Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who was called the founding
father of science fiction along with H. G. Wells. He was born in Nantes, in France, in the year 1828 to Pierre Verne, an attorney and his wife, Sophie. The eldest of five children, Verne developed an interest in travel and exploration.
Verne’s novels gained popularity throughout the world. Some of his most acclaimed works are Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Verne wrote about space, air and underwater travel even before practical means of such travels had been devised.
Verne studied law in Paris and from 1848 until 1863, wrote opera and plays. He was greatly interested in science and geographical discovery. Many publishers rejected his works, until one suggested that he should rewrite his works in the form of adventure stories. The result was Cinq semaines en ballon that was published in 1863. Later this book was translated into English as Five Weeks in a Balloon. The subsequent fame and success of the book inspired Verne to write other adventurous tales.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was first published in 1870 under the title Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. The novel is about the fictional Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as narrated by one of his passengers, Professor Pierre Aronnax. Their travels take them to numerous points in the world’s oceans, some of which are completely fictional.