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Verne Jules 1828 - 1905 (77)

Solitude, isolation, are painful things and beyond human endurance.


QUOTES

20,000 Leagues

under the Sea

The year 1866 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumors which agitated the maritime population, and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.

Jules Verne was a French novelist, poet and playwright, storyteller and visionary, particularly known for his adventurous works of science fiction, “scientific educational novels” as he called them himself. Jules was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France, on the Atlantic coast. It was the largest of the five children of a lawyer; his mother was coming from a shipping family. His parents wanted him to become a lawyer but he had other ideas. As he was growing up he used to watch the ships passing through the river Loire and he wanted to be a sailor and have adventures, eventually he lived the adventures through his books. In 1848 he went to Paris to study law but quickly gave up his studies. His father found it out and stopped sending him money. He started writing stories and took on a job in stock exchange market for making a leaving. In 1851 he published in a magazine his first short stories, indicative of his talent as he recount delightfully outlandish adventures while providing a wealth of accurate scientific data. In 1855 he published his first novel and in 1857 he married a young widow with two children; in 1861 they had a son.

In 1862 he met the publisher Pierre-Jules Etzel who encouraged him and persuaded him to leave his job in the stock market and devote himself to literature. Etzel succeeded in foisting masterfully Jules’ talent in the market, by releasing his novels serialized and then in complete form. Vern in his novel described about airplanes, spacecraft, submarines, flying machines, skyscrapers, the conquest of the Moon, at times that nothing of those were existed, inspiring scientists. In his works one could draw many scientific information on fauna, flora and history of the places where the action progressed as combining scientific knowledge with the fantastic. Very soon he established himself as a major writer and became very wealthy. Novels such as "20,000 Leagues under the Sea", "Around the world in 80 days", "From Earth to the Moon", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "Mysterious Island" are beloved reading, until today excite imagination of young and older. In 1886 Jules Verne experienced two tragedies; he was seriously injured in the leg by a shot of his paranoid nephew and his publisher and friend Etzel died. Since 1872 his vision had significantly decreased due to cataract, at a time there were no cure for cataract. He died on March 24, 1905 while he was suffering his last years from diabetes and paralysis. He left some unfinished novels as despite his health problems, he was writing till his last days.