Verne, Jules

Verne, Jules (1828-1905), French author.

As a young man Jules Verne left his home town of Nantes to study law in Paris. But what he wanted to do more than anything else was write books.

At first he found it difficult to make a living. Then he wrote Five Weeks in a Balloon. It was published in 1863 and made him famous.

His books are what people today call science fiction. They are about remarkable happenings and inventions outside the range of normal life in his day.

The most famous of them are Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872).

Verne's books are still read today and several of them have been made into movies.