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Jules Verne was a French Poet, Playwright, and Novelist. He created Voyages Extraordinaires (a series of best-selling adventure novels) in collaboration with publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. His novels were always well documented and set in the second half of the 19th century.
In addition to his novels, Jules wrote many plays, autobiographical accounts, short stories, songs, and poetry. He also wrote literary, scientific, and artistic studies. Since the beginning of cinema, his work has been adapted for both television and film.
Verne is also known for video games, music, theater, comic books, and opera. He spends his life doing everything that he could do. Let’s have a look at the life journey of Jules and get inspiration from his struggles.
Jules Verne’s Early Life
Jules was born on 8 Feb 1828 in Nantes, France. He was exposed to vessels arriving and departing which sparked his imagination for adventure and travel. Verne began to write poetry and short stories while attending boarding school.
His father was a lawyer and sent his oldest son to Paris to study Law. During his Law study, he found himself attracted to theater and literature. He began to visit the famed salons of Paris and made friends with a group of writers and artists that included Alexandre Dumas and his son.
Jules got his degree in 1849 but he remained in Paris to indulge his artistic leanings. In the same year, his one-act play Broken Straws was performed. After that, despite pressure from his father to continue his law career, he continued to write.
But the tension came to his head in 1852 when he refused his father’s offer to begin a law practice in Nantes. However, the aspiring writer took a meager-paying job as secretary of the Theater-Lyrique.
Jules Verne’s Married Life
Verna met Honorine de Viane in 1856 who was a young widow with two daughters. In the same year, they both fell in love with each other and got married in 1857. After the marriage, Jules realized that he needed a stronger financial foundation and he began to work as a stockbroker.
However, he did not abandon his writing career and published his first book The 1857 Salon. In the year 1859, Verne and his wife went on almost 20 trips to the British Isles.
This journey made a strong impression on Verne and inspired him to write Backwards to Britain but the novel never gets published until after his death. In 1861, the couple had their first child Michel Jean Pierre Verne.
Life After Meeting Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Jules’s literary career had failed to get noticed but his luck changed with his introduction to the publisher and editor Hatzel in 1862. He was working on a novel that diffused a heavy dose of scientific research into an adventure narrative.
Luckily he found a champion in Hetzel for his developing style. Hertzel published 5 Weeks in a Balloon in 1863. This is the first of a series of adventure novels by Verne that would compromise his Voyages Extraordinaires.
Jules Verne’s Literary Career
Hetzel published The Adventures of Captain Hatteras and Journey to the Center of the Earth in the year 1864. In the same year, Paris in the 12th century was rejected for publication. However, in 1865 Verne was back in print with From In Search of the Castaways and the Earth to the Moon.
Soon Jules Verne bought a ship to spend time with his wife sailing the seas after being inspired by his love of adventure and travel. Verne’s adventures help him to create multiple short stories and novels. In 1867, Hetzel published two novels by Jules Verne called Her Colonies and Illustrated Geography.
In the same year, Verne traveled with his brother to the United States. He stayed there only for a week. During this time, he managed to explore nature between the Hudson River to Albany and Niagara Falls.
But these 7 days left a long-lasting impact on Jules that was reflected in his later works. Later in 1869 and 1870, Hetzel published Jules Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Discovery of the Earth, and Around the Moon.
During this time, his works were being translated into English and he could live comfortably with his writing. In addition to that, here are some noticeable novels by Jules Verne.
- Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen
- Two Years’ Vacation
- From the Earth to the Moon
- The Lighthouse at the End of the World and many others.