Jules Verne books

To speak of Jules Verne's books is to speak of one of the greatest treasures of world literature. This writer and poet was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France. His extensive work has transcended and is recognized globally as one of the main and most important contributions that led to the beginning of the science fiction genre in literature. After a life full of events, at the age of 77 and still writing, he died of diabetes.

Verne was a man with an imagination ahead of his time, and that was clearly reflected in his work, in fact, there are a lot of curious facts about his life. Not only did he come up with visionary ideas, he also managed to describe gadgets and devices that seemed crazy at the time, but were invented at the same time. Even so, stood out throughout Europe for its surrealist stylelong before he had predicted the future in his modern novels.

Before the books

Being the first-born of five siblings and coming from a wealthy family, Verne successfully completed his first studies at the Saint-Stanislas College. Later he went to the Royal Lyceum of Nantes and graduated as an outstanding student. In all that time Julio began to be attracted to science, and developed a great love for poetry.

In 1847, financed by his father, he moved to Paris to study law. There he entered literary circles and met people who had great influence on the development of his work, such as Alexandre Dumas father, and also his son. By then Julio wrote the play Alexander VI, and thus began his stage as a playwright.

While in the City of Light he made friends with outgoing characters of the time. Such was the case with Nadar, the father of aerial photography, the first artist to capture France from the skies mounted on a hot air balloon. Through the, Verne became interested in the idea of ​​flying and its extensive possibilities.

In 1849 he finally graduated as a lawyer, fulfilling his father's wish. But Julio, apathetic, refused the idea of ​​pursuing his career. Later, because of his refusal, the financial aid he received from his family was withdrawn.

His lack of money, food and stress led him to suffer from different health problems associated with the digestive tract, in addition to worsening his diabetes, he explained this to his mother in a letter. From there, Jules Verne began to dedicate himself fully to letters.

Jules Verne, once in love

At the age of eleven, Verne fell in love with his cousin, Coralie; she inspired her first poems. In fact, he boarded a merchant ship bound for the Indies in order to get her a pearl pendant as proof of his love. However, his father found out and made him get off the boat immediately. The young Jules Verne began to write stories since then.

Over the years, when he went to live in Paris, Coralie got engaged and he devoted himself to studies and writing. It wasn't until 1856 that he became interested in a woman. In January 1857 he married Honorine Deviane Morel, a woman who had become a widow and had two daughters; Valentine and Suzanne.

Verne married for convenience and also with the intention of filling an emotional void, but the marriage did not help him to heal his pain, he was never happy. After four years living together, Honorine became pregnant with Julio's first and only child, Michel Verne., and in those moments the writer was preparing to go on a trip.

Inspiration

Julio began to write from a young age feeling Inspired by the stories her teacher told her in class about her husband, who was a sailor. The writer had an extreme passion for reading and liked to collect science-related articles and magazines. He was a man of deep thought, not in vain his phrases are among the best in world literature.

During his stay in Paris, he spent many hours in the library seeking to learn everything. He used a large part of the money that his father sent him to buy books, mainly on: engineering, astrology and geography.

From 1859 Julio began to discover his love for travel and found the main source of inspiration to write about them. However, contrary to popular belief, Jules Verne's trips were actually very few.

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Jules Verne: creation for didactic reasons

Fragments of some of the most famous Jules Verne books

Here are excerpts from some of Jules Verne's most famous works:

Around the World in 80 Days

“The train had left at the prescribed time. He was carrying a number of travelers, some officials, civil servants and opium and indigo traders whom he called his traffic to the eastern part of the peninsula… ”.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

"Indeed, for some time several ships had come across" a huge thing "at sea, a long, fusiform, sometimes phosphorescent object, infinitely larger and faster than a whale ...".

Theme of the Jules Verne books

Most Verne's works are about adventure and travel to unknown places, where no one has ever gone. But Julio had several facets in his career as a writer.

At first, as the father of science fiction, his novels were mainly related to technological advance. Some works from this stage are: From the Earth to the moon, The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Over time, the subject matter of his novels became more serious and less surreal.. He still continued to use science fiction, but now it also included biographies, more human characters, and trips to existing places in reality. His works stand out: Around the world in 80 days y The land of furs.

Finally, in his last years his fatigue was noticed, and his literary productions show a lot of darkness and pessimism. Verne stopped capturing science as an element that benefited human development. Instead, he used it as a vortex that consumes society alongside politics and capitalism. Julio pronounced his ideals in works such as: The eternal Adam, and The castaways of the Jonathan.

Editing and production

Jules Verne's beginnings in the literary world were not easy. In 1862, prompted by Nadar, Julio turned to the later editor of most of his work, Pierre-Jules Hetzel. The manuscript submitted was that of Five weeks in a balloon, the first work that opened the series of titles that make up Extraordinary trips.

After that, Julio accepted a contract offered by Hetzel, which stipulated that he would write two books a year for 20.000 francs., for which he had to move to Amiens. The first productions of Extraordinary trips they were published in Hetzel's literary magazine, Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation.

Hetzel was concerned about the appearance of Extraordinary trips when he noticed that the public was attracted to him. So began to design the covers of the titles with the cardboard technique. This technique consists of laying out the work using cardboard on the cover lined with a cloth embroidered in threads. This added even more value and popularity to Verne's books, making them famous in high society.

Legacy

Still on his deathbed in 1905, Jules Verne wrote Extraordinary trips, y after his death, several of his works continued to be published. One of them was his "lost novel", Paris in the XNUMXth century, written in 1989, and published in 1994.

Julio's knowledge and imagination led him to produce works of great weight in the genre of science fiction and universal literature. In the middle of the XNUMXth century, Verne was ahead of technological advances; and he always knew that his fiction was nothing more than the reality of the future.