Jules Verne

Jules Verne wanted to be a playwright and a poet. His father wanted him to be a lawyer. Instead, he became the father of science fiction by, unintentionally, developing a new style of story-telling that captured the imagination of Victorian readers in France and the world who were developing a keen interest in science.

Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France, a seaport town of merchants where Verne was introduced to the wonders of sea voyages. Verne's father was a lawyer and his grandfather was a judge, so as the first-born, it was destined that Jules study law, and at the age of twenty, he was sent to Paris to study.

But young Verne had other ambitions, ideas also seeded in his youth in Nantes. Poetry was a hobby among the Verne family. They exchanged poetry as greetings and gifts during family gatherings. Verne was interested in literature and literary figures, especially Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, both of whom were quite popular at the time. In Paris, Verne became acquainted with literary circles, much to the dismay of his father. Verne met the younger Alexandre Dumas, who introduced him to his famous father who had just built his own theater in Paris.

Verne saw some of his plays produced, but also published stories and articles in magazines to make ends meet. Though completing his law education, he managed to avoid actually practicing it, much to his father's dismay, yet his father continued to support him.

In addition to literary figures, Verne began to meet others who would influence his later style of writing, like Jacque Arago, a noted explorer and Felix Tournachon, a renowned photographer and baloonist, also known as Nadar. Nadar's inlfuence would be memorialized in the character, Michael Ardan (an anagram of Nadar).

At some point, Verne decided to combine his scientific research with his fiction to produce what he referred to as "a novel of science." His first attempt, Five Weeks in a Balloon was published by Pierre-Jules Hetzel. These two men would form a close and successful business relationship that would produce Verne's most famous novels. The pattern of these successful novels included remarkable scientific detail based on current trends in science, adventure in an exotic locations and well-defined, interesting characters.

Although Jules Verne had a keen interest in science and technology, his true attitude toward was more pessimistic than is conveyed in his most popular novels. It is generally accepted that it was Hetzel's influence that kept Verne's adventures positive and optimistic. But some of Verne's true feelings began to slip into his writings. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the technological genius, Captain Nemo, uses his knowledge for destructive ends. In the novel, Nemo's purpose is never clearly explained, the bowdlerizations, such as the Disney movie, make his intent more noble.

In 1879, The Begum's Fortune was published. In this story, two men receive inheritances with which they are to build ideal cities in the American Northwest. Dr. Sarrasin, a Frenchman, builds a utopian community, but Herr Schultze, a German, builds a fortified industrial city for the manufacture of armaments. In part, this is a political novel reflecting feelings following the Franco-Prussian war, but it also shows Verne's recognition of the growingly frequent development of technology in support of war.

Later novels dealt with a variety of social abuses and environmental issues. The Floating City briefly discusses how western culture had supplanted the native culture in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) and how technology has become the plaything of the wealthy. Others discuss the extinction of whales, and hunting of elephants for ivory. But these more pessimistic novels never sold as well as his earlier work.

Paris in the Twentieth Century is Verne's "lost novel," found locked in a safe by his great-grandson in 1989. This novel was written in 1860 and was Verne's first, and in many ways most prophetic "novel of science." It is the story of an idealistic, young poet trying to find his identity and place in dystopian world overwhelmed by materialism and technology. Verne portrays Paris in 1960 as place of electric lights and skyscrapers connected to the world by a global communications network and high speed trains. Gas-powered cars race through the streets and people live at the pace of technology. It is a place much like the modern world. It is this lost novel that made critics re-examine Verne's work to identify the dark streak of technologies stain on life.

As a famous writer, Verne was able to travel and see some of the exciting places about which he wrote. He married and raised a family until March 24, 1905, when, at the age of 78, he died quietly with has family gathered around him. He was buried near his home in Amiens. Two years later, a sculpture depicting Verne reaching to te stars was placed over his grave. About twenty years later, Hugo Gernsbacks would use a stylized version of the memorial as the logo for his new magazine devoted exclusively to stories of scietific adventures, "scientifiction" as Gernsback called it. This was Amazing Stories

Jules Verne will long be remembered for his Extraordinary Voyages and remarkable characters, but he should also be remembered as a visionary who saw the dangers of rapid technological advances. Victorian society was driven by its need to reconcile tradition with the cultural changes that was being brought about by science and technology. It is this element that makes the Victorian era well-suited for Steampunk literature and gaming.