French literature

Jules Verne

Biography

French humanist writer, one of the founders of the science fiction genre. Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in the wealthy port city of Nantes (France), in the family of a lawyer. At the age of 20, his parents sent him to a Paris college to obtain a legal education. He began his literary activity in 1849, writing several plays (vaudeville and comic operas). “My first work was a short comedy in verse, written with the participation of Alexandre Dumas the son, who was and remained one of my best friends until his death. It was called “Broken Straws” and was staged on the stage of the Historical Theater, owned by Dumas the Father. The play had some success and, on the advice of Dumas Sr., I sent it to print. “Don’t worry,” he encouraged me. - I give you a full guarantee that there will be at least one buyer. That buyer will be me!“ […] It soon became clear to me that dramatic works would not give me either fame or a means of living. In those years I lived in an attic and was very poor.” (from an interview with Jules Verne to journalists) While working as a secretary at the Lyric Theater, Jules Verne simultaneously worked part-time in one of the popular magazines, writing notes on historical and popular science topics. Work on the first novel, “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” began in the fall of 1862, and at the end of the year the novel was already published by the famous Parisian publisher Pierre-Jules Etzel, with whom the collaboration continued for about 25 years. According to the agreement concluded with Etzel, Jules Verne had to annually give the publisher two new novels or one two-volume one (Pierre Jules Etzel died in 1886 and the agreement was extended with his son). Soon the novel was translated into almost all European languages ​​and brought fame to the author. The greatest financial success came from the novel Around the World in 80 Days, published in 1872.

Jules Verne was a passionate traveler: on his yacht “Saint-Michel” he circumnavigated the Mediterranean Sea twice, visited Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Scandinavia, and entered African waters. In 1867, Jules Verne visited North America: “One French company purchased the ocean steamer Great Eastern to transport Americans to the Paris Exhibition... My brother and I visited New York and several other cities, saw Niagara in winter, in the ice... On me The solemn calm of the giant waterfall made an indelible impression.” (from Jules Verne's interview with journalists)

The science fiction writer explained that the predictions of scientific discoveries and inventions contained in the novels of Jules Verne are gradually coming true: “These are simple coincidences, and they can be explained very simply. When I talk about some scientific phenomenon, I first examine all the sources available to me and draw conclusions based on many facts. As for the accuracy of the descriptions, in this regard I am indebted to all kinds of extracts from books, newspapers, magazines, various abstracts and reports, which I have prepared for future use and are gradually replenished. All these notes are carefully classified and serve as material for my stories and novels. Not a single book of mine was written without the help of this card index. I carefully look through twenty-odd newspapers, diligently read all the scientific reports available to me, and, believe me, I am always overcome with a feeling of delight when I learn about some new discovery...” (from an interview with Jules Verne to journalists) One of the cabinets in an extensive library Jules Verne was filled with many oak boxes. Countless extracts, notes, newspaper and magazine clippings, pasted onto cards of the same format, were laid out in a certain order. The cards were selected by topic and placed in paper wrappers. The result was unstitched notebooks of varying thicknesses. In total, according to Jules Verne, he accumulated about twenty thousand of these notebooks, containing interesting information on all branches of knowledge. Many readers thought that Jules Verne wrote novels with surprising ease. In one of the interviews, the writer commented on such statements: “Nothing comes easy to me. For some reason, many people think that my works are pure improvisation. What nonsense! I can't start writing if I don't know the beginning, middle and end of my future novel. So far I have been quite happy in the sense that for each piece I had not one, but at least half a dozen ready-made diagrams in my head. I attach great importance to the denouement. If the reader can guess how it all ends, then such a book would not be worth writing. To like a novel, you need to invent a completely unusual and at the same time optimistic ending. And when the skeleton of the plot is formed in your head, when the best one is chosen from several possible options, then the next stage of work just begins - at the desk. […] I usually start by selecting from the card index all the extracts related to a given topic; I sort them, study them and process them in relation to the future novel. Then I do preliminary sketches and outline chapters. After that, I write a draft in pencil, leaving wide margins - half a page - for corrections and additions. But this is not a novel yet, but only the frame of a novel. In this form, the manuscript arrives at the printing house. In the first proof, I correct almost every sentence and often rewrite entire chapters. The final text is obtained after the fifth, seventh or, sometimes, ninth proofreading. Most clearly I see the shortcomings of my work not in the manuscript, but in the printed copies. Fortunately, my publisher understands this well and does not put any restrictions on me... But for some reason it is generally accepted that if a writer writes a lot, then everything comes easy to him. Nothing like that!.. […] Thanks to the habit of daily work at a desk from five in the morning until noon, I have been able to write two books a year for many years in a row. True, such a lifestyle required some sacrifices. So that nothing would distract me from my work, I moved from noisy Paris to calm, quiet Amiens and have been living here for many years - since 1871. You ask why I chose Amiens? This city is especially dear to me because my wife was born here and here we once met. And I am no less proud of the title of municipal councilor of Amiens than of my literary fame.” (from Jules Verne's interview with journalists)

“I try to take into account the needs and capabilities of young readers, for whom all my books are written. When working on my novels, I always think about it - even if sometimes it comes to the detriment of art - so that not a single page, not a single phrase comes out of my pen that children cannot read and understand. […] My life was full of real and imaginary events. I saw many wonderful things, but even more amazing ones were created by my imagination. If you only knew how much I regret that I have to end my earthly journey so early and say goodbye to life on the threshold of an era that promises so many miracles!..” (from an interview with Jules Verne to a correspondent of the New Vienna Newspaper; 1902 year)

In 1903, in one of his letters, Jules Verne wrote: “I see worse and worse, my dear sister. I have not had cataract surgery yet... In addition, I am deaf in one ear. So, I am now able to hear only half of the nonsense and malice that go around the world, and this consoles me a lot! Jules Verne died at 8 o'clock in the morning on March 24, 1905 in the town of Amiens (France). He was buried near his home in Amiens. Two years after the death of Jules Verne, a monument was erected at his grave, depicting the science fiction writer rising from the dust, with his hand stretched out to the stars. Until the end of 1910, every six months, as had been done for forty-two years, Jules Verne continued to give readers a new volume of Extraordinary Journeys.

Jules Verne is the author of about a hundred books, including poems, plays, stories, about 70 stories and novels: “Five Weeks in a Balloon” (1862; novel; first translation into Russian in 1864 - “Air Journey through Africa”), “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1864; novel), “From the Earth to the Moon” (1865; novel; Jules Verne chose Florida as the launch site and located his “cosmodrome” near Cape Canaveral; the novel also correctly indicated the initial speed required for separation from the Earth), “The Children of Captain Grant” (1867−1868; novel), “Around the Moon” (1869; novel; the effect of weightlessness, the descent of a spaceship engulfed in flames in the Earth’s atmosphere and its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in just three miles from the place where Apollo 11 splashed down in 1969, returning from the Moon), “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (1869−1870; novel), “Around the World in 80 Days” (1872; novel), “The Mysterious Island” (1875; novel), “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain” (1878; novel), “500 Million Begums” (1879), “In the 29th Century. One Day of an American Journalist in the Year 2889" (1889; short story), "The Floating Island" (1895; novel), "Rising to the Banner" (1896), "Lord of the World" (1904; novel), works on geography and the history of geographical research .

Jules Verne, French humanist writer, pioneer of the science fiction genre, was born on February 8, 1828 in the city of Nantes, in the family of a lawyer. In 1848, the young man was sent to a Paris college so that his son could follow in his father's footsteps and become a lawyer.

Jules Verne's first literary experience was the short poetic comedy "Broken Straws", written at the suggestion of his best friend Alexandre Dumas the son. Realizing that drama would not give him either creative satisfaction or finances, in 1862 Jules Verne began working on the novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” The famous French publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel published the novel that same year, making a deal with Jules that the latter would produce two novels per year for the publishing house each year. The novel Around the World in 80 Days, which achieved its greatest financial success almost 150 years ago, is today an example of science fiction.

The phenomenon of predicting scientific inventions made in the works of Jules Verne was explained by the writer himself as a simple coincidence. According to Verne, when researching any scientific phenomenon, he studied all available information on this issue - books, magazines, reports. Subsequent information was classified in card indexes and served as material for fantastic scientific inventions that in reality were yet to be created. It seemed to readers that the fascinating novels of Jules Verne were easy for him, but according to him, work on each novel began with extracts from the author’s card index (which, by the way, numbered approximately 20 thousand notebooks), based on these extracts, sketches of the novel’s plan were made, then a draft was written on it. As the science fiction writer recalled, the final version of the manuscript was obtained only after the seventh or even ninth edit by the proofreader. To become a good writer, Jules Verne developed his formula for success - to work on a manuscript from five in the morning until noon in a calm, quiet environment. To do this, in 1871 he moved to the city of Amiens, where he met his future wife.

In 1903, Jules Verne practically lost his sight and hearing, but continued to dictate the texts of novels to his assistant. Jules Verne died on March 24, 1905 from diabetes.

Jules Verne is a prominent representative of writers who weaved fiction into reality so sophisticatedly that it was almost impossible to distinguish it. Knowledge of human nature helped him to describe for a century to come what people of the 20th century would live with.

Lawyer and writer

Jules Verne was the eldest of five children in the family of lawyer Pierre Verne and Sophie-Nanina-Henriette Allot de la Fue, who had Scottish roots. Since the legal profession has been a distinctive feature of the Verns for more than a generation, Jules first also began to study jurisprudence. However, my love for writing turned out to be stronger. Already in 1850, the world saw the first production of his play “The Broken Straw.” It was staged at the Historical Theater named after Alexandre Dumas. In 1852, Verne began working as the director's secretary at the Lyric Theater, where he stayed for two years. And already in 1854 he tried himself as a stockbroker: he worked during the day and wrote librettos, stories and comedies in the evenings. The first publications of “Incredible Adventures” In 1863, the “Magazine for Education and Recreation” first published his “Five Weeks in a Balloon” - a novel that opened a series of subsequent stories about adventures. Readers really liked the author’s style: in unusual conditions, the main characters experience romantic feelings and become acquainted with incredible and outlandish living conditions. Jules Verne understands that people like to read what he likes to invent. Therefore, several more novels are being published in the continuation of the cycle. Among them are “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “Children of Captain Grant”, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, “Around the World in 80 Days” and others. But not all publishers shared the views of readers and the writer himself. So in 1863, when Verne wrote the novel “Paris in the Twentieth Century,” the publisher returned the manuscript to him, calling the author a writer and a blockhead. He did not like some of the “unreal inventions” that Verne described in great detail. It was about the telegraph, the automobile and the electric chair.

Family and eternal problems of the son

Jules Verne met his future wife Honorine at a friend's wedding in Amiens. She was a widow and had two children from a previous marriage. The very next year they got married, and in 1871 their son Michel was born. There was always some trouble with his only son: he was one of the worst at school, and he was also a hooligan, so Jules Verne sent him to a colony for teenagers. But then they had to take him away from there: Michel tried to commit suicide. And his father assigned him to a merchant ship as an assistant. After returning to France, Michel continued to go into debt. But already in 1888, he tried himself as a journalist and writer: several of his essays were published under his father’s name. By the way, after the death of Jules Verne, he wrote his biography and published several novels, which later turned out to be his works. Michel Verne was also a director; it was he who made several films based on the plots of Jules Verne's novels.

Traveling for inspiration

Jules Verne often left France. He had not so much a desire to see the world as to change his worldview and get acquainted with the culture of other peoples. As a geographer, he knew a lot of interesting things, but he understood that he did not know even more. He was interested in scientific discoveries, he was drawn to knowledge both as a scientist and as a writer - after all, in his novels one can trace not only specific facts from science, but also dreams that will soon become reality. Therefore, it is not surprising that Jules Verne is not afraid to travel on his own yacht to the shores of England and Scotland. In 1861 he sailed to Scandinavia, and then to America - in 1867 he visited Niagara and New York. In 1878, Verne traveled around the Mediterranean on a yacht: his route included Lisbon, Algeria, Gibraltar and Tangier. Four years later he is drawn to Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The Russian Empire was also in his plans, but a storm prevented him from reaching present-day St. Petersburg. In 1884, he again got ready to sail on his yacht Saint-Michel III, this time he visited Malta and Italy, and was again in Algeria. All these trips eventually became part of the plots of his books.

What Jules Verne predicted and where he went wrong in his books

As a science fiction writer, he foresaw many innovations in science. So in his books, many decades before their inventions, he talks about airplanes and helicopters, the electric chair as a form of punishment, television and video communications, flights into space and satellite launches (there wasn’t even such a word then), the construction of TurkSib and even the Eiffel Tower. But what Verne got a little wrong with was the ocean at the South Pole and the uncharted continent at the North Pole. Everything turned out to be exactly the opposite. He also guessed wrong when he wrote about the cold core of the earth. In addition, the “Nautilus” he described is so perfect that science has not yet been able to make a submarine with such functions.

"Towards immortality and eternal youth"

In 1896, a tragic incident occurred in the life of Jules Verne: his mentally ill nephew shot the writer in the ankle. Due to injury, Vern was never able to travel. But Jules Verne already had the plots for the next books in his head, so in 20 years he managed to write 16 more novels and many short stories. A few years before his death, Jules Verne went blind and could no longer write himself, so he dictated his books to stenographers. Jules Verne died of diabetes at the age of 77. After his death, over 20 thousand notebooks were left, written in his hand, about various inventions and facts from the history of mankind. The science fiction writer was buried in Amiens, the inscription on the monument that stands on his grave reads: “To immortality and eternal youth.”

Titles and awards

In 1892, Jules Verne became a Knight of the Legion of Honor. In 1999 - Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame / Hall of Fame (posthumously)

• Jules Verne's books have been translated into 148 languages, and he himself is the second most popular author in the world, after Agatha Christie.
• Most often he worked fifteen hours a day: from five in the morning to eight in the evening.
• “Journey to the Center of the Earth” was banned in the Russian Empire in the 19th century. The clergy decided that the book was anti-religious.
• Jules Verne was accepted into the Geographical Society of France due to his frequent travels.
• Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was originally a Polish aristocrat who built a submarine to take revenge on the Russians. But the editor advised changing the details, because Verne’s books had already begun to be translated into Russian and sold in Russia.

Jules Verne believed: “Everything that a person is capable of imagining,
others will be able to implement it"

Brandis E.P., Jules Verne. Life and creativity, L., “Detgiz”, 1963, p. 147.

French lawyer (trained), writer, one of the founders of the science fiction genre.

“For a whole decade and a half (!), he, working either as a scribe in a notary’s office, or as a secretary of a small theater, or as a minor employee of the Paris stock exchange, tried in vain to achieve success in the dramaturgical field, wrote several dozen (!!) plays (among them there is a comedy in verse " Leonardo da Vinci»).

Alas, he never achieved great fame here. Like the heroes of novels Balzac who came from a remote province to conquer Paris, tries himself Jules Verne and in other genres, in particular, his poem “The Mars Ones” (“Les Gabiers”) was successful:

At the time of parting,
weighing anchors,
You have seen the tears of mothers more than once.
Saying goodbye to my son,
old mother
cries openly:
It's so hard for her to wait...

It becomes the favorite song of French sailors (for a long time it was considered folklore, a folk creation). Young Jules, honing his literary style, wrote vaudeville, poems, librettos for comic operas, but everything was soon completely forgotten and was remembered only when Jules Verne turned into a recognized master, the author of numerous “fantastic journeys” (les voyages imaginaires).”

Chirkov Yu.G., Darwin in the world of machines, M., Lenand, 2012, p. 52-53.

“The idea of ​​a new type of novel, a “novel about science,” as he himself Jules Verne called it in letters to his father, was hatched for a very long time. The young writer spoke more than once about his dreams Alexandre Dumas the father, who found Jules Verne’s concept “immense.” Indeed, the dream was grandiose: just like Dumas himself took almost the entire history of France as material for his novels, so Jules Verne intended to take control of the enormous material of science - in its past, present and in its upcoming discoveries. He wanted to combine science and art, technology and literature, find reality in fantasy, and inspire a new genre with unprecedented heroes. It is not surprising that such a vast plan was hatched for so many years.”

Andreev K.K., Three Lives of Jules Verne, M., “Young Guard”, 1960, p. 92.

One of the Parisian publishers, suggesting that the novels Jules Verne will be popular, he concluded an Agreement with him, according to which the writer had to annually submit two new novels or one two-volume novel to the publisher. This Agreement was valid until the death of the publisher, and after that it was re-concluded with his son.

“... The writer’s lifestyle in quiet provincial Amiens - in 1872 Jules Verne leaves Paris forever, having lived in it for 24 years - he was extremely modest and measured. I got up at 5 am and, with short breaks, worked until 8 pm.
He wrote in the morning, read proofs in the afternoon, answered numerous letters that came to him from all over the world, and received visitors. Every day, with a pencil in his hands, he looked through newspapers, magazines, bulletins and reports of numerous scientific societies. He kept a huge card index (over 25 thousand cards), which reflected all the latest achievements of science and technology of his time.
This strict daily routine was violated only once a year, in the summer, when the writer went out to the open sea on his sailing schooner Saint-Michel. Jules Verne was a passionate traveler-sailor: all the coastal seas of Western Europe were thoroughly studied by him, he sailed along the coasts of Scandinavia, England, Spain, Italy, visited Africa and even North America.
His writing ability was phenomenal. For example, in the summer of 1866, Jules Verne was 38 years old, strictly fulfilling the terms of the contract with the publisher - three books (each approximately 10 printed sheets) per year! - he, seduced by the prospect of finally paying off his debts, also takes up writing a compilation work - “Illustrated Geography of France”. Then, “on the mountain”, 800 lines - almost one and a half printed sheets of text a day, he did not stop working on the novel “The Children of Captain Grant” in the mornings.”

Chirkov Yu.G., Darwin in the world of machines, M., Lenand, 2012, pp. 53-54.

Unfortunately, the novel "Paris of the Twentieth Century", which predicted a lot of future technological innovations, Not saw the light during his lifetime Jules Verne… “In 1863 its publication was rejected. Why? “No one today will believe your prophecy,” Verne was told. He was simply too implausible to be taken seriously."

David Wilson, History of the Future, M., “Ast”, 2007, p. 181.

In 1886, the writer was seriously wounded in the leg by a revolver shot from a mentally ill nephew, and he had to forget about his favorite travels forever...

His work was seriously influenced by the works Edgar Poe.

“For science fiction literature from the time of Jules Verne, the future appears in the form of accomplished scientific discoveries. It is they who mark the inevitable movement of humanity forward, which, therefore, is based on the activity of the mind - in the extreme case, the creativity of genius. However, the content of the creative process does not fall into the focus of interest; The only hint of the problem contained here is found in the juxtaposition of the images of Cyrus Smith and Captain Nemo - a skilled, competent engineer and scientific genius far ahead of his time.
Cyrus Smith is an example of a socialized scientist, living in harmony with the surrounding society and working for its prosperity. All his scientific and engineering activities appear as a transparent illustration for textbooks on physics and chemistry at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries.
Captain Nemo (and to a certain extent his more aggressive, fanatical and insane colleagues from other novels of the writer), on the contrary, is a suffering and rejected eccentric by society, a keeper of secrets. His discoveries are revelations of a new era, their ways (and their engineering implementation) are incomprehensible to the ordinary mind.
These two heroes of Verne are examples of the famous confrontation between talent and genius, in which the former wins. As soon as the ideology of the Enlightenment with its cult of reason came across the realities of the 20th century, the focus of science fiction came first of all to existential problems, and at the same time interest in the content of creativity arose , moreover, not necessarily in its computer version and in relation to the natural sciences.
Perhaps it is precisely the unpredictability and danger of natural scientific discoveries, the irreversibility of their consequences (“Utopia 14” K. Vonnegut) forced us to critically evaluate their mechanism and think about its knowledge and control.”

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Verne Jules Gabriel

Life story

When a writer's name is surrounded by legends, rumors and speculation - this is fame. Jules Verne did not have to borrow it. Some considered him a professional traveler - Captain Verne, others argued that he never left his office and wrote all his books from hearsay, others, amazed by his immense creative imagination and multi-volume descriptions of distant lands, argued that “Jules Verne” - this is the name of a geographical society, whose members together write novels published under this name.

Some went to the extreme of deification and called Jules Verne the prophet of science, who predicted the invention of the submarine, controllable aeronautical machines, electric lighting, the telephone, and so on, and on, and on.

Based on immutable facts, we inform you that Jules Verne is a specific historical person who has specific parents and was born in a specific place. All his scientific and technical foresights are the result of brilliant self-education, which made it possible to guess future discoveries in the first timid hints and assumptions appearing in scientific literature, plus, of course, an innate gift of imagination and literary talent for presentation.

Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in the ancient city of Nantes, located on the banks of the Loire, near its mouth. This is one of the largest ports in France, from where ocean sailing ships made voyages to the distant shores of various countries.

Jules Verne was the eldest son of lawyer Pierre Verne, who had his own law office and assumed that over time his son would inherit his business. The writer's mother, nee Allott de la Fuye, came from an ancient family of Nantes shipowners and shipbuilders.

The romance of the port city led to the fact that at the age of eleven, Jules almost ran away to India, hiring himself as a cabin boy on the schooner Coralie, but was stopped in time. Already a famous writer, he admitted: “I must have been born a sailor and now I regret every day that a maritime career did not fall to my lot since childhood.”

According to his father’s strict instructions, he had to become a lawyer, and he became one, graduating from the School of Law in Paris and receiving a diploma, but he did not return to his father’s law office, seduced by a more tempting prospect - literature and theater. He remained in Paris and, despite his half-starved existence (his father did not approve of “bohemians” and did not help him), he enthusiastically mastered his chosen path - he wrote comedies, vaudevilles, dramas, librettos of comic operas, although no one succeeded in selling them.

Intuition led Jules Verne to the National Library, where he listened to lectures and scientific debates, made acquaintance with scientists and travelers, read and copied from books the information that interested him on geography, astronomy, navigation, and scientific discoveries, not yet quite understanding why he needed this may be needed.

In this state of literary attempts, expectations and premonitions, he reached the age of twenty-seven, still pinning his hopes on the theater. In the end, his father began to insist that he return home and get down to business, to which Jules Verne replied, “I have no doubt about my future. By the age of thirty-five I will have taken a strong place in literature.”

The forecast turned out to be accurate.

Finally, Jules Verne managed to publish several maritime and geographical stories. As an aspiring writer, he met Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, who began to patronize him. Perhaps it was Dumas, who at that time was creating a series of his adventurous novels covering almost the entire history of France, who advised his young friend to focus on the topic of travel. Jules Verne was inspired by the grandiose idea of ​​describing the entire globe - nature, animals, plants, peoples and customs. He decided to combine science and art and populate his novels with hitherto unprecedented heroes.

Jules Verne broke with the theater and completed his first novel in 1862 "Five Weeks in a Balloon". Dumas recommended that he contact the publisher of the youth “Journal of Education and Entertainment,” Etzel. The novel - about geographical discoveries in Africa made from a bird's eye view - was appreciated and published early next year. By the way, in it Jules Verne predicted the location of the sources of the Nile, which had not yet been discovered at that time.

Only after writing “Five Weeks in a Balloon” did Verne realize that his true calling was novels.

"Five Weeks in a Balloon" aroused great interest. Critics saw in this work the birth of a new genre - the “novel about science.” Etzel entered into a long-term contract with the successful debutant - Jules Verne undertook to write two volumes a year.

Thus, a novelist was born from a Parisian lawyer. And with it a new genre appeared - science fiction.

Then, as if making up for lost time, he released masterpiece after masterpiece, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1864), “The Voyage of Captain Hatteras” (1865), “From the Earth to the Moon” (1865) and “Around the Moon” (1870). In these novels, the writer dealt with four problems that occupied the scientific world at that time: controlled aeronautics, the conquest of the pole, the mysteries of the underworld, and flights beyond the limits of gravity. Don't think that these novels are based on pure imagination. Thus, the prototype of Michel Ardant from the novel “From the Earth to the Moon” was a friend of Jules Verne - writer, artist and photographer Felix Tournachon, better known under the pseudonym Nadar. Passionate about aeronautics, he raised money for the construction of the Giant balloon and on October 4, 1864, made a test flight on it.

After the fifth novel - “The Children of Captain Grant” (1868) - Jules Verne decided to combine the written and conceived books into the “Extraordinary Journeys” series, and “The Children of Captain Grant” became the first book in a trilogy, which also included “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” (1870) and "The Mysterious Island" (1875). The trilogy is united by the pathos of its heroes - they are not only travelers, but also fighters against all forms of injustice: racism, colonialism, and the slave trade.

In 1872, Jules Verne left Paris forever and moved to the small provincial town of Amiens. From that time on, his entire biography boils down to one word - work. He himself admitted: “I need work. Work is my life function. When I don’t work, I don’t feel any life in myself.” Jules Verne was at his desk literally from dawn to dusk - from five in the morning to eight in the evening. He managed to write one and a half printed sheets per day (as biographers testify), which is equal to twenty-four book pages. Such results are hard to even imagine!

The novel (1872) was an extraordinary success, inspired by a magazine article proving that if a traveler had good transportation, he could travel around the globe in eighty days. This became possible after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1870, which significantly shortened the route from European seas to the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The writer calculated that you can even win one day if you use the geographical paradox described by Edgar Allan Poe in the novel “Three Sundays in One Week.” Jules Verne commented on this paradox as follows: “For three people in one week there can be three Sundays if the first travels around the world, leaving London (or any other point) from west to east, the second from east to west, and the third will remain in place. Having met again, they learn that for the first Sunday was yesterday, for the second it will come tomorrow, and for the third it is today.”

Jules Verne's novel inspired many travelers to test his assertion in reality, and the young American Nellie Vly circumnavigated the world in just seventy-two days. The writer greeted the enthusiast with a telegram.

In 1878, Jules Verne published the novel The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain, which protested against racial discrimination and became popular on all continents. The writer continued this theme in the next novel “North vs. South” (1887) - from the history of the civil war of the 60s in America.

In 1885, Jules Verne, on the occasion of his birthday, received congratulations from all over the world. Among them was a letter from the American newspaper king Gordon Bennett. He asked to write a story specifically for American readers - with a prediction of the future of America.

Jules Berne fulfilled this request, but the story entitled “In the 29th century. One day of an American journalist in 2889” was never released in America. And there was a prediction - a curious action is taking place in Centropolis - the capital of the American dollar empire, dictating its will to other, even overseas, countries. Only the mighty Russia and the revived great China are opposed to the American Empire. England, annexed by America, has long become one of its states, and France ekes out a miserable, semi-independent existence. The entire Americanized hemisphere is governed by Francis Bennett, the owner and editor of the World Herald newspaper. This is how the French seer imagined the geopolitical balance of power a thousand years later.

Jules Verne was one of the first to raise the question of the moral side of scientific discoveries, a question that in the 20th century would acquire Shakespearean proportions about whether or not humanity should exist - in connection with the creation of atomic and hydrogen bombs. In a number of Jules Verne's novels - "The Five Hundred Million Begums" (1879), "The Master of the World" (1904) and others - a type of scientist appears who seeks to subjugate the entire world with the help of his inventions. In such works as “Targeting the Banner” (1896) and “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Varsak Expedition” (ed. 1914), the writer showed another tragedy, when a scientist becomes a tool of tyrants - and this went into the 20th century, leaving many examples of how a scientist in prison conditions he was forced to work on inventions of exterminating substances and weapons.

International fame came to Jules Verne after his first novel. In Russia, “Five Weeks in a Balloon” appeared in the same year as the French edition, and the first review of the novel, written by Saltykov-Shchedrin, was published not just anywhere, but in Nekrasov’s Sovremennik. “Jules Verne’s novels are excellent,” said Leo Tolstoy. - I read them as an adult, but still, I remember they delighted me. He is an amazing master in constructing an intriguing, exciting plot. And you should listen to how enthusiastically Turgenev speaks of him! I just don’t remember him admiring anyone else as much as Jules Verne.”

During his life, Jules Verne paved the way to the center of the globe ("Journey to the Center of the Earth"), flew around the moon ("From the Earth to the Moon"), traveled around the world along the 37th parallel ("Children of Captain Grant"), plunged into secrets of the underwater world (“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”), lived for many years like Robinson on the “Mysterious Island”, circumnavigated the Earth by land and water in 80 days and performed many more feats for which, it seems, even a dozen human beings would not be enough lives. All this, of course, in their books.

This is what the writer Jules Verne was like. He was the father of science fiction, the brilliant predecessor of H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Kir Bulychev and our other favorite writers.

Leo Tolstoy’s drawings for Jules Verne’s novel “Around the World in Eighty Days,” which he made for children, are well known. Dmitry Mendeleev called the French writer a “scientific genius” and admitted that he re-read his books more than once. When a Soviet space rocket sent back the first photographs of the far side of the Moon, one of the craters located on that side was given the name “Jules Verne.”

Science has come a long way since the time of Jules Verne, and his books and heroes do not age. However, nothing surprising. This indicates that Jules Verne managed to realize his cherished idea of ​​combining science with art, and true art, as we know, is eternal.

JULES VERNE
(1828-1905)

Jules Verne, the French science fiction writer, was and remained a faithful companion to his youth. His first novels brought him national recognition. As soon as the books of the French writer were published, they were immediately translated into many languages ​​and distributed throughout the world.

Jules Verne was in the prime of his creative powers, he had not yet completed half of his plans when his admiring contemporaries began to call him “global traveler”, “soothsayer”, “wizard”, “prophet”, “seer”, “inventor without a workshop” ( titles of articles that appeared during his lifetime). And he simply planned to outline the entire globe - the nature of various weather zones, flora and fauna, traditions and customs of all peoples of the planet. And not just outline it, as geographers do, but embody this plan in a multi-volume series of novels, which he called “Extraordinary Journeys.”

Jules Verne's hard work is striking in scale. The series includes sixty-three novels and two collections of novellas and short stories, published in 97 books. In full - about a thousand printed sheets or eighteen thousand book pages!

Jules Verne worked on “Extraordinary Journeys” for more than forty years (from 1862 to early 1905), but the publication of the entire series took more than half a century. During this period of time, generations of schoolchildren for whom he wrote his books changed. Jules Verne's later novels fell into the eager hands of the offspring and grandchildren of his first readers.

“Extraordinary Journeys” taken together is a universal geographical outline of the globe. If we distribute the novels by place of action, it turns out that 4 novels describe travel around the world, fifteen - to European countries, eight - to North America, eight - Africa, five - Asia, four - South America. America, 4 - the Arctic, 3 - Australia and Oceania, and one - Antarctica. Apart from the fact that in 7 novels the place of action is seas and oceans. Four novels make up the “Robinsonade” cycle - the action takes place on uninhabited islands. And in the end, in 3 novels the action takes place in interplanetary space. In addition, in almost all works - not only the “around the world” cycle - the heroes travel from country to country. It can be said without exaggeration that the pages of Jules Verne’s books are overwhelmed by sea waves, desert sand, volcanic ash, arctic whirlwinds, and cosmic dust. The setting in his novels is the earth, and not only the Earth, but the entire Universe. Geography and natural science coexist with technical and exact sciences.

Jules Verne's heroes always travel. By covering long distances, they try to gain time. The achievement of unusual speed requires the latest means of transportation. Jules Verne “improved” all types of transport from land to imaginary interplanetary ones. His heroes make high-speed cars, submarines and airships, explore volcanoes and the depths of the seas, get into hard-to-reach wilds, discover new lands, erasing the last “snow-white spots” from geographical maps. The whole world serves as a testing ground for them. At the bottom of the ocean, on an uninhabited peninsula, at the North Pole, in interplanetary space - wherever they are, their laboratory is everywhere, they work, act, argue, bring their daring dreams into reality.

Verne seems to combine several figures. He was the real founder of science fiction, based on scientific certainty and often on scientific foresight, was a delightful master of the adventure novel, and a passionate propagandist of science and its future achievements.

Emphasizing the search for scientific thought, he portrayed what he wanted as already achieved. Inventions that had not yet been implemented, models of devices that were being tested, machines that were only outlined in sketches, he presented in a finished, impeccable form. Hence the indescribable coincidence of the writer’s desires with the embodiment of similar thoughts in life. But he was neither a “soothsayer” nor a “prophet.” His heroes solved problems prompted by life itself - the rapid development of industry, transport, and communications. The novelist's scientific and technical fantasies almost never exceeded the ability to realize them in a higher degree of scientific and technological progress.

It is in these directions that the inquisitive idea of ​​the heroes of “Extraordinary Journeys” works. Inventors, engineers, builders, they build beautiful towns, irrigate deserts, find methods to accelerate the growth of plants using artificial climate devices, design electronic devices that allow them to create and hear over vast distances, dream of the practical use of the internal heat of the Earth, the energy of the sun, wind and sea ​​surf, about the ability to accumulate energy supplies in massive batteries. They are finding methods for prolonging life and replacing worn-out body organs with new ones, inventing color photography, sound cinema, an automatic calculating machine, synthetic food products, clothing made of glass fiber and many other amazing things that make human life and work easier and help him transform the world.

When Jules Verne wrote his books, the Arctic had not yet been conquered, the poles had not yet been discovered, Central Africa, Inland Australia, the Amazon basin, the Pamirs, Tibet, and Antarctica had practically not yet been explored. Jules Verne's heroes make geographical discoveries, ahead of the true ones.
The transformation of the world is the main thing in his work. The omnipotent mind knows nature. All four elements: earth, water, air, fire - will inevitably submit to people. Together, the world's population will transform and make the planet a better place:

It is from here that the optimistic pathos of the best works of Jules Verne begins. He made a novel of a new type - a novel about science and about endless abilities. His imagination became friends with science and became his inseparable companion. Fantasy, inspired by scientific research, turned into science fiction.

Together with the new novel, a new hero entered literature - a knight of science, a disinterested scientist, ready to perform a feat and make any sacrifice in the name of his own creative thoughts, for the sake of embodying enormous hopes. Not only the scientific and technical fantasies of Jules Verne are oriented towards the future, but also his heroes - the discoverers of new lands and the creators of mind-blowing machines. Time dictates its demands to the writer. Jules Verne caught these demands and responded to them with “Extraordinary Voyages.”

Finding your goal turned out to be more difficult than dedicating your life to achieving it. The lawyer's eldest son, Jules Verne, knew in his youth that the long-standing home tradition asked him to become a lawyer and then inherit his father's office. But the young man’s desire spread along with family expectations.
He grew up in the seaside town of Nantes, raved about the sea and ships, and even tried - he was eleven years old at the time - to escape to India, hiring himself as a cabin boy on the schooner Corals. But his inexorable father sends him after the lyceum to the Paris School of Law. The sea remains a bright dream, and the love of poetry, theater and music crushes the fortress of parental power. To please his father, he receives a diploma in law, but does not go to work in a law office in Nantes, but chooses the half-starved existence of a writer who survives on small earnings - he writes comedies, vaudevilles, dramas, composes the libretto of funny operas and after each next misfortune he works with even greater passion .

At the same time, his stingy curiosity and passion for the natural sciences force him to visit the National Library, lectures and scientific debates, make extracts from the books he read, not yet knowing what he will need this bunch of various references on geography, astronomy, navigation, history of technology and scientific discoveries.

At one point - this was in the mid-1850s - in response to his father’s entreaties to give up useless pursuits and return to Nantes, the guy decisively declared that he did not hesitate in his own future and would take a strong place in literature by the age of 35. He turned 27 years old. and a huge number of Jules Verne's prophecies were realized with great or minimal approximation, this first forecast turned out to be perfectly clear.
But the search still continued. Several stories written on a nautical theme, to which he himself did not attach great importance, although he later included them in his own large series, were milestones on the way to “Extraordinary Voyages.” Only at the turn of the 60s, making sure that he was now fully prepared, Jules Verne began to develop new spaces. It was a conscious artistic discovery. He discovered the poetry of science for literature. Breaking with everything that had once held him back, he told his friends that he had found his gold mine.

In the fall of 1862, Jules Verne finished his first novel. His longtime patron Alexandre Dumas advised him to contact Hetzel, an intelligent, experienced publisher who was looking for capable employees for the youthful “Journal of Education and Joy.” From the very first pages of the manuscript, Hetzel guessed that chance had brought to him the particular writer who was lacking in children's literature. Hetzel quickly read the novel, made his comments and gave it to Jules Verne for revision. Within two weeks the manuscript was returned in a revised form, and in 1863 the novel was published.
The title itself - “5 weeks in a hot air balloon” - could not go unnoticed. The success eclipsed all expectations and marked the birth of a “novel about science”, in which interesting adventures are mixed with the popularization of knowledge and the substantiation of various hypotheses. Thus, already in this first novel about imaginary geographical discoveries in Africa, made from a bird's eye view, Jules Verne “constructed” a temperature-controlled balloon and accurately predicted the location of the then-undiscovered sources of the Nile.

The novelist entered into a long-term contract with him, agreeing to write three books a year. Now he could, without obstacles, without thinking about the next day, begin to implement countless plans. Etzel becomes his friend and adviser. In Paris they often see each other, and when Jules Verne goes to work at sea or cruises along the coast of France, locked in a “floating office” on board his own yacht “Saint-Michel”, they often exchange letters. Having belatedly discovered his current field, the writer publishes book after book, and what is not a novel is a masterpiece. The aerial fantasy is replaced by a geological one - “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1864). Later, an Arctic fantasy appears - “The Voyage and Adventures of Captain Hatteras” (1864-65).
While readers, together with specific Hatteras, were slowly moving towards the North Pole on the pages of the “Journal of Education and Joy,” Jules Verne created a cosmic fantasy - “From the Earth to the Moon” (1865), postponing the continuation (“Around the Moon”), since he had to finish the novel about a trip around the world, “The Adventures of Robert Grant,” which had long been conceived and announced in the magazine, was on schedule. Now the novel without any fiction has grown to 3 volumes! Jules Verne changed the title in the manuscripts, and it became final - “Children of Captain Grant.”

Working once a day from dawn to dusk, from 5 am to 7 pm, he associates himself with a Percheron - a draft horse, which rests in its own team. The excess of unspent strength helps her cheerfully pull the overloaded cart upward until exhaustion.

Be sure to fulfill the terms of the contract - three books a year! — in the summer of 1866, seduced by the prospect of paying off old debts, Jules Verne took on an additional work, “Illustrated Geography of France,” commissioned by Hetzel. Using many sources, he manages to make a scrupulous description of two departments in a week, producing 800 lines - almost one and a half printed sheets per day. And this is not counting the main work on the third part of “The Children of Captain Grant,” one of the most delightful novels he ever created. Having handed over his 5th novel to the publisher, Jules Verne decided to combine already written and not yet written works into a common series of “Extraordinary Journeys”.

Readers of the “Journal of Education and Joy” began circumnavigating the world from 1866 to 1868, when the novel “The Children of Captain Grant” was published as a separate edition and further added to the fame of Jules Verne. In this novel, a trip around the world is free of any fantasy. The action develops only according to the laws of internal logic, without any external springs. Children go in search of their missing father. their father is a Scottish patriot who did not want to come to terms with the fact that Great Britain enslaved Scotland. According to Grant, the interests of his homeland did not coincide with the interests of the Anglo-Saxons, and he decided to found a free Scottish colony on one of the Pacific islands. Or he dreamed that this colony would one day achieve state government. independence, how did it happen with the United States? The independence that India and Australia will inevitably win at some point? Naturally, he could think like that. And just imagine that the English government interfered with Captain Grant. But he picked up a crew and set sail to explore the large islands of the Pacific Ocean in order to find a suitable place to settle. Such an exposure. Then Lord Glenarvan, a like-minded person of Captain Grant, accidentally finds a document that explains his disappearance. And thus, the trip around the world is motivated by the freedom-loving zeal of the heroes. And then the damaged document will lead you down the wrong trail. Later, a know-it-all scientist will appear, in other words, the Frenchman Jacques Paganel, secretary of the Paris Geographical Society, a distinguished member of almost all geographical societies of the world. Through his anecdotal inattention, the plot intricacies will be further aggravated. Paganel is needed not only to revive the action. This man is a walking encyclopedia. He knows everything completely. In the recesses of his memory there are a huge number of facts that he will teach at every convenient occasion. But science should not be divorced from action. The novel is full of exciting adventures. And at the same time, it is geographical, it is a kind of interesting geography. The difficulties lay in ensuring that the cognitive data was not separated from the text, so that the action could not progress without it. In such cases, Jules Verne always came to the rescue with his breathtaking ingenuity.”

Among the characters in Extraordinary Journeys we find representatives of all human races, including most nations, dozens of nationalities, nationalities and tribes. A gallery of Jules Verne's images, including several thousand characters - the population of an entire town! - breathtakingly rich in ethnic composition. Here no other writer can compare with Jules Verne.

His hostility to racial prejudice is clearly evident even in the very choice of positive characters who, along with the Europeans and Yankees, represent the peoples of the colonial and dependent states. In order not to go far for examples, let us remember what nobility and sense of humanity the American red-skinned Thalcave is endowed with.

Jules Verne sympathized with the oppressed peoples. Exposure of slavery, colonial plunder, and destructive wars of aggression is the constant motif of “Extraordinary Journeys.” We also find satirical attacks against English colonial policy in “The Children of Captain Grant.” Australian boy Toline, who received a first grade in geography at school, is sure that the British belong to the entire globe. “Oh, that’s how they teach geography in Melbourne! - exclaims Paganel. - Just use your brains: Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Oceania - everything, the whole world belongs to the British! To hell! Having been brought up this way, I understand why the Aborigines are subservient to the British.”

With the greatest indignation, the creator speaks about the so-called reservations - more remote and remote areas reserved for the indigenous population of Australia. “Having taken possession of the country, the British called for murder to help colonize. The mercilessness was indescribable. They behaved in Australia the same way as in India, where 5 million Indians died, just as in the Cape Region, where out of a million Hottentots only 100 thousand survived.”

The educational material concentrated in “The Children of Captain Grant,” as in other novels by Jules Verne, naturally would not have produced such memories if all these descriptions, reasoning, and excursions were not intertwined with the intentions and deeds of the heroes. People here are distinguished by unusual moral purity, physical and sincere health, purposefulness, concentration, and know neither hypocrisy nor calculation. Daredevils who believe in the success of their own business succeed in any, even the most difficult plan. A friend helps a friend out of trouble. The strong come to the aid of the weak. Friendship grows stronger from formidable trials. Villains are always exposed and punished for their crimes. Justice always triumphs, dreams always come true.

The images of fictional heroes are sculpted in such relief that they are remembered for a lifetime. Let's say, the same Jacques Paganel - who doesn't know this eccentric scientist? A science fanatic, a “walking encyclopedia,” he always intersperses stern reasoning with funny jokes and funny pranks. He has an ineradicable sense of humor. At the same time, he attracts with courage, kindness, and justice. Encouraging his own companions, Paganel does not cease to joke even in times of adversity, when it comes to life and death. In the novel this is the central figure. Without her, the whole composition would fall apart. Next to him is the Scottish patriot Glenarvan, who is doing everything incredible and impossible to find his freedom-loving compatriot, Captain Harry Grant. The young heroes of Jules Verne are also endowed with a strong and courageous character, which is revealed in action and tempered in the fight against cruel trials. One of them is Robert Grant. For the worthy son of a brave Scot, a sincere impulse is completely natural - to incur persecution by wolves in order to save his own friends from death.

In terms of circulation and number of translations, Verne is still one of the most popular writers. It is read wherever the printed word penetrates. In various countries, more and more new editions of Jules Verne’s works, plays, films, and entire television series based on the plots of “Extraordinary Journeys” are appearing.

The advent of the cosmic era marked the highest triumph of the writer, who foresaw artificial satellites and interplanetary flights from the Earth to the Moon.

When a Russian space rocket first transmitted a photo of the far side of the Moon to Earth, one of the “otherworldly” lunar craters was given the name “Jules Verne.” The Jules Verne crater is adjacent to the Sea of ​​Dreams...