage of the Historical Theater, owned by Dumas the father. The play had some success and, on the advice of the elder Dumas, I sent it to print. “Don't worry,” he encouraged me. - I give you a full guarantee that there will be at least one buyer. This buyer will be me! “[…] Soon it became clear to me that dramatic works would not give me either fame or livelihood. In those years I was huddled in the attic and was very poor. " (from an interview by Jules Verne to journalists) While working as a secretary at the Teatro Lyric, Jules Verne also worked part-time in one of the popular magazines, writing notes on historical and popular science topics. Work on the first novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, began in the fall of 1862, and at the end of the year the novel was already published by the famous Parisian publisher Pierre-Jules Etzel, with whom the collaboration lasted for about 25 years. According to the contract concluded with Etzel, Jules Verne had to give the publisher two new novels or one two-volume annually (Pierre Jules Etzel died in 1886 and the contract was extended with his son). Soon the novel was translated into almost all European languages ​​and brought fame to the author. The greatest financial success fell on the novel Around the World in 80 Days, published in 1872.

Jules Verne was a passionate traveler: on his yacht "Saint-Michel" he twice circled the Mediterranean Sea, visited Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Scandinavia, entered African waters. In 1867, Jules Verne traveled to North America: “A French company purchased the Great Eastern ocean steamer to transport Americans to the Paris Exhibition ... My brother and I visited New York and several other cities, saw Niagara in the ice in winter ... On me the solemn calmness of the giant waterfall made an indelible impression. " (from Jules Verne's interview to reporters)

The fact that the predictions of scientific discoveries and inventions contained in the novels of Jules Verne are gradually coming true, the science fiction writer explained as follows: “These are simple coincidences, and they are explained very simply. When I talk about some scientific phenomenon, I first examine all the sources available to me and draw conclusions based on many facts. As for the accuracy of the descriptions, in this respect I owe all kinds of extracts from books, newspapers, magazines, various abstracts and reports that I have prepared for the future and are gradually replenished. All these notes are carefully classified and serve as material for my stories and novels. None of my books have been written without the help of this filing cabinet. I carefully look through more than twenty newspapers, diligently read all the scientific reports available to me, and, believe me, I am always overwhelmed by a feeling of delight when I learn about some new discovery ... "(from an interview by Jules Verne to journalists) One of the cupboards in the vast library Jules Verne was filled with many oak boxes. In a certain order, they contained countless extracts, notes, clippings from newspapers and magazines, pasted on cards of the same format. The cards were selected by topic and embedded in paper wrappers. Unstitched notebooks of different thicknesses turned out. In total, according to Jules Verne, he has accumulated about twenty thousand such notebooks containing interesting information on all branches of knowledge. It seemed to many readers that Jules Verne's novels were surprisingly easy to write. In one of his interviews, the writer commented on such statements: “Nothing comes easy for me. For some reason, many people think that my works are pure improvisation. What nonsense! I can’t get down to work if I don’t know the beginning, middle and end of my future novel. So far, I have been happy enough in the sense that for each piece I had in my head not one, but at least half a dozen ready-made schemes. I attach great importance to the denouement. If the reader can guess how it will end, then such a book would not be worth writing. For a novel to be liked, you need to invent a completely unusual and at the same time optimistic outcome. And when the core of the plot is formed in my head, when the best one is chosen from several possible options, then the next stage of work is just beginning - at the writing table. […] I usually start by choosing from the card index all the extracts related to the given topic; sort them, study and process them in relation to the future novel. Then I do preliminary sketches and outline the chapters. After that I write a draft with a pencil, leaving wide margins - half a page - for amendments and additions. But this is not yet a novel, but only the framework of a novel. In this form, the manuscript goes to the printing house. In the first proofreading, I correct almost every sentence and often rewrite entire chapters. The final text is obtained after the fifth, seventh or, it happens, the ninth proofreading. I see most clearly the shortcomings of my work not in the manuscript, but in the printed copies. Fortunately, my publisher understands this well and does not put any restrictions in front of me ... But for some reason it is generally accepted that if a writer writes a lot, then everything is easy for him. Nothing like that! .. […] Thanks to the habit of daily work at the table from five in the morning until noon, I have been able to write two books a year for many years in a row. True, such a routine of life demanded some sacrifices. So that nothing distracts me from business, I moved from noisy Paris to calm, quiet Amiens and have been living here for many years - since 1871. Why did I choose Amiens, you ask? This city is especially dear to me because my wife was born here and here we once met her. And I am as proud of the title of municipal councilor of Amiens as I am of literary fame. " (from Jules Verne's interview to reporters)

“I try to take into account the needs and capabilities of young readers, for whom all my books are written. While working on my novels, I always think about - even if sometimes it even goes to the detriment of art - so that not a single page, not a single phrase came out from under my pen that children could not read and understand. […] My life was full of real and imaginary events. I have seen many wonderful things, but even more amazing things were created by my imagination. If you only knew how I regret that I have to end my earthly journey so early and say goodbye to life on the threshold of an era that promises so many miracles! .. " year)

In 1903, in one of his letters, Jules Verne wrote: “I see worse and worse, my dear sister. I haven't had a cataract operation yet ... Besides, I was deaf in one ear. So, I am now able to hear only half of the stupidity and malice that go around the world, and this comforts me a lot! " Jules Verne died at 8 o'clock in the morning on March 24, 1905 in the town of Amiens (France). Buried near his home in Amiens. Two years after the death of Jules Verne, a monument was erected on his grave, depicting a science fiction writer rising from the dust, with his hand outstretched to the stars. Until the end of 1910, every six months, as was done for forty-two years, Jules Verne continued to give readers a new volume of Extraordinary Travels.

Jules Verne is the author of about a hundred books, including poems, plays, short stories, about 70 stories and novels: "Five weeks in a balloon" (1862; novel; first translation into Russian in 1864 - "Air travel through Africa"), "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864; novel), "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865; novel; Jules Verne chose Florida as the starting point and placed his "cosmodrome" near Cape Canaveral; the novel also correctly indicates the initial velocity required for separation from the Earth), "Children of Captain Grant" (1867−1868; novel), "Around the Moon" (1869; novel; the effect of weightlessness was described, the descent of a spaceship engulfed in a flame in the Earth's atmosphere and its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in all three miles from where Apollo 11 splashed down in 1969, returning from the moon), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869−1870; novel), Around the World in 80 Days (1872; novel), The Mysterious Island (1875; novel), The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain (1878; novel), 500 Million Begums (1879), In the XXIX century. One Day of an American Journalist in 2889 "(1889; short story)," Floating Island "(1895; novel)," Aligning the Banner "(1896)," Master of the World "(1904; novel), works on geography and the history of geographical research ...

Jules Verne, French humanist writer, pioneer of the science fiction genre, was born on February 8, 1828 in the city of Nantes, in the family of a lawyer. In 1848, the young man was sent to a Paris college so that his son followed in his father's footsteps and became a lawyer.

Jules Verne's first literary experience was the small poetic comedy Broken Straws, written at the suggestion of his best friend, Alexander Dumas, his son. Realizing that drama would not give him either creative satisfaction or finances, in 1862 Jules Verne began working on the novel Five Weeks in a Balloon. The famous French publisher Pierre-Jules Etzel published the novel in the same year, making a deal with Jules, according to which the latter must create two novels a year for the publisher. Around the World in 80 Days, which achieved its greatest financial success nearly 150 years ago, is today a staple of science fiction.

The phenomenon of predicting scientific inventions made in the works of Jules Verne was explained by the writer himself as a simple coincidence. According to Verne, while researching a scientific phenomenon, he studied all the available information on this issue - books, magazines, reports. Subsequent information was classified in filing cabinets and served as material for fantastic scientific inventions, which in reality only had to be created. It seemed to the readers that the fascinating novels of Jules Verne were easy for him, however, according to him, work on each novel began with extracts from the author's card index (which, by the way, consisted of about 20 thousand notebooks), on the basis of these extracts, sketches of the plan of the novel were made, then a draft was written on it. As the science fiction writer recalled, the final version of the manuscript was obtained only after the seventh or even ninth revision of the proofreader. To become a good writer, Jules Verne developed his formula for success - working on a manuscript from five in the morning until noon in a calm, quiet environment. For this, in 1871 he moved to the city of Amiens, where he met his future wife.

In 1903, Jules Verne practically lost his sight and hearing, but continued to dictate the texts of the novels to his assistant. Jules Verne died on March 24, 1905 from diabetes.