All of us love the travel books, yet we often forget the names of their writers. It is certainly impossible to forget the name of Jules Verne.
He came from Nantes in the Loire-Atlantique region of France, where he was born in 1828. His family persuaded him to take a legal career, but Jules chose to study literature instead, so he never worked as lawyer. He was a stockbroker first and then he took to writing.
In 1863 he published 'Five Weeks in a Balloon', which was a success. Then other travel and science-fiction books followed.
He married Mrs Honorine de Viane in 1857. Their only son Michel was born in 1861. Apart from writing, Jules Verne liked sailing and travelling, which was his other hobby.
He studied geography and science on his own to find ideas for his stories and in his books he described many future inventions. His most famous books are: 'A Journey to the Centre of the Earth'; 'From the Earth to the Moon'; 'The Mysterious Island'; 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea'; and 'Around the World in Eighty Days'.
Jules Verne died in 1905 in Amiens, where he and his family had lived since 1871. His complete works include more than 50 novels and many short stories.
