Jules Verne

In 1851, he suffered from facial paralysis that was caused by the inflammation of the right ear.

On January 10, 1857, he married Honorine de Viane Morel, who was at that time a widow of twenty-six with two young children.

In 1886, his nephew shot him twice with a pistol and the incident left him with a permanent limp.

Jules Verne was born in Île Feydeau, an island town located in Nantes, Western France, to Pierre Verne, an attorney and Sophie Allote.

In 1834, he was enrolled at a boarding school at 5 Place du Bouffay after which he attended the École Saint‑Stanislas, a Catholic school.

In 1842, he attended the Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien, a religious school and later received a ‘baccalauréat’ in rhetoric and philosophy from the Lycée Royal.

In 1847, his father sent him to Paris to attend law school, during that time he also indulged in his passion for writing by authoring scripts for plays.

On June 12, 1850, his stage comedy ‘Les Paillesrompues’ was opened by the Opéra-National at the Théâtre Historique in Paris.

In 1863, his adventure novel ‘Voyage en Balloon’ was published. The book was an immediate bestseller and also got him a contract with a publishing house, launching his career as a writer.

In 1864, his second novel ‘The Adventures of Captain Hatteras’ was published. The same year his other novel ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ was published.

‘From the Earth to the Moon’ was published in 1865. In this novel he described ‘projectiles’ that could be used to carry passengers to the Moon, something similar to what we call lunar modules today.

In 1867, his novel ‘Geography of France and Her Colonies’ was published by Pierre-Jules Hetzel, after which he travelled to America.

In 1870, his classic science fiction novel titled ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ was published by Pierre-Jules Hetzel. The novel introduced a giant electric submarine, not different from the modern day one.

His classic novel ‘Around The World in 80 Days’ is one of his most popular works. The novel has been adapted into several films, including the 2004 film of the same title starring Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan.

His seminal novel ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’, was made into many movies including the Walt Disney film production ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’. The novel was also an inspiration to submarine designer Simon Lake.

His novel ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ was one of top bestselling novels that was made into numerous television series, theatre productions and in 2008 it was made into 3-D science fantasy film of the same name.