Jules Gabriel Verne (French: Jules Gabriel Verne). Born February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France - died March 24, 1905 in Amiens, France. French geographer and writer, classic of adventure literature, one of the founders science fiction.
Member of the French Geographical Society. According to UNESCO statistics, Jules Verne's books rank second in terms of translation in the world, second only to the works of Agatha Christie.
Father - lawyer Pierre Verne (1798-1871), descended from a family of Provins lawyers. Mother - Sophie-Nanina-Henriette Allot de la Fuy (1801-1887), had Scottish roots. Jules Verne was the first of five children. After him were born: brother Paul (1829) and three sisters: Anna (1836), Matilda (1839) and Marie (1842).
Jules Verne's wife's name was Honorine de Vian (nee Morel). Honorine was a widow and had two children from her first marriage. On May 20, 1856, Jules Verne arrived in Amiens for his friend’s wedding, where he met Honorine for the first time. On January 10, 1857, they married and settled in Paris, where Verne lived for several years. Four years later, on August 3, 1861, Honorine gave birth to a son, Michel (d. 1925), their only child. Jules Verne was not present at the birth, as he was traveling in Scandinavia. The son was involved in cinematography and filmed several of his father’s works - “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” (1916), “The Fate of Jean Morin” (1916), “Black India” (1917), “Southern Star” (1918), “Five Hundred Million Begums” "(1919).
Grandson - Jean-Jules Verne (1892-1980), author of a monograph on the life and work of his grandfather, on which he worked for about 40 years (published in France in 1973, Russian translation carried out in 1978 by the Progress publishing house). Great-grandson - Jean Verne (b. 1962), a famous opera tenor, it was he who found the manuscript of the novel “Paris in the 20th Century”, which for many years considered a family myth.
The son of a lawyer, Verne studied law in Paris, but his love of literature prompted him to follow a different path. In 1850, Verne's play "Broken Straws" was successfully staged in " Historical theater» A. Dumas. In 1852-1854, Verne worked as secretary to the director of the Lyric Theater, then was a stockbroker, while still writing comedies, librettos, and stories.
In 1863, he published the first novel from the series “Extraordinary Travels” in J. Etzel’s magazine “Magazine for Education and Leisure”: “Five Weeks in a Balloon” (Russian translation 1864 ed. by M. A. Golovachev, 306 pp., entitled : “Air travel through Africa. Compiled from the notes of Dr. Fergusson by Julius Verne”).
The success of the novel inspired Verne; he decided to continue to work in this “key,” accompanying the romantic adventures of his heroes with increasingly skillful descriptions of incredible, but nevertheless carefully thought out scientific miracles born of his imagination.
The cycle continued with 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),
« Mysterious island"(1874),
"Michael Strogoff" (1876),
« Fifteen year old captain"(1878),
"Robourg the Conqueror" (1886)
and many others.
In total, 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.
The work of Jules Verne is imbued with the romance of science, faith in the good of progress, and admiration for the power of thought. He also sympathetically describes the struggle for national liberation.
In the novels of Jules Verne, readers found not only an enthusiastic description of technology and travel, but also bright and lively images of noble heroes (Captain Hatteras, Captain Grant, Captain Nemo), cute eccentric scientists (Professor Lidenbrock, Doctor Clawbonny, Cousin Benedict, geographer Jacques Paganel) .
In his later works there was a fear of the use of science for criminal purposes: “Flag of the Motherland” (1896), “Lord of the World”, (1904), “ Extraordinary Adventures Barsak's expedition" (1919) (the novel was completed by the writer's son, Michel Verne).
Faith in constant progress was replaced by an anxious expectation of the unknown. However, these books were never as huge a success as his previous works.
After the writer's death there remained large number unpublished manuscripts that continue to be published to this day. Thus, the novel “Paris in the 20th Century” from 1863 was published only in 1994.
Jules Verne was not an “armchair” writer; he traveled a lot around the world, including on his yachts “Saint-Michel I”, “Saint-Michel II” and “Saint-Michel III”. In 1859 he traveled to England and Scotland. In 1861 he visited Scandinavia.
In 1867, Verne took a transatlantic cruise on the Great Eastern to the United States, visiting New York and Niagara Falls.
In 1878, Jules Verne made a long trip on the yacht Saint-Michel III across the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Lisbon, Tangier, Gibraltar and Algeria. In 1879, Jules Verne again visited England and Scotland on the yacht Saint-Michel III. In 1881, Jules Verne visited the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark on his yacht. Then he planned to reach St. Petersburg, but a strong storm prevented this.
In 1884, Jules Verne made his last great journey. On the Saint-Michel III he visited Algeria, Malta, Italy and other Mediterranean countries. Many of his trips subsequently formed the basis of " Extraordinary travels" - "Floating City" (1870), "Black India" (1877), "Green Ray" (1882), " Lottery ticket No. 9672" (1886) and others.
On March 9, 1886, Jules Verne was seriously wounded in the ankle by a revolver shot from his mentally ill nephew Gaston Verne, Paul's son, and he had to forget about traveling forever.
In 1892, the writer became a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
Shortly before his death, Verne went blind, but still continued to dictate books. The writer died on March 24, 1905 from diabetes. After his death, the writer’s card index remained, including over 20 thousand notebooks with information from all areas of human knowledge.
Jules Verne's predictions:
1. Fulfilled:
In his works he predicted scientific discoveries and inventions in the most different areas, including scuba diving, television and space flights.
Electric chair.
Airplane(“Lord of the World”)
Helicopter(“Robur the Conqueror”).
Flights into space, including to the Moon("From the Earth to the Moon"), interplanetary travel("Hector Servadac")
In the novels “From the Earth to the Moon by a Direct Road in 97 Hours 20 Minutes” and “Around the Moon,” Jules Verne anticipated some aspects of future space exploration: Using aluminum as the base metal for the construction of the shell car. Despite the high cost of aluminum in the 19th century, its future was thereby predicted wide application for the needs of the aerospace industry.
The location of Stones Hill in Florida was chosen as the starting point for the lunar expedition. This location is close to the location of the modern Cape Canaveral spaceport.
Jules Verne's first flight to the Moon actually took place in April; the crew included three astronauts and both spacecraft splashed down in the same area of the Atlantic.
Video communication and television(“Paris in the twentieth century”).
Construction of the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian Railways("Claudius Bombarnac. Notebook reporter about the opening of the great Trans-Asian Highway (From Russia to Beijing)".
Airplane with variable thrust vectoring(“The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsak Expedition”).
Fundamental passability of the Northern Sea Route in one navigation(“Foundling from the dead “Cynthia”).”
Verne is sometimes mistakenly credited with predicting the submarine. In fact, submarines already existed in Verne's time. However, according to the described characteristics, the Nautilus surpasses even the submarines of the 21st century. Also, not entirely correctly, Verne is credited with predicting cinema in the novel “Castle in the Carpathians” - in the book, the singer’s vision was a static hologram made with the help of a magic lantern. However, the question of the possible priority of the description of invisibility remains controversial - the novel "The Mystery of Wilhelm Storitz" was written after the stories of Fitz James O'Brien and Edward Mitchell Page, and was published only in 1910.
1. Unfulfilled:
Earth at the North Pole(The Adventures of Captain Hatteras) and ocean in the South(“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”): everything turned out to be the opposite.
Underground strait under the Suez Canal(“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”).
Manned flight to the Moon in a cannon shell. It is worth noting that it was this “mistake” that prompted K. E. Tsiolkovsky to study the theory of space flight.
The Earth's core is cold.
In the series “Robur the Conqueror”, “Lord of the World” 3 types are described aircraft heavier than air: helicopter, ornithopter and paraglider. But the most common paraglider in our time has not received its own history. Instead there were Albatross and Grozny.
Verne Jules (1828-1905), French science fiction writer.
Born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes. The son of a lawyer and himself a lawyer by training. He began publishing in 1849. At first he acted as a playwright, but his plays were not successful.
Verne's fame was brought to him by his first novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, which was published at the end of 1862 (although dated 1863).
Verne turned out to be an unusually prolific writer - he created 65 novels of a science fiction and adventure-geographical nature. Sometimes I wrote satirical works, ridiculing the contemporary French bourgeois society, but they were much less successful and did not bring fame to the author. What made him truly famous were “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1864), “The Children of Captain Grant” (1867-1868), “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (1869-1870), “Around the World in 80 Days" (1872), "The Mysterious Island" (1875), "The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain" (1878). These novels have been translated into many languages and read with interest all over the world.
It is curious that the author of travel books himself did not make a single long journey and wrote based not on experience, but on knowledge and (mostly) his own imagination. Often Jules Verne made rather serious mistakes. For example, in his novels you can find a statement about the existence of museums where the skeletons of octopuses are exhibited; Meanwhile, the octopus is an invertebrate animal. However, the entertaining nature of Jules Verne’s stories made up for such shortcomings in the eyes of readers.
The writer adhered to democratic convictions, corresponded with utopian socialists, and in 1871 supported the Paris Commune.
Promoting science, he repeatedly warned about the danger of using its achievements for military purposes. It was Verne who became the first creator of the image of a mad scientist dreaming of world domination (“500 Million Begums,” 1879; “Lord of the World,” 1904). Later, science fiction more than once resorted to characters of this kind. Besides works of art Verne wrote popular books on geography and the history of geographical exploration.
The writer has always been very popular in Russia - ever since his first novel was translated into Russian in 1864 (in the Russian translation, “Air Travel Through Africa”).
A crater on the far side of the Moon is named after Jules Verne. Died on March 24, 1905 in Amiens.
You helped me a lot. So I would have had to read the biography for a long time...
During his life, Verne changed three yachts, called “Saint-Michel” - I, II and III. The first Saint-Michel was an ordinary fishing boat, the third was an ocean-going yacht with a steam engine.
Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in the city of Nantes, on one of the many islands in the Loire channel. Nantes is located several tens of kilometers from the mouth of the Loire, but it has a large port visited by many merchant sailing ships.
Pierre Verne, Verne's father, was a lawyer. In 1827, he married Sophie Allot de la Fuy, the daughter of nearby shipowners. Jules Verne's ancestors on his mother's side date back to a Scottish rifleman who entered service in the guard of Louis XI in 1462 and received the title of nobility for services rendered to the king. On the paternal side, the Vernes are descendants of the Celts who lived in ancient times in France. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Vernes moved to Paris.
Families at that time often had large families, and together with the first-born Jules, brother Paul and three sisters, Anna, Matilda and Marie, grew up in the Vernes' house.
Since the age of 6, Jules has been going to lessons with her neighbor, the captain's widow. long voyage. At the age of 8, he first entered the Seminary of Saint-Stanislas, then the Lyceum, where he received classical education, which included knowledge of Greek and Latin languages, rhetoric, singing and geography. This is not his favorite subject, although he dreams of distant countries and sailing ships.
Jules tried to realize his dreams in 1839, when, secretly from his parents, he got a job as a cabin boy on the three-masted schooner Coralie, which was leaving for India. Fortunately, Jules’ father managed to catch a local “pyroscaf” (steamboat), on which he managed to catch up with the schooner in the town of Pembef, located at the mouth of the Loire, and remove the would-be cabin boy from it. Having promised his father that he would never repeat anything like this again, Jules inadvertently added that from now on he would travel only in his dreams.
Having received his bachelor's degree in 1846, Jules, who agreed - under great pressure from his father - to inherit his profession, began to study law in Nantes. In April 1847, he went to Paris, where he had to take exams for the first year of study.
He leaves his home without regret and with a broken heart - his love was rejected by his cousin Caroline Tronson. Despite numerous sonnets dedicated to his beloved and even a small tragedy in verse for the puppet theater, Jules did not seem to her a suitable party.
Having passed the exams at the Faculty of Law for 1847, Jules returned to Nantes. He is irresistibly attracted to the theater, and he writes two plays (“Alexander VI” and “The Gunpowder Plot”), read in a narrow circle of acquaintances. Jules understands well that the theater is, first of all, Paris. With great difficulty, he obtains permission from his father to continue his studies in the capital, where he goes in November 1848.
Jules settles down in Paris on the Rue Ancienne-Comédie with his Nantes friend Edouard Bonamy. In 1949, he received a law licentiate degree and could work as a lawyer, but was in no hurry to get a job in a law office and, moreover, was not eager to return to Nantes.
He enthusiastically attends literary and political salons, where he meets many famous writers, including the famous Alexandre Dumas the Father. He is intensively engaged in literature, writes tragedies, vaudeville and comic operas. In 1948, 4 plays appeared from his pen, the next year - 3 more, but all of them did not reach the stage. Only in 1850 was his next play, Broken Straws, able to see (with the help of the elder Dumas) the stage lights. In total, 12 performances of the play took place, bringing Jules a profit of 15 francs.
How limited the means of subsistence that Verne and Bonamy had at their disposal can be imagined from the fact that they had only one evening dress, and therefore they took turns going out to social events. When one day Jules could not resist and bought a collection of plays by Shakespeare, his favorite writer, then he was forced to fast for three days, since he had no money left for food.
As his grandson Jean Jules-Verne writes in his book about Jules Verne, during these years Jules had to seriously worry about earnings, since he could not count on his father’s income, which was quite modest for those times. He gets a job in a notary's office, but this job does not leave him time to write, and he soon leaves it. For a short time he gets a job as a bank clerk, and then free time is engaged in tutoring, teaching law students.
Soon the Lyric Theater opens in Paris, and Jules becomes its secretary. His service in the theater allowed him to earn extra money for the then popular magazine Musée des Families, which published his story “The First Ships of the Mexican Fleet” (later called “Drama in Mexico”) in 1851.
Next publication on historical topic took place in the same year in the same magazine where the story “Travel in a Balloon” appeared, better known as “Drama in the Air,” under which it was published in 1872 in the collection “Doctor Ox.”
Jules Verne continues to build on the success of his first historical and geographical works. In 1852, he published the story "Martin Paz", which takes place in Peru. Then, in the Musée des Families, the fantastic short story “Master Zacharius” (1854) and the long story “Wintering in the Ice” (1855) appear, which, not without reason, can be considered the prototype of the novel “The Travels and Adventures of Captain Hatteras.” Thus, the range of topics preferred by Jules Verne is gradually becoming more precise: travel and adventure, history, exact sciences, and finally, fantasy. And yet, young Jules continues to stubbornly waste his time and energy on writing mediocre plays... Throughout the 50s, librettos of comic operas and operettas, dramas, comedies came out from his pen one after another... From time to time, some of the They appear on the stage of the Lyric Theater (“Blind Man’s Bluff”, “Marjolena’s Companions”), but it is impossible to exist on these odd jobs.
In 1856, Jules Verne was invited to his friend's wedding in Amiens, where he met the bride's sister. This is the beautiful twenty-six-year-old widow Honorine Morel, née de Vian. She recently lost her husband and has two daughters, but this does not stop Jules from becoming infatuated with the young widow. In a letter home, he speaks of his intention to marry, but since the starving writer cannot give future family sufficient guarantees of a comfortable life, he discusses with his father the possibility of becoming a stockbroker with the help of his fiancee's brother. But... to become a shareholder of the company, you need to deposit a round sum of 50,000 francs. After a short resistance, the father agrees to help, and in January 1857, Jules and Honorine tie their destinies in marriage.
Vern works a lot, but he has time not only for his favorite plays, but also for traveling abroad. In 1859, he made a trip to Scotland with Aristide Ignard (the author of the music for most of Verne’s operettas), and two years later he went with the same companion on a trip to Scandinavia, during which he visited Denmark, Sweden and Norway. During these same years theatrical stage saw several new dramatic works by Verne - in 1860 " Lyric Theater" and the Buff Theater staged the comic operas "Hotel in the Ardennes" and "Mr. Chimpanzee", and the next year the comedy in three acts "Eleven Days of Siege" was successfully staged at the Vaudeville Theater.
In 1860, Verne met one of the most unusual people of that time. This is Nadar (as Gaspard-Felix Tournachon briefly called himself), the famous aeronaut, photographer, artist and writer. Verne was always interested in aeronautics - just remember his “Drama in the Air” and an essay on the work of Edgar Allan Poe, in which Verne devotes a lot of space to the “aeronautical” short stories of the great writer he revered. Obviously, this influenced the choice of theme for his first novel, which was completed by the end of 1862.
Probably the first reader of the novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon” was Alexandre Dumas, who introduced Verne to the then famous writer Brichet, who, in turn, introduced Verne to one of the largest Parisian publishers, Pierre-Jules Hetzel. Etzel, who was about to found a magazine for teenagers (later to become widely known as the Magazine of Education and Entertainment), immediately realized that Verne's knowledge and abilities were much in line with his plans. After minor revisions, Etzel accepted the novel, publishing it in his magazine on January 17, 1863 (according to some sources - December 24, 1862). In addition, Etzel offered Verne permanent cooperation, signing a 20-year agreement with him, according to which the writer undertook to transfer to Etzel the manuscripts of three books annually, receiving 1900 francs for each volume. Now Vern could breathe easy. From now on, he had, although not too large, a stable income, and he had the opportunity to engage in literary work, without thinking what he will feed his family tomorrow.
The novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon” appeared extremely timely. First of all, the general public these days was captivated by the adventures of John Speke and other travelers who were looking for the sources of the Nile in the unexplored jungles of Africa. In addition, these years saw the rapid development of aeronautics; suffice it to say that in parallel with those appearing in Etzel’s journal next issues In Verne's novel, the reader could follow the flights of Nadar's giant balloon (it was called “Giant”). Therefore, it is not surprising that Verne’s novel won in France incredible success. It was soon translated into many European languages and brought the author international fame. So, already in 1864 it was published Russian edition entitled "Air Travel Across Africa".
Subsequently, Etzel, who soon became a close friend of Jules Verne (their friendship continued until the publisher’s death), always showed exceptional nobility in financial relations with the writer. Already in 1865, after the publication of Jules Verne's first five novels, his fee was increased to 3,000 francs per book. Despite the fact that, under the terms of the agreement, the publisher could freely dispose of the illustrated editions of Verne’s books, Etzel paid the writer compensation in the amount of five and a half thousand francs for the 5 books published by that time. In September 1871, a new agreement was signed, according to which Verne agreed to transfer to the publisher not three, but only two books annually; the writer's fee was now 6,000 francs per volume.
There is a very widespread opinion, a kind of myth, that Jules Verne expressed in his works “man’s shock at the power of technology, hopes for its omnipotence,” as his biographers usually noted. Sometimes, however, they were reluctant to admit that towards the end of his life the writer began to look more pessimistically at the ability of science and technology to make humanity happy. Jules Verne's pessimism in the last years of his life was explained by his poor health(diabetes, loss of vision, a wounded leg that caused constant suffering).
On his yacht “Saint-Michel III” (Verne had three yachts under this name - from a small boat, a simple fishing longboat, to a real two-masted yacht 28 meters long, equipped with a powerful steam engine), he circumnavigated the Mediterranean Sea twice, visited Portugal, Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Scandinavia.
The observations and impressions gained during these travels were constantly used by the writer in his novels. Thus, the impressions of a trip to Scotland are clearly visible in the novel “Black India,” which tells about the life of Scottish miners; travel in the Mediterranean served as the basis for vivid descriptions events taking place in North Africa. As for the voyage to America on the Great Eastern, an entire novel called “The Floating City” is dedicated to it.
Throughout his life, the writer was distinguished by an enviable work ethic, perhaps no less fantastic than the exploits of his heroes. In one of the articles about Jules Verne, an excellent expert on his life and work, E. Brandis, cites the writer’s story about his methods of working on manuscripts: “... I can reveal the secrets of my literary cuisine, although I would hesitate to recommend them to anyone else. After all, every writer works in his own way. own method, choosing it more instinctively than consciously. This is, if you like, a question of technology. Over many years, habits are developed that are impossible to break. I usually start by selecting from the card index all the extracts related to a given topic; I sort them, study them and process them in relation to the future novel. Then I do preliminary sketches and outline chapters. After that, I write a draft in pencil, leaving wide margins - half a page - for corrections and additions. But this is not a novel yet, but only the frame of a novel. In this form, the manuscript arrives at the printing house. In the first proof, I correct almost every sentence and often rewrite entire chapters. The final text is obtained after the fifth, seventh or, sometimes, ninth proofreading. Most clearly I see the shortcomings of my work not in the manuscript, but in the printed copies. Fortunately, my publisher understands this well and does not impose any restrictions on me...
By the end of the 19th century, the writer was increasingly overcome by the ailments accumulated over his long life. He has hearing problems, severe diabetes, which has affected his vision - Jules Verne sees almost nothing. The bullet remaining in his leg after a ridiculous attempt on his life (he was shot by a mentally ill nephew who came asking to borrow money) barely allows the writer to move.
Jules Verne is an internationally recognized classicist, writer and geographer.
Jules Verne, who is the recognized founder of science fiction, was born on February 8, 1828 in the family of a lawyer in the city of Nantes.
At the age of 20 he went to Paris to study at law college. A year later, he presented his first literary work to the discerning Parisian public.
The play was staged on the stage of the theater, owned by Alexander Dumas the father. On his advice, he sent the play to print, but soon realized that dramaturgy would not bring him fame and livelihood.
Since childhood, he was attracted by distant countries, and he always dreamed of travel and adventure. While working part-time for a popular magazine, he wrote a column for which he wrote historical and popular science notes.
In 1862, in just a few months, he wrote his first fantastic work, “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” which was published in the same year by the famous Parisian publisher Etzel. From that moment, Jules Verne’s close collaboration with publishing house Etzel, which lasted 25 years.
The novel created a real sensation and was soon translated into all European languages. Jules Verne began his very busy work, because according to the contract with the publishing house, he was supposed to deliver two novels a year or write one two-volume book.
Since 1857, Jules Verne has been married to a beautiful widow with two children. For the sake of marriage to Honorine Morel, Verne had to become a stockbroker and borrow 50,000 francs from his father in order to become a shareholder in the company and be able to support his family. A stable financial income allowed him to engage literary activity and travel.
Jules Verne really liked it. On a yacht he traveled around the Mediterranean Sea, visited Italy, England, Scotland and the Scandinavian countries. Visited North America, saw the frozen Niagara Falls.
It can be assumed that the reason for Verne to write his first adventure novel was his acquaintance with an unusual person for his time. Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, who called himself simply Nadar, was a famous aeronaut, photographer, artist and writer. Nadar’s passionate, enthusiastic and even somewhat adventurous nature was in tune with Verne’s thirst for travel and adventure. He had long been interested in aeronautics and wrote his first novel very quickly.
The first work of Jules Verne appeared in a timely manner. The public was very keen and interested in covering the adventures of travelers who tried to find the sources of the Nile in the jungles of Africa. Therefore, by the way, there were works in which the writer, with great knowledge of the matter and even with diagrams, drawings and maps, described adventures in different parts light, under water and on the moon.
Most of the works contain predictions of discoveries and inventions, which were subsequently brought to life. Jules Verne considered this a mere coincidence, but before writing a new work, he always very carefully examined all available sources, drew conclusions and relied on many facts. Therefore, a seemingly fantastically unthinkable situation or technical device has always had a scientific basis.
But intrigued readers did not have to know the whole background behind the appearance of more and more new works by the science fiction writer. They sold like hotcakes. The novel "Around the World in 80 Days", published by Etzel's publishing house in 1872, became the best-selling novel for which the writer received the largest fee.
Jules Verne died at the very beginning of the 20th century in 1905, leaving behind about a hundred wonderful works that are interesting not only to young people, but also to mature ones.
JULES VERNE
(1828-1905)
Jules Verne, the French science fiction writer, was and remained a faithful companion to his youth. His first novels brought him national recognition. Only books French writer published, they were immediately translated into many languages and distributed throughout the world.
Jules Verne was in his prime creative forces, he had not yet managed to complete even half of his plans, when his admiring contemporaries began to call him a “global traveler”, “soothsayer”, “wizard”, “prophet”, “seer”, “inventor without a workshop” (the titles of articles that appeared during his life). And he just decided to outline the whole globe- the nature of various weather zones, animals and flora, traditions and customs of all peoples of the planet. And not just outline it, as geographers do, but embody this plan in a multi-volume series of novels, which he called “Extraordinary Journeys.”
Jules Verne's hard work is striking in scale. The series includes sixty-three novels and two collections of novellas and short stories, published in 97 books. In full - about a thousand printed sheets or eighteen thousand book pages!
Jules Verne worked on “Extraordinary Journeys” for more than forty years (from 1862 to early 1905), but the publication of the entire series took more than half a century. During this period of time, generations of schoolchildren for whom he wrote his books changed. Jules Verne's later novels fell into the eager hands of the offspring and grandchildren of his first readers.
“Extraordinary Journeys” taken together is a universal geographical outline of the globe. If we distribute the novels by place of action, it turns out that 4 novels describe travel around the world, fifteen - to European countries, eight - to North America, eight - Africa, fifth - Asia, four - South America, in 4 - the Arctic, in 3 - Australia and Oceania, and in one - Antarctica. Apart from the fact that in 7 novels the place of action is seas and oceans. Four novels make up the “Robinsonade” cycle - the action takes place on uninhabited islands. And in the end, in 3 novels the action takes place in interplanetary space. In addition, in almost all works - not only the “around the world” cycle - the heroes travel from country to country. It can be said without exaggeration that the pages of Jules Verne’s books are overwhelmed by sea waves, desert sand, volcanic ash, arctic whirlwinds, and cosmic dust. The setting in his novels is the earth, and not only the Earth, but the entire Universe. Geography and natural science coexist with technical and exact sciences.
Jules Verne's heroes always travel. By covering long distances, they try to gain time. The merit of unusual speed requires the latest tools movement. Jules Verne “improved” all types of transport from land to imaginary interplanetary ones. His heroes make high-speed cars, submarines and airships, explore volcanoes and the depths of the seas, get into hard-to-reach jungles, discover new lands, erasing geographical maps the last "snow-white spots". The whole world serves as a testing ground for them. At the bottom of the ocean, on an uninhabited peninsula, at the North Pole, in interplanetary space - wherever they are, their laboratory is everywhere, they work, act, argue, bring their daring dreams into reality.
Verne seems to combine several figures. He was the real founder of science fiction, based on scientific certainty and often on scientific foresight, was a delightful master of the adventure novel, and a passionate propagandist of science and its future achievements.
Emphasizing the search for scientific thought, he portrayed what he wanted as already achieved. Inventions that had not yet been implemented, models of devices that were being tested, machines that were only outlined in sketches, he presented in a finished, impeccable form. Hence the indescribable coincidence of the writer’s desires with the embodiment of similar thoughts in life. But he was neither a “soothsayer” nor a “prophet.” His heroes solved problems prompted by life itself - the rapid development of industry, transport, and communications. The novelist's scientific and technical fantasies almost never exceeded the ability to realize them in a higher degree of scientific and technological progress.
It is in these directions that the inquisitive idea of the heroes of “Extraordinary Journeys” works. Inventors, engineers, builders, they build beautiful towns, irrigate deserts, find methods to accelerate the growth of plants using artificial climate devices, design electronic devices that allow you to create and hear over vast distances, dream about practical use the internal heat of the Earth, the energy of the sun, wind and sea surf, about the ability to accumulate energy supplies in massive batteries. They are looking for methods to prolong life and replace worn-out body organs with new ones, invent color photograph, sound cinema, automatic counting machine, synthetic food products, clothes made of glass fiber and many other amazing things that make a person’s life and work easier and help him transform the world.
When Jules Verne wrote his books, the Arctic had not yet been conquered, the poles had not yet been discovered, Central Africa, Inland Australia, the Amazon basin, the Pamirs, Tibet, and Antarctica had practically not yet been explored. Jules Verne's heroes commit geographical discoveries, ahead of the true ones.
The transformation of the world is the main thing in his work. The omnipotent mind knows nature. All four elements: earth, water, air, fire - will inevitably submit to people. Together, the world's population will transform and make the planet a better place:
It is from here that the optimistic pathos of the best works of Jules Verne begins. He made a novel of a new type - a novel about science and about endless abilities. His imagination became friends with science and became his inseparable companion. Fantasy, inspired by scientific research, turned into science fiction.
Together with the new novel, he entered literature new hero- a knight of science, a disinterested scientist, ready to accomplish a feat and make any sacrifice in the name of his own creative thoughts, for the sake of embodying enormous hopes. Not only the scientific and technical fantasies of Jules Verne are oriented towards the future, but also his heroes - the discoverers of new lands and the creators of mind-blowing machines. Time dictates its demands to the writer. Jules Verne caught these demands and responded to them with “Extraordinary Voyages.”
Finding your goal turned out to be more difficult than dedicating your life to achieving it. The lawyer's eldest son, Jules Verne, knew in his youth that the long-standing home tradition asked him to become a lawyer and then inherit his father's office. But the young man’s desire spread along with family expectations.
He grew up in the seaside town of Nantes, raved about the sea and ships, and even tried - he was eleven years old at the time - to escape to India, hiring himself as a cabin boy on the schooner Corals. But his inexorable father sends him after the lyceum to the Paris School of Law. The sea remains a bright dream, and the love of poetry, theater and music crushes the fortress of parental power. To please his father, he receives a diploma in law, but does not go to work in a law office in Nantes, but chooses the half-starved existence of a writer who survives on small earnings - he writes comedies, vaudevilles, dramas, composes the libretto of funny operas and after each next misfortune he works with even greater passion .
At the same time, stingy curiosity, passion natural sciences they force him to attend the National Library, lectures and scientific debates, make extracts from the books he read, not yet knowing what he will need this bunch of various references on geography, astronomy, navigation, history of technology and scientific discoveries.
At one point - this was in the mid-1850s - in response to his father’s entreaties to give up useless pursuits and return to Nantes, the guy decisively declared that he did not hesitate in his own future and would take a strong place in literature by the age of 35. He turned 27 years old. And huge amount Jules Verne's prophecies were realized with great or minimal approximation, this first forecast turned out to be perfectly clear.
But the search still continued. Several written stories from nautical theme, to which he himself did not attach great importance, although he later included them in his own large series, were milestones on the way to “Extraordinary Journeys.” Only at the turn of the 60s, making sure that he was now fully prepared, Jules Verne began to develop new spaces. It was conscious artistic discovery. He discovered the poetry of science for literature. Breaking with everything that had once held him back, he told his friends that he had found his gold mine.
In the fall of 1862, Jules Verne finished his first novel. His longtime patron Alexandre Dumas advised him to contact Hetzel, an intelligent, experienced publisher who was looking for capable employees for the youthful “Journal of Education and Joy.” From the very first pages of the manuscript, Hetzel guessed that chance had brought to him the particular writer who was lacking in children's literature. Hetzel quickly read the novel, made his comments and gave it to Jules Verne for revision. Within two weeks the manuscript was returned in a revised form, and in 1863 the novel was published.
The title itself - “5 weeks in a hot air balloon” - could not go unnoticed. The success eclipsed all expectations and marked the birth of a “novel about science”, in which most interesting adventures mixed with the popularization of knowledge and the substantiation of various hypotheses. Thus, already in this first novel about imaginary geographical discoveries in Africa, made from a bird's eye view, Jules Verne “constructed” a temperature-controlled balloon and accurately predicted the location of the then-not-yet open sources Nila.
The novelist entered into a long-term contract with him, agreeing to write three books a year. Now he could, without obstacles, without thinking about the next day, begin to implement countless plans. Etzel becomes his friend and adviser. In Paris they often see each other, and when Jules Verne goes to work at sea or cruises along the coast of France, locked in a “floating office” on board his own yacht “Saint-Michel”, they often exchange letters. Having belatedly discovered his current field, the writer publishes book after book, and what is not a novel is a masterpiece. The aerial fantasy is replaced by a geological one - “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1864). Later, an Arctic fantasy appears - “The Voyage and Adventures of Captain Hatteras” (1864-65).
While readers, together with specific Hatteras, slowly moved towards North Pole on the pages of the "Journal of Education and Joy", Jules Verne created a cosmic fantasy - "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865), postponing the continuation ("Around the Moon"), since he had to finish the long-planned and announced in the magazine novel about circumnavigation travel - "The Adventures of Robert Grant." Now the novel without any fiction has grown to 3 volumes! Jules Verne changed the title in the manuscripts, and it became final - “Children of Captain Grant.”
Working once a day from dawn to dusk, from 5 am to 7 pm, he associates himself with a Percheron - a draft horse, which rests in its own team. The excess of unspent strength helps her cheerfully pull the overloaded cart upward until exhaustion.
Be sure to fulfill the terms of the contract - three books a year! - in the summer of 1866, seduced by the prospect of paying off old debts, Jules Verne undertakes Hetzel’s order to extra labor— “Illustrated Geography of France.” Using many sources, he manages to make a scrupulous description of two departments in a week, producing 800 lines - almost one and a half printed sheets a day. And this is not counting the main work on the third part of “The Children of Captain Grant,” one of the most delightful novels he ever created. Having handed over his 5th novel to the publisher, Jules Verne decided to combine already written and not yet written works into a common series of “Extraordinary Journeys”.
Readers of the “Journal of Education and Joy” began circumnavigating the world from 1866 to 1868, when the novel “The Children of Captain Grant” was published as a separate edition and further added to the fame of Jules Verne. In this novel, a trip around the world is free of any fantasy. The action develops only according to the laws of internal logic, without any external springs. Children go in search of their missing father. their father is a Scottish patriot who did not want to come to terms with the fact that Great Britain enslaved Scotland. According to Grant, the interests of his homeland did not coincide with the interests of the Anglo-Saxons, and he decided to found a free Scottish colony on one of the islands Pacific Ocean. Or he dreamed that this colony would one day achieve state government. independence, how did it happen with the United States? The independence that India and Australia will inevitably win at some point? Naturally, he could think like that. And just imagine that the English government interfered with Captain Grant. But he picked up a crew and set sail to explore the large islands of the Pacific Ocean in order to find a suitable place to settle. Such an exposure. Then Lord Glenarvan, a like-minded person of Captain Grant, accidentally finds a document that explains his disappearance. And thus, the trip around the world is motivated by the freedom-loving zeal of the heroes. And then the damaged document will lead you down the wrong trail. Later, a know-it-all scientist will appear, in other words, the Frenchman Jacques Paganel, secretary of the Paris Geographical Society, a distinguished member of almost all geographical societies of the world. Through his anecdotal inattention, the plot intricacies will be further aggravated. Paganel is needed not only to revive the action. This man is a walking encyclopedia. He knows everything completely. In the recesses of his memory there are a huge number of facts that he will teach at every convenient occasion. But science should not be divorced from action. The novel is full of exciting adventures. And at the same time, it is geographical, it is a kind of interesting geography. The difficulties lay in ensuring that the cognitive data was not separated from the text, so that the action could not progress without it. In such cases, Jules Verne always came to the rescue with his breathtaking ingenuity.”
Among the characters in Extraordinary Journeys we find representatives of all human races, including most of nations, 10 nationalities, nationalities and tribes. A gallery of Jules Verne's images, including several thousand characters - the population of an entire town! - breathtakingly rich in ethnic composition. Here no other writer can compare with Jules Verne.
His hostility towards racial prejudice clearly appears even in the very choice of positive characters who, together with the Europeans and Yankees, represent the peoples of the colonial and dependent states. In order not to go far for examples, let us remember what nobility and sense of humanity the American red-skinned Thalcave is endowed with.
Jules Verne sympathized with the oppressed peoples. Exposure of slavery, colonial plunder, and destructive wars of aggression is the constant motif of “Extraordinary Journeys.” We also find satirical attacks against English colonial policy in “The Children of Captain Grant.” Australian boy Toline, who received a first grade in geography at school, is sure that the British belong to the entire globe. “Oh, that’s how they teach geography in Melbourne! - exclaims Paganel. - Just use your brains: Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Oceania - everything, the whole world belongs to the British! Damn it! Having been brought up this way, I understand why the Aborigines are subservient to the British.”
With the greatest indignation, the creator speaks about the so-called reservations - more remote and remote areas reserved for the indigenous population of Australia. “Having taken possession of the country, the British called for murder to help colonize. The mercilessness was indescribable. They behaved in Australia the same way as in India, where 5 million Indians died, just as in the Cape Region, where out of a million Hottentots only 100 thousand survived.”
The educational material concentrated in “The Children of Captain Grant,” as in other novels by Jules Verne, naturally would not have produced such memories if all these descriptions, reasoning, and excursions were not intertwined with the intentions and deeds of the heroes. People here are distinguished by unusual moral purity, physical and sincere health, purposefulness, concentration, and know neither hypocrisy nor calculation. Daredevils who believe in the success of their own business succeed in any, even the most difficult plan. A friend helps a friend out of trouble. The strong come to the aid of the weak. Friendship grows stronger from formidable trials. Villains are always exposed and punished for their crimes. Justice always triumphs, dreams always come true.
The images of fictional heroes are sculpted in such relief that they are remembered for a lifetime. Let's say, the same Jacques Paganel - who doesn't know this eccentric scientist? A science fanatic, a “walking encyclopedia,” he always intersperses stern reasoning with funny jokes and funny pranks. He has an ineradicable sense of humor. At the same time, he attracts with courage, kindness, and justice. Encouraging his companions, Paganel never ceases to joke even in times of adversity, when we're talking about about life and death. In the novel this is - central figure. Without her, the whole composition would fall apart. Next to him is the Scottish patriot Glenarvan, who is doing everything incredible and impossible to find his freedom-loving compatriot, Captain Harry Grant. The young heroes of Jules Verne are also endowed with a strong and courageous character, which is revealed in action and tempered in the fight against cruel trials. One of them is Robert Grant. For the worthy son of a brave Scot, a sincere impulse is completely natural - to incur persecution by wolves in order to save his own friends from death.
By circulation and number of translations Vern and on at the moment- one of the most favorite writers. It is read wherever the printed word penetrates. In various countries, more and more new editions of Jules Verne’s works, plays, films, and entire television series based on the plots of “Extraordinary Journeys” are appearing.
The advent of the cosmic era marked the highest triumph of the writer, who foresaw artificial satellites and interplanetary flights from the Earth to the Moon.
When a Russian space rocket first transmitted a photo of the far side of the Moon to Earth, one of the “otherworldly” lunar craters was given the name “Jules Verne.” The Jules Verne crater is adjacent to the Sea of Dreams...
