Verne continued writing actively throughout his life, despite failing health, the loss of family members, and financial troubles. At his death in 1905 his desk drawers contained the manuscripts of several new novels. Jules Verne is buried in the Madeleine Cemetery in Amiens.
The World of Jules Verne and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
1828 Jules Gabriel Verne is born in the port city of Nantes, France, the first of the five children who will be born to Pierre and Sophie Allotte Verne. His father, an attorney, will encourage young Jules to pursue a career in law. His mother, from a ship-building family, instills in him a love of the sea. 1831 Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) is published. 1833 George Sand’s novel Lélia is published by the well-known publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who later will publish Verne’s novels. 1834 Jules begins attending secondary school. During his years at school, he excels in geology, Latin, and Greek. Also greatly interested in machinery, he makes frequent visits to nearby factories. 1839 It is said that the adventurous boy tries to run away to sea aboard a ship bound for the West Indies but is apprehended by his father before reaching open waters. 1843 Tahiti becomes a French protectorate. 1844 Alexandre Dumas’s Le Comte de Monte Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo) is published. 1847 Jules begins studying law in Paris; he will receive his degree in two years. In Paris, family friends introduce him to some of France’s most distinguished writers, including Victor Hugo. Jules begins writing to supplement his meager allowance. Several of his plays are well received in theaters; his fiction appears in the Parisian magazine Musée des familles. 1852 Louis- Napoléon becomes emperor of France as Napoleon III. Novelists Alexandre Dumas (pére and fils) secure Verne a position as secretary of the Theatre lyrique. 1853 French administrator Georges-Eugène Haussmann begins alterations and municipal improvements in Paris, including the construction of the wide boulevards that distinguish the city to this day. The Crimean War begins, pitting Russia against France, England, and the Ottoman Turks. 1854 French poet Charles Baudelaire’s translation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe captivates Verne and initiates his lifelong admiration of the American author. 1857 Verne marries the widow Honorine de Viane Morel, whom he had met the previous year. Quitting his position at the Theatre lyrique, he embarks on a career as a stockbroker at Eggly and Company, although he continues to devote his mornings to writing. Charles Baudelaire’s volume of poems Les fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil) and Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary are published. 1859 Verne spends hours in the library gaining the scientific knowledge that will inform his fiction. He travels to England and Scotland. English naturalist Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is published. Work begins on the Suez Canal. 1861 Verne travels to Norway and Denmark. His son and only child, Michel, is born. He meets the legendary photographer Nadar. 1862 Verne’s manuscript Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon) is accepted by Hetzel for publication. Until his death, Verne will publish an average of two books a year with Hetzel, forming the cumulative series known as Voyages ex- traordinaires (Extraordinary Voyages). Hugo’s Les Misérables appears. 1863 Five Weeks in a Balloon is published to great success. 1864 Voyage au centre de la Terre (Voyage to the Center of the Earth) is published. Verne writes an article on Poe for Musée des familles. 1865 De la Terre à la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon) appears. English writer Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is published. 1866 Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras) is published. 1867 Verne travels with his brother Paul to New York aboard the Great Eastern. Les enfants du capitaine Grant (The Children of captain Grant) is published. 1868 Captain published. He purchases his first yacht, the Saint-Michel, named for his only son 1869 Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) is published in two volumes (1869-1870). Its depiction of the submarine Nautilus (named after the first submarine, invented around 1800 by American engineer Robert Fulton) predates the construction of the first submarine by twenty-five years. 1870 The Franco-Prussian War breaks out; Verne serves in the Coast Guard. 1871 Une ville flottante (A Floating City), partly inspired by a trip to Niagara Falls, New York, is published. Verne’s father dies. The Franco-Prussian War ends. 1872 The Verne family moves to Amiens, where Verne will reside the rest of his life. 1873 Another Verne masterpiece, Le tour du monde en quatre vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days), is published. French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s confessional autobiography Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell) is published. 1874 Le Docteur Ox (Dr. Ox’s Experiment and Other Stories) appears, along with L‘Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island). Around the World in Eighty Days is adapted for the stage. Verne purchases a new yacht, the Saint-Michel II. 1875 Le Chancellor (The Chancellor) is published. 1876 Michel Strogoff is published. 1877 Les Indes noires (The Child of the Cavern) and Hector Servadac are published. Verne buys his last yacht, the Saint-Michel III. 1878 A leisurely cruise aboard the Saint-Michel III takes Verne and his brother to North Africa, Portugal, and Gibraltar. 1879 Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum (The Begum’s Fortune) and Les tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine (The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China) are published. 1880 Verne cruises to Scotland and Ireland. La Maison a vapeur (The Steam House) is published. 1881 Verne cruises to Holland, Denmark, and Germany. La Jan-gada (The Giant Raft) is published. 1882 Verne moves his family to a larger house in Amiens with a circular tower; today it is a well-known Verne landmark and the headquarters of the Jules Verne Society in Amiens. 1883 Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island is published. War in Indochina breaks out. 1884 Verne voyages to Italy, where Pope Leo XIII personally blesses his work. 1885 Victor Hugo dies. English novelist Henry Rider Haggard publishes King Solomon’s Mines. 1886 Verne’s deranged nephew, Gaston, shoots him in the leg, laming him for life. This personal disaster, and his growing cynicism about industrialization, marks a turn toward pessimism in Verne’s outlook and writing. His longtime publisher, Hetzel, dies. Verne sells the Saint-Michel III because of financial concerns. Robert Louis Stevenson publishes Dr. jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 1887 Verne’s mother dies. 1888 Verne is elected to the municipal council of Amiens, where he will serve for fifteen years. 1889 Sans dessus dessous (Topsy-Turvy) appears, which contains notably negative views on the potential of technology. His later novels will take on various forms of social injustice, from the plight of orphans to the corrupting power of missionaries in foreign lands. 1895 English novelist H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine is published. 1897 Le Sphinx des glaces (The Ice Sphinx), written as a sequel to Poe’s 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, is published. Flagging health plagues Verne. His brother Paul dies. English writer Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous and Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac are published. 1899 Verne’s Le testament d‘un excentrique (The Will of an Eccentric) deals with the oil industry’s ravages of the environment. 1905 Leaving a drawer filled with manuscripts, and with his fam- ily gathered at his bedside, Jules Verne dies of complications from diabetes. He is buried in Madeleine Cemetery in Amiens. His posthumously published novels, altered considerably by his son, Michel, remain a source of scholarly debate and interest.