40 interesting facts about the brilliant French writer Jules Verne. Brilliant French writer - Jules Verne

30.03.2019
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Biography, life story of Jules Verne

On February 8, 1828, in the French Nantes, a boy was born into the family of a lawyer, whose name Jules-Gabriel Verne became universally known far beyond the borders of France. The father of the future member of the French Geographical Society, the founder science fiction, as well as the author of 66 novels, 30 plays, 20 novels and short stories, was the lawyer Pierre Verne. Since the family owned a law office, the father reasonably assumed that Jules, as befits an older child, would eventually become at his "helm". The mother of the newborn, nee Allotte de la Fuye, came from a very ancient family of shipbuilders and shipowners, many generations of whom lived and worked in Nantes, which for centuries has been one of the largest ports in France.

The romance of the port city could not help but influence the boy's attitude. young Jules with early childhood beckoned sailboats and travel to distant lands. In 1839, an 11-year-old boy made an attempt to make his dream a reality by hiring as a cabin boy on the schooner "Korali", going to India. Fortunately, the father managed to protect his son from a rash act.

According to his father's ideas, Jules was supposed to become a lawyer, which happened when he graduated from the Paris School of Law. But, having received a diploma in 1849, Jules Verne chose to devote himself entirely to literature and theater, remaining in Paris. By this, he doomed himself to a half-starved existence, since this decision was not to the liking of his father. However, this did not prevent Jules from enthusiastically mastering a new field for himself, writing various literary works ranging from comedies to operatic librettos.

Intuition led the novice writer to National Library, where, listening to lectures and scientific reports, he learned a lot interesting information in geography, navigation, astronomy, however, having a poor idea of ​​what he needs it for. However, in 1851 the first creation with historical and geographical content was published - the story "The First Ships of the Mexican Navy". This work produced great impression on Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, who began to patronize Jules Verne. It is believed that it was Dumas who advised the young protégé to write adventure stories. However, Jules Verne, as always, acted in his own way, deciding to describe the whole Earth, starting from nature and ending with the customs of the peoples, combining science and art in his novels.

CONTINUED BELOW


Since the implementation of this idea required a very long time, in 1862 Jules Verne broke with the theater, which allowed him to complete his first adventure novel, 5 Weeks on hot-air balloon". On the advice of Dumas, Jules turned to the Journal of Education and Entertainment, where this novel was published. The first cooperation with the magazine turned out to be so successful that its publisher Pierre-Jules Etzel, seeing in the new author the talent of a writer of the "adventure" genre, concluded a contract with Jules Verne for 20 years. According to its terms, the writer was obliged to publish 2 novels a year. This required great effort, but at the same time ensured prosperity in the family of Jules Verne, who married in 1857. His chosen one was the widow Honorina de Vian, who by the time of her new marriage had two children. In 1961 they had their first and only common child Michel's son.

Further, as if trying to make up for lost time in his youth, a number of masterpiece works come out from the writer's pen. In 1864, "Journey to the Center of the Earth" was published, in 1865 - "Journey of Captain Hatteras" and "From the Earth to the Moon".

After finishing The Children of Captain Grant in 1868, Jules Verne decided to combine his previously written works with future books. The result of this decision was the trilogy " Extraordinary Journeys”, which, in addition to The Children of Captain Grant, included 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island, released in 1870 and 1875, respectively.

By 1872, Jules Verne was finally tired of the fuss big city. The new place of residence was the provincial Amiens, located near Paris. Since that time, his life has been reduced exclusively to literary creativity. According to biographers, the writer spent 15 hours a day at his desk. The practical result of this diligence was the extraordinarily successful novel Around the World in 80 Days.

In 1878, another world-famous adventure work, The 15-Year-Old Captain, was published, the theme of which is racial discrimination- was continued in next novel"North vs. South", published shortly after the end of civil war in the USA in 1887.

Jules Verne's life ended on April 24, 1905 in Amiens. The cause of death was diabetes. As a legacy to his descendants, he left numerous works that today are able to give an exciting pastime.

Jules Verne, French writer 19th century, gained his fame for his revolutionary science fiction novels like Around the World in Eighty Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

early years

Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France, in a busy seaport cities. There, Verne was exposed to ships leaving and arriving, sparking his imagination for travel and adventure as far back as early years. While attending boarding school, he began to write short stories and poetry. After that, his father, a lawyer, sent his eldest son to Paris to study law.

He proved to be a great devotee of literature and the theatre, and became a frequent visitor to the famous Parisian literary circles, where he befriended a group of artists and writers, which included Alexandre Dumas and his son. After graduating as a lawyer in 1849, Verne stays in Paris to enjoy his artistic inclinations. The following year, he wrote his first one-act play, Broken Straws.

The beginning of a career as a writer


Verne continued to write despite pressure from his father, who wanted his son to continue his legal career. The peak of relations with his father came in 1852, when Verne refused his father's offer to open his own law office in the city of Nantes. In the end, the aspiring writer chose a meagerly paid job as a lyric theater secretary.

In 1856, Verne met and fell in love with Honorine de Viana, a young widow with two daughters. They married in 1857, and realizing that he needed to strengthen his financial condition, Vern started working as a broker. However, he refused to give up his writing career, and in the same year he published his first book.

The first glory of Jules Verne


In 1859, Verne and his wife embarked on the first of some 20 trips to the British Isles. Travel produced strong impression on Jules Verne, which inspired him to write a new novel, which was published only after his death. In 1861, his first son, Michel Jean Pierre Verne, was born.

Jules Verne's literary activity failed to gain momentum during this period, but his luck begins to change with his acquaintance with the famous editor and publisher, Pierre-Julet Etzel, in 1862. At the time, Vern was working on a novel that was heavily dosed with scientific research and adventure, and Etzel found in him evolving style. In 1863, Etzel published Five Weeks in a Balloon, the first of a series of adventure novels by Jules Verne. Verne subsequently signed a contract in which he would submit new work to the publisher each year, most of which would be serialized in Etzel's shop.

The period of brilliant novels and stories by Verne

In 1864, Etzel published The Adventures of Captain Hatteras and Journey to the Center of the Earth. In the same year, Paris in the Twentieth Century was rejected for publication, but in 1865 Jules Verne was still in print with the novels The Land Before the Moon and The Search for the Castaways.

Inspired by his love of travel and adventure, Vern bought a boat and he and his wife spent a lot of time sailing the seas. Verne's own adventures, sailing in various ports, from the British Isles to mediterranean sea, were the main components of his stories and novels. In 1867, Etzel published Verne's story, An Illustrated Geography of France and Her Colonies, and in the same year, Verne went with his brother to the United States of America. He only stayed there for a week, but his visit to America had an indelible impact, which was reflected in his later work.

In 1869, Etzel published one of the most famous novels Verna - "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" this moment translated into the languages ​​of many peoples of the world. Beginning in late 1872, Verne's serialized version, Around the World in Eighty Days, first appeared in print. The story of Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout tells readers about an adventurous world tour, at a time when travel was easy and alluring. Since its debut, the work has been adapted for theatre, radio, television and film. Verne remained prolific throughout the decade, writing a number of brilliant novels and short stories during this time, such as The Mysterious Island, The Surviving Chancellor, Michael Strogoff, and The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain.

Later years


Despite his extremely professional success by 1870, Jules Verne began to experience tension in his personal life. He sent his recalcitrant son to a reformatory in 1876, and a few years later, Michel caused even more problems through his relationship with a minor. In 1886, Verne was shot in the leg by his nephew Gaston, leaving him crippled for the rest of his life. His longtime publisher and collaborator, Etzel, died a week later, and his mother died the following year.

Having founded his residence in the Northern French city Amiens, Jules Verne began serving on the city council in 1888. Suffering from diabetes, he died at home on March 24, 1905.

His additional work emerged decades later. Back to Britain was finally published in 1989, 130 years after it was written. And "Paris in the 20th century", which used to be considered too far-fetched, with images of skyscrapers, gas-powered cars and public transport, was published as early as 1994.

In all, Verne wrote over 60 books, as well as dozens of plays, short stories, and librettos. He conjured hundreds of memorable characters, and envisioned countless innovations from years of his time, including submarines, space travel, ground flights and deep sea reconnaissance.

Jules Verne great person, legendary writer, he comes from France, was born on February 8 in 1828 in a family of lawyers. Given Writer Considered the founder of science fiction, he wrote a lot of books in this topic. He always dreamed of traveling and from childhood he was drawn to see the world. Here are a few interesting facts from his life:

  1. Jules Verne's stories translated into 148 languages. The UNESCO organization conducted statistics and found out that his books were printed around the world in so many languages.
  2. Loved adventure since childhood. When the writer was eleven years old, he hired himself as a sea cadet and wanted to escape to India, but he was stopped and not allowed to do so.

  3. He was not the kind of writer who always sat in his office. Jules Verne traveled all over the world, visited many countries. He also had three of his yachts called Saint-Michel on which he constantly sailed.

  4. He was hired to write America's prediction. The writer wrote for the American people at the request of Gordon Bennett a work-prediction about one day of an American journalist who lived in 2889. However, it was never printed.

  5. Jules Verne was inspired to write Around the World in Eighty Days by a newspaper article. In this article, it was said that if you invent good vehicles, it is quite possible to travel around the world in a short period.

  6. Workaholic writer. Jules Verne could write for more than fifteen hours in a row, without really leaving the office, if he had any insight, it was difficult to stop him.

  7. The work "Journey to the Center of the Earth" was banned in Russia in the 19th century. The then clergy found anti-religious ideas in the work and decided that this would undermine the spirituality of the entire state.

  8. Jules Verne never visited such big country like Russia. He did not have a chance to come to this country, but in two of his novels, all the actions begin to unfold in this country.

  9. The writer was in Geographic Society France. Since he traveled a lot, he was taken into this society.

  10. Jules Verne was married to a widow. The writer fell in love and took a woman with two children, he even borrowed 50,000 francs from his father to support the family.

  11. The book "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" has been changed. Initially, Captain Nemo was a wealthy Pole who only built the submarine out of revenge against the Russians. After that, the publisher intervened, because he also sold books in Russia and asked to remake the captain.

  12. From the novel "From the Earth to the Moon" main character is the prototype of his friend. Michel Ardant is a friend of the writer, he is an artist, photographer and is known as Nadar.

  13. The work "Five weeks in a balloon" was published in Russia simultaneously with the French publishing house. Then even Saltykov-Shchedrin reviewed this work, and it was published in the Sovremennik magazine.

  14. The first work of the writer was the play "Broken Straws". She was placed in famous theater Stories. However, Jules Verne soon realized that dramaturgy was not his and it did not make a profit, so he abandoned this business.

  15. Almost all of the writer's books contain predictions and discoveries.. Everything fantastic that the writer wrote in his books was later invented. During the discoveries, scientists even relied on his works, took ideas from him.

The future writer was born in 1828 on February 8 in Nantes. His father was a lawyer, and his mother, half Scottish, received excellent education and took care of the house. Jules was the first child, after him another boy and three girls were born in the family.

Study and writing debut

Jules Verne studied in Paris as a lawyer, but at the same time actively engaged in writing. He wrote stories and librettos for Parisian theatres. Some of them were staged and even had success, but this literary debut became the novel Five Weeks in a Balloon, which was written in 1864.

Family

The writer was married to Honorine de Vian, who by the time he met him was already a widow and had two children. They got married, and in 1861 they had a common son, Michel, a future cameraman who filmed several of his father's novels.

Popularity and travel

After the first novel, successful and favorably received by critics, the writer began to work hard and fruitfully (according to the memoirs of Michel's son, Jules Verne spent most time: 8 am to 8 pm).

Interestingly, since 1865, the cabin of the Saint-Michel yacht has become the writer's office. This small ship was bought by Jules Verne while working on the novel The Children of Captain Grant. Later, the yachts "San Michel II" and "San Michel III" were purchased, on which the writer sailed the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. He visited the south and north of Europe (in Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway), in the north of the African continent (for example, in Algeria). He dreamed of sailing to St. Petersburg. But this was prevented by a strong storm that broke out in the Baltic. All travel had to be abandoned in 1886, after being wounded in the leg.

Last years

The last novels of the writer differ from the first. They feel fear. The writer renounced the idea of ​​the omnipotence of progress. He began to realize that many of the achievements of science and technology would be used for criminal purposes. It should be noted that latest novels writers were not popular.

The writer died in 1905 from diabetes. Until his death, he continued to dictate books. Many of his novels, not published or completed during his lifetime, are published today.

Other biography options

  • If follow short biography Jules Verne, it turns out that for 78 years of his life he wrote about 150 works, including documentaries and scientific works(only 66 novels, of which some are unfinished).
  • The great-grandson of the writer, Jean Verne, famous operatic tenor, managed to find the novel "Paris of the 20th century" (the novel was written in 1863 and published in 1994), which was considered family legend and in the existence of which no one believed. It was in this novel that cars, an electric chair, a fax were described.
  • Jules Verne was a great "soothsayer". He has written in his novels about airplanes, helicopters, video communications, television, the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Channel Tunnel, space exploration (he almost exactly indicated the location of the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome).
  • The writer's works were filmed in different countries world, and the number of films based on his books has exceeded 200.
  • The writer has never been to Russia, but in 9 of his novels the action takes place in the then Russian Empire.

2. In 1863, young Jules Verne brought to one of the publishing houses the novel "Paris in the 20th century", in which he predicted the invention of the fax machine and the electric chair.

4. Jules Verne never visited Russia, but, nevertheless, several of his novels take place in Russia (in whole or in part).

5. For a writer, Jules Verne had an incredible capacity for work. He could sit down at his desk at five o'clock in the morning and leave it at eight in the evening.

6. The works of Jules Verne have been translated into 148 languages, this was found out by the UNESCO Organization, which conducted statistics and it turned out that his books were printed around the world in 148 languages.

7. Jules Verne was married to a widow. The writer fell in love and took a woman with two children, he even borrowed 50,000 francs from his father to support the family.

8. It is believed that Jules Verne wrote about exciting adventures without leaving his office. This is wrong. Of course, he was not destined to go on a flight around the moon, or on a trip to the center of the Earth. But he traveled the world a lot.

9. The writer traveled on three Saint-Michel yachts that he owned. He visited the countries of the Mediterranean, Great Britain, the USA.

10. Jules Verne really wanted to visit Russia, but in 1881 a strong storm forced the captain of the yacht to abandon the course for St. Petersburg.

11. A brilliant Frenchman predicted space flights and the patency of the Northern sea ​​route within one navigation, the appearance of an airplane and a helicopter.

12. The legendary submarine "Nautilus" of Captain Nemo stands apart. Yes, by the time Jules Verne wrote Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, submarines had already been invented. But even in the second decade of the 21st century, not a single submarine has the characteristics of the Nautilus!

13. At the age of eleven, Jules almost fled to India, hiring as a cabin boy on the schooner Korali, but was stopped in time. Being already famous writer, he admitted "I must have been born a sailor, and now every day I regret that a maritime career did not fall to my lot from childhood."

14. In Russia, the book Five Weeks in a Balloon appeared in the same year as the French edition, and the first review of the novel, written by Saltykov-Shchedrin, was published in Nekrasov's Sovremennik.

15. American newspaper magnate Gordon Bennet asked Vern to write a story specifically for American readers- with a prediction of the future of America. The request was granted, but the story, entitled “In the XXIX century. One day of an American journalist in 2889 ”, was never released in America.

16. Another list of predictions is related to the family myth. As if in 1863, Jules Verne wrote the novel "Paris in the 20th century", took it to the publisher, and after a while he returned discouraged: the publisher, having read the manuscript, rejected it because of excessive fantasticness, and called the writer an idiot.

17. And in 1989, the great-grandson of Jules Verne found a manuscript forgotten by everyone in some kind of safe. The list of inventions predicted by the writer is amazing: a car, a bullet train, a skyscraper, a computer, a fax machine, and even an electric chair!

18. Jules Verne signed his first contract with a publishing house in 1863. Under the terms of the contract, the writer had to prepare at least three works a year, for each of which he received 1,900 francs.

19. Already after 8 years, Vern's income increased significantly - for each novel he received 6,000 francs.

20. The writer was inspired to write the novel Around the World in Eighty Days by a magazine article proving that if the traveler has good vehicles at his service, he will be able to travel around the globe in eighty days. Verne also calculated that one could even win one day by using the geographical paradox described by Edgar Allan Poe in the novel Three Sundays in One Week.

21. Many scientists and inventors admitted that in childhood they literally read the works of the French writer. As many designers of rockets and spaceships, and the first cosmonauts and astronauts, books by Jules Verne were their desktops.

22. The prototype of Michel Ardant from the novel "From the Earth to the Moon" was a friend of Jules Verne - writer, artist and photographer Felix Tournachon, better known under the pseudonym Nadar.

23. The writer's first work was the play Broken Straws. It was staged at the famous theater of History. However, Jules Verne soon realized that drama was not for him, it did not bring profit, and he abandoned this business.

24. The novels "Flight to the Moon" and "Around the Moon" cause readers to ask: "How did he know ?!" Judge for yourself. Aluminum was widely used in the construction of Columbiad and Apollo. The main block of Apollo 11 had given name"Colombia". The crews included three astronauts. (Evaluate the consonance of the names: Barbicane-Nicole-Ardant on the Columbiad and Borman-Lovell-Anders on the Apollo 8!) The launch site is the Florida peninsula. The landing site is the Pacific Ocean.

25. The great writer is considered the founder of science fiction, he wrote a lot of books on this topic.

26. The writer was a member of the Geographical Society of France. Since he traveled a lot, he was taken into this society.

27. In the Russian Empire for a long time Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth was banned. This was due to the fact that anti-religious motives were clearly traced in the work.

28. In the Soviet Union, the writer's works were incredibly popular.

29. Many readers were distrustful of the author's predictions, assuring that "this cannot be, because it can never be."

30. Contemporaries noted the incredible capacity for work of the writer - he could be at his desk for 14-15 hours a day. This is not surprising: the writer's novels were very popular, therefore, publishing houses often hurried the author.

31. In the original version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo was a Polish aristocrat who built the Nautilus to take revenge on the "damned Russian invaders." And only after the active intervention of the publisher Etzel, who also sold books in Russia, did Captain Nemo first become "homeless", and in the novel "The Mysterious Island" he turned into Prince Dakkar, the son of an Indian raja, who took revenge on the British after the suppression of the sepoy uprising.

32. Almost all of the writer's books contain predictions and discoveries. Everything fantastic that the writer wrote about in his books was later invented. During the discoveries, scientists even relied on his works, took ideas from him.

33. But Jules Verne also had gloomy forecasts. The novel "Five Hundred Million Begums" features a German professor, Schulze, who dreams of nationalist ideas and world domination. To do this, he creates a giant weapon that shoots projectiles with poisonous gas. The novel was finished in 1878. Before the first use of chemical warfare agents, 37 years remained.

34. For the brilliant talent of a writer and popularizer of scientific achievements, grateful humanity immortalized Jules Verne by naming a large crater in the Sea of ​​Dreams after him. reverse side Moon.

35. And when the European Space Agency decided to make ATV cargo ships sent to the International Space Station "named", the very first one was named Jules Verne. He flew in 2008.

36. The late works of Jules Verne are imbued with fear of the use of science for criminal purposes. They were not successful with readers.

37. Over the years Soviet power the total circulation of the author's works exceeded 50,000,000 copies.

38. In the small Russian town of Kaluga, a modest diocesan teacher female gymnasium Konstantin Tsiolkovsky carefully re-read From the Earth to the Moon, making notes and calculations. And then, rejecting the idea of ​​a manned cannon projectile, he writes: "The skyship should be like a rocket." For nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come.

39. Jules Verne died in 1905 from diabetes.

40. The writer went blind shortly before his death, but did not give up - he dictated his works to his assistants.



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