Jules Verne is a famous French writer, the creator of a new genre - science fiction. Reading his books, you can mentally travel in wonderful worlds, visit mysterious islands, descend into the depths of the ocean, go into space. For many years, the great writer created images of noble and fearless captains, explorers, travelers, sailors, etc. With many of his works, he predicted scientific inventions and discoveries: space flights, the appearance of television, scuba gear, etc. exploration of planet Earth.
early years
As a young child, Jules dreamed of truly traveling around the world. He was born and lived in the town of Nantes, located at the mouth of the Loire River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. In the port of Nantes, huge multi-masted sailboats stopped, arriving from various countries around the world. At the age of 11, he secretly made his way to the port and asked the captain of one of the schooners to take him on board as a cabin boy. The captain gave his consent and the ship, together with the young Jules, departed from the coast.
Father, being a well-known lawyer in the city, found out about this in time and set off on a small steamer in pursuit of the sailing schooner. He managed to remove his son and return home, but he failed to convince little Jules. He said that he is now forced to travel in his dreams.
The boy graduated from the Nantes Royal Lyceum, was an excellent student and was already going to follow in his father's footsteps. All his life he was taught that the profession of a lawyer is very honorable and profitable. In 1847 he went to Paris and graduated from the law school there. Having received a law degree, he still took up writing.
The beginning of writing
The Nantes dreamer expounded his ideas on paper. At the beginning he wrote the comedy "Broken Straws". The work was shown to Dumas the elder and he agreed to stage it in his own Historical Theater. The play became successful and the author was praised.
Then Jules began to write dramas, comedies, articles in magazines and newspapers, receiving pennies for them. At the same time, when the father realized that his son would not be a lawyer, he stopped supporting him financially.
In 1862, Verne completed work on his first adventure novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, and immediately took the manuscript back to Paris publisher Pierre Jules Etzel. He read the work and quickly realized that in front of him was a truly talented author. Jules Verne was immediately awarded a contract for 20 years in advance. The aspiring writer undertook to donate two new works to the publishing house once a year. The novel "Five weeks in a hot air balloon" quickly sold out and was a success, and also brought prosperity and fame to its creator.
Real success and fruitful activity
Now Jules Verne could afford to make his childhood dream come true - to travel. For this he bought the yacht "Saint-Michel" and left for a long sea voyage. In 1862 he sailed to the shores of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In 1867 he arrived in North America, crossing the Atlantic Ocean. While Jules traveled, he constantly took notes, and returning to Paris immediately returned to writing.
In 1864 he wrote the novel "A Journey to the Center of the Earth", then "The Travels and Adventures of Captain Hatteras", followed by "From Earth to the Moon". In 1867, the famous book "Children of Captain Grant" was published. In 1870 - “20,000 pouring under water”. In 1872, Jules Verne wrote the book Around the World in 80 Days, and it was she who enjoyed the greatest success with readers.
The writer had everything one could dream of - fame and money. However, he got tired of noisy Paris and moved to quiet Amiens. He worked almost like a machine, got up early at 5 am and wrote non-stop until 7 pm. There were only breaks for food, tea and reading. He chose a suitable wife for himself, who understood him well and provided him with comfortable conditions. Every day, the writer looked through a huge number of magazines and newspapers, made clippings and stored them in a file cabinet.
Conclusion
Throughout his life, Jules Verne wrote 20 stories, as many as 63 novels, and dozens of plays and short stories. He was awarded the most honorable award at that time - the Grand Prize of the French Academy, being one of the "immortals". In the last years of his life, the legendary writer began to go blind, but did not finish his writing career. He dictated his works until his death.
