Jules Gabriel Verna

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828–1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright, widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of science fiction. Born in Nantes, France, Verne initially studied law in Paris according to his family's wishes, but his passion for literature soon led him to pursue writing. His collaboration with publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, beginning in 1862, launched the celebrated "Voyages extraordinaires" series, which combined adventurous storytelling with meticulous scientific detail and geographical knowledge.

Remarkably, Verne's works anticipated many technological achievements of the twentieth century, including submarines, space travel, and air travel. His most celebrated novels include Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), featuring the iconic Captain Nemo, and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872), starring the resourceful Phileas Fogg. Other notable works include The Mysterious Island and Michael Strogoff.

Verne's vivid imagination, rigorous research, and optimistic faith in science have made him one of the most translated authors in the world, second only to Agatha Christie. His novels continue to inspire readers, scientists, and inventors more than a century after his death in Amiens in 1905.