19th-century French novelist, playwright and poet. Born in France on February 8, 1828.
Verne created a large number of excellent literary works in his lifetime, represented as a trilogy ("Captain Grant's Children", "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", "Mysterious Island"), as well as "Five Weeks on the Balloon" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth". His work had an important influence on the genre of science fiction literature, so he, together with Herbert George Wells, was called the "Father of Science Fiction" and the "Forerunner of the Age of Science".
Verne's literary career was a great success, and many of his works were translated into many languages. Verne is the second most translated masterpiece in the world, after Agatha Christie, above Shakespeare.
Verne was born on 8 February 1828 in Nantes, France, on a small island called Ferdo, thirty miles from the mouth of the Loire. He was the son of a famous lawyer and later studied law, but he aspired to become a writer, so his father paid him to test the waters in the Literary Circle in Paris. At first, the theatrical stage attracted him, and he wrote a number of plays and opera scripts, several of which were put on the stage, but none of them brought him any recognition or income. He also wrote five or six short stories, of which Master Zochiri, a fable about how a devil in the form of a large clock in the form of a humanoid lure a proud Swiss who invented the clock escape wheel, led Pierre Verne to believe that his son was indeed a genius and a devout believer. Later, Pope Leo XIII also affirmed Pierre's views, praising Verne's work for its pure quality.
In 1857, Verne decided to marry a widow with two daughters and asked his father to buy him a stake in a Paris stockbroking company, much to his disappointment. Verne assured his father that he would continue to write, and he did. Verne often got up at five o'clock and wrote until he went to work at the exchange at ten o'clock. However, his goal remained theatre, and in 1859, 1860, and 1861 he composed an operetta, a musical comedy, and a comedy.
Although Verne considered himself unsuccessful in writing, some of the major influences that stemmed from life began to coalesce, allowing him to create what would later be called science fiction. Verne's early literary influences came mainly from James Fenimol Cooper and Sir Walter Scott, as well as two novels he called "Two Robinsons"—Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Wise's The New Robinson Crusoe—which he preferred. Later, he discovered Edgar Allan Poe and regarded him as a literary mentor. In 1864, he wrote a critique of Poe's work, expressing a fascination with the themes and methods used by Poe, but at the same time expressing his dislike for Poe's materialism, lack of faith, and debauchery.
Verne's first attempt at this new work may have been influenced by Poe's novel Balloon Hoax, and the immediate reason was that he became acquainted with a bold aviation enthusiast, a professional photographer who published under the name "Nada" (Verne later used him as a prototype to create the characters "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Adon" in "Orbiting the Moon"). To raise money to build a heavier-than-air vehicle, Nada planned a series of balloon liftoffs. Verne was intrigued by this and set out to create a non-fiction or semi-fiction book about the possible use of balloons in human exploration. It was his most ambitious work at the time, but it was rejected by publishers one after another. Disappointed, he threw the manuscript into the fire, but fortunately his wife rescued the manuscript and insisted that he submit it to another publisher. The publisher to whom Verne later contributed was Jules Hetzel, who later published Verne's work until his death.
However, Hetzel published not Verne's original manuscript, but a novel about exploring the unknown African continent in a balloon, and he persuaded Verne to dig such a novel out of the original manuscript. Hetzel was so fond of Verne's new book that he asked Verne to write two more novels a year, published in the new magazine he had just launched, and then published in a single edition. Verne signed a lifelong contract for twenty thousand francs a year, which made him very comfortable at the time (later, Hetzel's publishing house made a lot of money, and he raised Verne's fees). This was the opportunity Verne had been waiting for, and he quit his job at the exchange.
"Five Weeks in a Balloon" Illustration: "A Moment of Danger" Five Weeks on a Balloon Illustration: "A Moment of Danger"
The first book was Five Weeks on a Balloon, published in 1863. The book was a great success as soon as it was published, and its contents may not seem as earth-shattering as it seems today, nor even in 1863, a surprise—ninety years after the Mongolfier brothers first took off in a balloon. However, the book's detailed descriptions of travel, balloons, balloon installations, and so on are ahead of their time, and certainly beyond the reader's imagination. Many years later, as editor John Campbell pointed out, "There are two most basic things that readers want authors to do, preferably both." The duty of the author is, of course, to imagine for the sake of the reader, but he must provide better details than the reader can imagine, or imagine things that the reader cannot imagine. Ideally, the author imagines something new while providing brilliant detail. ”
Verne imagined balloons better than ordinary balloons: it had a stove that could heat the oxygen sealed in the balloon when passengers wanted to ascend; and when they wanted to descend, it could be cooled so that they could take advantage of the right wind direction. An English explorer and his servant, as well as a Scottish hunter, took off from Zanzibar in a balloon and floated across the continent. "Where will this tour end," the newspaper news wrote, "only God knows." "Five Weeks on the Balloon" laid the groundwork for Verne's later work: he would choose something that was possible rationally possible, often an idea that had been mentioned long ago, and with the help of his research and inventive powers, a scientific explanation, coupled with an emphasis on the entertaining value of the story itself (unlike most of his peers who wrote fantasy novels), he would convince the reader that it was a possible or impending thing.
Verne was not a utopian. His writing is close to everyday life, and he often combines some of the inventions of that era in his novels to create new things or similar things in the future world. Verne discovered the gold mine and really kept writing about it as he himself said.
Illustration of "Five Weeks on the Balloon": "Mysterious Opponent"
He wrote at the rate of two books a year. It was a formidable project even for a very disciplined writer with the enthusiasm of Verne, but Verne basically achieved his goal: his career in fiction began relatively late—he was thirty-five years old at the time, but he went on to write forty-two years and nearly eighty books.
In 1864, Journey to the Center of the Earth was published. The subject matter of this book also comes from others. By then, Sims had spread the concept of a hollow earth; Poe had shown interest in the subject in The Manuscript in a Bottle and the Adventures of A. Goe Pym; and Baron Ludwig Holberg had already written a Journey to the Center of the Earth (1741). Verne's detailed description of the expedition, combined with the suspenseful plot, allowed the story of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" to circulate all over the world.
Illustration of Journey to the Center of the Earth: "Strange Forest"
Other writers have also taken an interest in the subject, most notably Edgar Rice Burroughs's "Center of the Earth" series of novels.
Verne's next conquest was space. Perhaps inspired by Poe's The Adventures of Hans Pfal, Verne created From the Earth to the Moon in 1865, in which three men are fired onto the moon by a cannon built on the coast of Florida. The real protagonist of the novel is the huge cannon. Verne described in documentary realism how the drawings were drawn and how the cannons were built— although he did not calculate the weight of the shells and the amount of gunpowder needed to fire them precisely.
Illustration of "Journey to the Center of the Earth": "Strange Creatures in the Center of the Earth"
Verne always liked to complete the unfinished storyline, even if it was left by other writers. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that he also wrote a sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, Circumnavigating the Moon (1870). In the sequel, he abandons the previous novel ending and sends the shell back to Earth and into the Atlantic Ocean. But he made anxious readers wait for five years, during which time Adam, Babicon and Nitchell, along with two dogs, must have been circling around the moon.
At the same time, Verne also wrote other novels: The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, published in 1866 as a two-volume novel about exploring the Arctic; Captain Grant's Children, also known as The Man on the Shipwreck, published in 1868, in which an expedition team circled the earth along a parallel line because they had lost the meridian data in the information they obtained; and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, published in 1870.
Illustration of From the Earth to the Moon
Much of Verne's novels can be subsumed under the headline what Bailey called "The Wonderful Journey," or it can be described by Verne's own label, "Bizarre Journey." The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Captain Grant's Children, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (also known as Captain Nemo) are typical examples.
The favorite of many critics and readers of Verne is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which showcases some of Verne's best ideas and characterizations. Verne had purchased an eight-ton shrimp-catching vessel that had been converted as a means of leisure time at sea. It didn't take long for him to write the novel. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a Verne novel in which the characters are not completely subordinated to the apparatus. The submarine Nautilus (named after the submarine that Robert Fulton tried to build), though unusual, was overshadowed by the light of its builder and ruler, the depressed Captain Nemo. Captain Nemo is a complex personality, he is very aware of the potential of his discovery, and he understands the great power he has, but he is always depressed, half because of the mysterious misfortunes that have happened to him in the past, and the other half because he is aware of his tragic future end.
In 1880, Verne set sail aboard the Saint-Michel 3
Although much of the novel takes the reader on a journey through a variety of wonderful worlds, including the magnificent Baroque "Nautilus" itself, or the natural world under the sea, or explaining how these scientific miracles work, the charm of the novel also comes from the mysteries of Captain Nemo and how he will use his unique power. After ten months on board, while the Nautilus was caught in a large whirlpool near Norway (which may again be influenced by Edgar Poe), Professor Aronnax, Ned Rand, and Conseil escaped. As for the fate of the Nautilus, Captain Nemo's motives, his nationality, and his real name, Professor Aronnax and his readers are still unknown.
Illustration of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea": "Hunting under the sea"
Verne once again kept the suspense going for five years. However, just as he often leaves a whole bunch of questions at the end of the novel (as did the later Edgar Rice Burroughs), he always goes back and explains everything clearly. The three-volume novel Mysterious Island, published in 1875, ended not only Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but also Captain Grant's Children.
Illustration of "Mysterious Island"
Before the publication of The Mysterious Island, Verne's steady work was interrupted by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. He organized a small Coast Guard organization during the war. After several less important works that came out between 1871 and 1872, Around the Earth in Eighty Days was published in 1873. Despite recounting a very wonderful journey, the novel was not science fiction even at the time. In 1872, the novel had been serialized in magazines and newspapers in several countries, and the protagonist of the novel, Philias Fogg, and his French servant "Lulutong" aroused great interest among readers, and some newspapers even asked Verne to transmit the story directly to them in the form of telegrams to reduce the time spent waiting for mail. Several steamboat companies promised to pay Verne a large sum of money if he could get Fogg to travel in one of their company's boats during that trip to the Atlantic. Other influences of the novel include: journalists trying to replicate or break the time of travel, and even nearly a hundred years later, humorist S. Thompson. J. Perelmann also wanted to use Verne's wonderful trip for himself by retracing Fogg's path; many stage plays were adapted from the novel—the first stage play was staged in Paris, and Verne disliked it because it was not faithful to the original, but the play helped him solve some financial problems; the late Mike Todd adapted the novel into an epic action film, which was also the first super widescreen film with stereo effects, starring many well-known actors.
Verne's work seems innumerable. After paying homage to Poe and Defoe with "The Mysterious Island", Verne turned to another hero, J. Verne. R. Wise, who wrote a sequel to Wise's New Robinson Crusoe, Second Fatherland. Verne also rewrote Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, adapting it into a non-science fiction work, The Count of Sandolph. After 1870, and especially after 1878, Verne wrote more and more traditional novels, such as "Count Sandolph", which was about life in Russia under the Tsar.
Illustration of Around the World in Eighty Days
Most of Verne's works were novels, and some novels—especially those that were written late and withered in their talents—were never translated into English. His novels and adapted plays brought him great wealth. He has also written a number of short stories that have been published in magazines. In later years, his work was frequently reprinted by cheap magazines. Hugo Gensbach declared in the inaugural issue of Amazing Stories: "We have reached an agreement with the copyright holder of Verne to introduce all of his monumental works. Many of the works are unheard of by the average American reader; with Amazing Stories, readers will have easy access to them for the first time. ”
Verne was an important writer, I. F. Clarke said, "because his work represents the ecstasy that Europeans felt in the face of the wonders and possibilities of science." ”
Biographer Kenneth Allott points out that Verne's work represents the kind of romantic interest in science and technology that people had in the 19th century. Professor Mark Hillegas is the author of The Nightmare of the Future: H. Hileas. G. Wells and Dystopia writes, "His greatest contribution was to make the public aware that science fiction is a unique form of writing. Although his direct influence on Wells was modest, his work nurtured readers for the more important scientific legends and short stories wells began to write in the 1890s. ”
However, as Bailey points out in The Pilgrimage of Time and Space:
The inventions and discoveries that Verne imagined were not bold and novel. Many of the machines he described and imagined were quickly invented, and he was therefore called a prophet. For this title, he deserves it. But most of the inventions in Verne's novels were limited to the machines that scientists were experimenting with at the time. He saw that the development of machines was accelerating, and that flying, underwater travel and electric lights were about to become a reality. When he describes an invention that does not become a reality in the short term (such as in the story of a trip to the moon), his novels tend to take on a playful tone, talking only about the social effects of these inventions. His importance—or rather, his popularity in countries around the world—and the impetus he brought to science fiction, was largely because in his pen, "invention" became a means of creating a new kind of geographical fiction, fantastic travel, and thrilling adventure.
Verne was not a great inventor of science fiction ideas and plots, and he was not revered as one of the founders of modern science fiction because of these. In fact, Verne wrote in a critical essay on H. Verne. G. Wells's famous commentary on the work refutes the importance of invention:
I don't think it's necessary to compare his work with mine. Our creative paths are very different. In my opinion, his story is not based on a solid scientific foundation. His work bears no resemblance to mine. I used physics, and he invented physics. I landed on the moon with the cannonballs fired from the cannons—it wasn't a method I invented at random; he landed on Mars with a spaceship that used metals that didn't take into account the laws of gravity at all. Yes, it's fascinating, but ask him to make this metal for me to see.
Verne's tomb in Amiens, France
Perhaps precisely because his imagination was less whimsical and easier to achieve, he influenced more people to devote themselves to science and discovery than others of his time. Edgar Poe was a literary influence, verne was a social influence. The impact of science fiction on society began with Verne, not Poe. Iger Sikorsky was the inventor of the first practical helicopter, and his interest in the concept of an airplane being able to lift vertically stemmed from a translation of Robbie the Conqueror that he read as a child in Russia. The serology scholar Norman Castritt said that For the first time, Journey to the Center of the Earth gave him the idea of caving in his head. Bird, Bibby, Yuri Gagarin, Marconi, Santos-Dumont, and many others admit to having been inspired by Verne's novels. After his Antarctic flight, Major General Bird said, "It was Jules Verne who set me on this journey." The inventor of the submarine, Simon Lake, wrote at the beginning of his biography: "In a sense, Jules Verne is the commander-in-chief of my life. ”
More importantly, Verne pioneered a new literary genre: he defined science fiction, made it exciting, widely circulated, and made it a lucrative and respected profession, and he gave science fiction its identity. I. F. Clarke once pointed out: "Before Verne, scientific miracles appeared only occasionally in legends, and Verne had the ability to make technological achievement the subject of the novel and achieve success all over the world." ”
Verne succeeded as a novelist, but he was a novelist of a whole new meaning, a novelist of the new era, a novelist of the future and the wonders that were about to take place. His direct influence on later science fiction writers and their works was not large, but it was precisely because of him that the works of these people would have readers and a market. In some ways, science fiction began with Jules Verne, a hundred years after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, because Verne was the first successful science fiction writer — he was successful because science fiction made him famous and wealthy.
Here, we can paraphrase Verne's words to describe Robier: "Who is this Verne?" Verne is about imagining the future. Maybe it's about imagining tomorrow. There is no doubt that it is the imagination that is coming. ”
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